CCBC-Net Archives
Another point to consider in the multicultural lit conversation!
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Cake Literary <cakeliterary_at_gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2014 15:44:05 -0500
Hi all,
My name is Dhonielle Clayton, and I am new to the CCBC, and this listserve. I am one of the co-founders of the a new lit packaging company called CAKE Literary <http://www.cakeliterary.com> that aims to bring diversity to high concept content. We just sold our first major deal
<http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/59662-rights-report-week-of-october-21-2013.html>last October, and have other things cooking. I am also a middle school librarian at a charter school called Harlem Village Academies<http://www.harlemvillageacademies.org/>
.
My business partner Sona Charaipotra and I started CAKE Literary to address the need for diversity in YA and MG fiction, and bringing diversity to a new crop of readers -- including a more mainstream (aka white) readership. We wanted to take a stab at "packaging" diversity differently, that being race/ethnicity/religion/socio-economic/sexual orientation, etc.
I have been reading many of the posts on this topic, finding everyone's point-of-views very informative and interesting. And my apologies if what I am about to bring up re-treads old water. I just wanted to take this opportunity to introduce us to the group, and throw in something else to consider.
I would love to add another element to this conversation -- a discussion about the content/presentation and types of multicultural books in the market. Over the years as a secondary teacher and librarian, I have found that the market has developed several kinds of multicultural
"holes/pits/ghettos" in PBs, MG, and YA:
1. Historical (events, experiences, bios/autobios, etc) 2. Bildungsroman and coming to terms with one's cultural identity or Issue books 3. Urban 4. Targeted Books (Drama High series, Amigas and School Scandals series, etc) 5. Adventure/Speculative Fiction (features non-western worlds, non-white characters like Nancy Farmer's The House of Scorpion, etc)
There are more, but these are the ones that come readily to mind for me. All of the books in these categories are essential for the larger goal -- giving children and teens places to access their experience on the page, however, I think that going forward, we need more stories presented in different ways. We need a variety.
Sona and I are coming from a sticky position somewhere in the middle. She's an entertainment journalist and a mom who wants her children to see themselves in the pages of well-written books, and I'm a librarian who wants to give my students a variety of things to read that reflect their experiences and open their eyes to the world. But Sona and I are also writers, and business women who want to develop projects that ultimately sell, and make a profit.
All this to say that we need more books with meaningful diversity that make it onto the New York Times best seller lists (like Sherman Alexie's *The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian*), and get made into TV shows and blockbuster films like the juggernaut that is John Green (sidenote: He and I had an "interesting" twitter conversation about diversity after I wrote him this letter<http://www.teenwritersbloc.com/2013/02/19/dear-john-green/>), Rick Riordian (though his Red Pyramid series has diversity) or Pretty Little Liars or Diary of a Wimpy Kid, just to name a few.
We believe the way to do that is to continue to write heart-wrenching, true stories, but* also* find a way to write stories that incorporate diversity into "high concept" material.
*Big books with big hooks that include diversity.* That's what we think the publishing world needs to change the game and make a profit. We can't ignore the profit piece. We need books that parents, librarians, and teens buy regardless of color. So that if POC aren't buying books as some like to claim, it doesn't matter. The book is being consumed by all because of it's high concept hook, presentation (yes, cover), and marketing.
This is easier said than done. I get that. But I think we need to add this to our thinking. Come at the problem from multiple angles with multiple solutions to try to make it better. Keep finding places on publisher lists for great historical titles that allow us to not forget the stories of the past, continue to explore issues that plague specific communities, give readers those "unputdownable" series from within their race/ethnic groups, and those tough tales of struggles in urban settings. But we need to
*diversify* as a group of advocates who wish to really change this issue. We need to present a new way to incorporate diversity.
Sona and I are also very influenced by TV shows that are do diversity well
(like Scandal, The New Girl, ABC Family's Ravenswood, Switched at Birth, The Fosters, Sleepy Hollow, etc). This is a whole *other* conversation, but I bring it up to say that if we can have diversity imbedded into mysteries, romances, sci-fi, fantasy, thrillers, etc, in a way that makes it part of the story, but not the entire story, I think we'll be able to get more books on the shelves that have diverse content (and no, I'm not talking about the minority side-kick either -- that's not meaningful diversity).
I don't have studies or statistics to back up the ideas behind CAKE Literary's stance on diversity. Just the chutzpah to try and see if this new way of incorporating diversity can work -- or at least give all children new ways to see themselves and the world reflected in art made for them. And I don't know if children reading about themselves actually leads to better life outcomes. I just know that when I was little, I yearned for representations of myself. I wanted to go through the wardrobe into Narnia, or go to outer space or read about a girl like me that got her first kiss, and not seeing myself in books, lead to years of an internal struggle with being African-American and the descendant of American slavery. And I know that Sona, as an Indian woman, never saw herself. For us, that's enough to dedicate our life purpose to this mission.
Just a few thoughts! I love that we're having this conversation, and feel honored to be participating.
Dhonielle Clayton
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2014 15:44:05 -0500
Hi all,
My name is Dhonielle Clayton, and I am new to the CCBC, and this listserve. I am one of the co-founders of the a new lit packaging company called CAKE Literary <http://www.cakeliterary.com> that aims to bring diversity to high concept content. We just sold our first major deal
<http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/59662-rights-report-week-of-october-21-2013.html>last October, and have other things cooking. I am also a middle school librarian at a charter school called Harlem Village Academies<http://www.harlemvillageacademies.org/>
.
