Diverse YA Fiction @ Booklist

27 Jan 2017 news 0 Comments

diverse-ya-micro_f2What a week! My head is spinning but this week has been both productive and rewarding. On Monday I turned in the final draft of an essay I was asked to write by the curator of the Doris McCarthy Gallery and the University of Toronto’s Scarborough Campus; I grew up not too far from there and my essay “The Perils of Proximity” will accompany the exhibit Northern Oracle by African American sculptor Heather Hart. I also turned in revisions for another essay, “Minstrelsy is the New Black,” which will appear in next month’s Book Smugglers Almanac. I successfully pitched a story about mermaids and the Middle Passage to a curriculum company, and I reached out to past clients who both invited me to return to their schools. This is the freelancer’s hustle! It’s dizzying and exhausting at times, but also exhilarating. So it’s nice to end the week by learning through a librarian friend that Booklist kept its word and launched a new column to bring attention to “micro-presses” including self-published authors. They even used the cover of Crossroads for their column header! Here’s Zara Rix’s review of my novel:

Screen Shot 2017-01-27 at 5.03.15 PMBookCover8_5x8_5_Color_40 6 NOvLast spring I asked Booklist to reconsider their policy regarding self-published books. Their youth lit editor Dan Kraus agreed to try out an “inclusive indie” column, and my professor friends recommended graduate students to assume the role of reviewer. Months went by and I started to think the column would never appear, but this Booklist feature reaffirms my faith in humanity—which is flagging this week due to our worsening political climate. I got more good news when a friend in Philadelphia sent me a photo of Milo’s Museum, which she’d purchased at UPenn’s Barnes & Noble bookstore. It’s in the store because Prof. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas included Milo’s Museum in her Best Books of 2016 for Young Readers list, which appeared on UPenn’s website. Then I checked my mailbox and found a review of Milo in the latest issue of Rethinking Schools! When indie titles are given the chance to compete—when they’re treated just like any other book, it starts a domino effect. Hopefully more librarians and booksellers will add indie titles to their collection now that we’ve gotten an “official” stamp of approval…