Buy the Books
The lack of people of color in children’s book is stifling, but what’s even scarier is a generational staying of the trend. Kathleen Horning examines this stagnancy for the School…
Posts by tag
diversity
100 posts
Teaching How to Read Racial Identity
Last week, we wrote about Junot Diaz‘s thoughts on the silence around racial identity that he experienced during his MFA in the ‘90s. Salon tracked down the syllabi of two undergrad courses…
We Need Diverse Books
#WeNeedDiverseBooks because I never had a protagonist I could fully relate to. This tweet is just one of the many examples of those that can be found from the viral…
Race, Power, Publishing
The disproportionally white publishing industry matters because agents and editors stand between writers and readers. Anika Noni Rose put it perfectly in Vanity Fair this month: “There are so many writers of color…
White People Everywhere
White male editors still dominate publishing and white male authors still dominate bestseller lists. Writing over at Plougshares, literary agent Eric Nelson explores the problem: I have frequently presented books as…
The Many Faces of Librarians
This past week was National Library Week! Still imagine all librarians as the curmudgeonly figures you encountered in elementary school? Think again. Slate has a photo project representing the diversity of librarians—showcasing…
The Whiteness of BookCon
This year’s BookCon is facing a lot of heat for the lack of diversity in their speakers. BookRiot feels that popular YA author (and one of BookCon’s speakers this year)…
Millennials of Color Don’t Fit Your Stereotypes
There have been a lot of hand-wringing thinkpieces about Millennials in the media, but most of them are just wordy ways to say, “Kids these days.” As Mike Dang points out,…
A Book Review Column That Isn’t All About White Men
As VIDA’s annual stats have made very clear, most publications favor male writers reviewing books by other male writers. Our inimitable essays editor Roxane Gay has also talked about the…
“Diversity Does Bring About Positive Change”
After public pressure came to a head, Saturday Night Live finally added a black woman to its cast: Sasheer Zamata, a comedian, actress, and veteran of improv group the Upright Citizens’…
“What the Hell Is A ‘Writer of Color,’ Anyway?”
As part of her latest push to get the literary community talking seriously about diversity, our inimitable essays editor Roxane Gay has a piece up at the Nation about some of the…
Roxane Gay Fights the Good Fight
The Los Angeles Times has a great overview of our essays editor Roxane Gay’s latest efforts to spread diversity in the publishing world: “We can’t think of gender without also considering…