My business partner Sona Charaipotra and I started CAKE Literary to address the need for diversity in YA and MG fiction, and bringing diversity to a new crop of readers -- including a more mainstream (aka white) readership. We wanted to take a stab at "packaging" diversity differently, that being race/ethnicity/religion/socio-economic/sexual orientation, etc.
I have been reading many of the posts on this topic, finding everyone's point-of-views very informative and interesting. And my apologies if what I am about to bring up re-treads old water. I just wanted to take this opportunity to introduce us to the group, and throw in something else to consider.
I would love to add another element to this conversation -- a discussion about the content/presentation and types of multicultural books in the market. Over the years as a secondary teacher and librarian, I have found that the market has developed several kinds of multicultural
"holes/pits/ghettos" in PBs, MG, and YA:
1. Historical (events, experiences, bios/autobios, etc) 2. Bildungsroman and coming to terms with one's cultural identity or Issue books 3. Urban 4. Targeted Books (Drama High series, Amigas and School Scandals series, etc) 5. Adventure/Speculative Fiction (features non-western worlds, non-white characters like Nancy Farmer's The House of Scorpion, etc)
There are more, but these are the ones that come readily to mind for me. All of the books in these categories are essential for the larger goal -- giving children and teens places to access their experience on the page, however, I think that going forward, we need more stories presented in different ways. We need a variety.
Sona and I are coming from a sticky position somewhere in the middle. She's an entertainment journalist and a mom who wants her children to see themselves in the pages of well-written books, and I'm a librarian who wants to give my students a variety of things to read that reflect their experiences and open their eyes to the world. But Sona and I are also writers, and business women who want to develop projects that ultimately sell, and make a profit.
All this to say that we need more books with meaningful diversity that make it onto the New York Times best seller lists (like Sherman Alexie's *The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian*), and get made into TV shows and blockbuster films like the juggernaut that is John Green (sidenote: He and I had an "interesting" twitter conversation about diversity after I wrote him this letter<http://www.teenwritersbloc.com/2013/02/19/dear-john-green/>), Rick Riordian (though his Red Pyramid series has diversity) or Pretty Little Liars or Diary of a Wimpy Kid, just to name a few.
We believe the way to do that is to continue to write heart-wrenching, true stories, but* also* find a way to write stories that incorporate diversity into "high concept" material.
*Big books with big hooks that include diversity.* That's what we think the publishing world needs to change the game and make a profit. We can't ignore the profit piece. We need books that parents, librarians, and teens buy regardless of color. So that if POC aren't buying books as some like to claim, it doesn't matter. The book is being consumed by all because of it's high concept hook, presentation (yes, cover), and marketing.
This is easier said than done. I get that. But I think we need to add this to our thinking. Come at the problem from multiple angles with multiple solutions to try to make it better. Keep finding places on publisher lists for great historical titles that allow us to not forget the stories of the past, continue to explore issues that plague specific communities, give readers those "unputdownable" series from within their race/ethnic groups, and those tough tales of struggles in urban settings. But we need to
*diversify* as a group of advocates who wish to really change this issue. We need to present a new way to incorporate diversity.
Sona and I are also very influenced by TV shows that are do diversity well
(like Scandal, The New Girl, ABC Family's Ravenswood, Switched at Birth, The Fosters, Sleepy Hollow, etc). This is a whole *other* conversation, but I bring it up to say that if we can have diversity imbedded into mysteries, romances, sci-fi, fantasy, thrillers, etc, in a way that makes it part of the story, but not the entire story, I think we'll be able to get more books on the shelves that have diverse content (and no, I'm not talking about the minority side-kick either -- that's not meaningful diversity).
I don't have studies or statistics to back up the ideas behind CAKE Literary's stance on diversity. Just the chutzpah to try and see if this new way of incorporating diversity can work -- or at least give all children new ways to see themselves and the world reflected in art made for them. And I don't know if children reading about themselves actually leads to better life outcomes. I just know that when I was little, I yearned for representations of myself. I wanted to go through the wardrobe into Narnia, or go to outer space or read about a girl like me that got her first kiss, and not seeing myself in books, lead to years of an internal struggle with being African-American and the descendant of American slavery. And I know that Sona, as an Indian woman, never saw herself. For us, that's enough to dedicate our life purpose to this mission.
Just a few thoughts! I love that we're having this conversation, and feel honored to be participating.
Dhonielle Clayton
-- CAKE Literary http://cakeliterary.com Twitter: _at_cakeliterary --- You are currently subscribed to ccbc-net as: ccbc-archive_at_post.education.wisc.edu. To post to the list, send message to: ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu To receive messages in digest format, send a message to... ccbc-net-request_at_lists.wisc.edu ...and include only this command in the body of the message: set ccbc-net digest CCBC-Net Archives The CCBC-Net archives are available to all CCBC-Net listserv members. The archives are organized by month and year. A list of discussion topics (including month/year) is available at http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ccbcnet/archives.asp To access the archives, go to: http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/ccbc-net and enter the following: username: ccbc-net password: Look4PostsReceived on Sun 16 Feb 2014 02:44:42 PM CST
