A really beautiful, thoughtful essay about the necessity of showing the world as it is, not the fantasy of white, straight, cisgendered, able-bodied protagonists that has somehow convinced the mainstream it is the default.
I don’t think any writer wants a reader to read their book, and think: ‘Well, I’m not there. Guess I’m on the Isle of Issuelandia. Oh man, not again. Kind of like always going to the Isle of Wight for your holidays. We never get to go out clubbing in Spain.’ It is wrong to banish people from the mainland!Sarah Rees Brennan
Is Katniss White?
Ah, Twitter, you are always good for blog post ideas when I am running dry. Never let me down! Today I was mostly inspired by this fascinating discussion on Malinda Lo’s blog about the casting of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in THE HUNGER GAMES. There are some really interesting comments, so I would recommend [...]
Not Quite Colored Enough
This morning, there was a guest post on YA Highway on Writing Race in YA. As I always do with these sorts of posts, I read eagerly, looking to see how people tackle this issue and what I might learn from them. I was on board for the most part, although I will admit I [...]
Diversity in YA
Dear internet, you have probably seen me tweet about Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo‘s joint venture Diversity in YA, but I want to take the time to mention it again and explain why it is important to me.
Cover Matters: Silver Phoenix
Recently there have been rumblings in the blogosphere about the re-jacketing of Cindy Pon‘s book SILVER PHOENIX that have been brought to my attention. Reactions have been mixed, from outrage to support, with many bloggers pointing to the re-jacketing as yet another example of publishing cover racefail (the first being Justine Larbalestier’s LIAR and the [...]
Pinging Recognition: Faces on Covers
Apologies for not blogging yesterday–I had a horrible, horrible migraine and went home early to sleep for 14 hours. Sleep, best cure for a migraine! Anyway, this is the last day of JJ-Blog-About-Race Week! Previous posts include: Race in Fiction Week I’m Korean and I’m Okay: A little background information on me. Representing Race in [...]
What’s The Story?
And we come to day 3 of JJ-Blogs-About-Race-And-Then-Ducks-The-Rotten-Tomatoes! To recap: Race in Fiction Week I’m Korean and I’m Okay: Some background information on me. Representing Race in Fiction: What it says on the tin. Coffee, Chocolate, and Cream: How to describe characters of a different race. Before we continue, I would just like to say [...]
Coffee, Chocolate, and Cream
Welcome to day 2 of JJ Will Probably Alienate A Lot of People By Blogging About Race! In case you missed the previous posts: Race in Fiction Week I’m Korean and I’m Okay Representing Race in Fiction Today I want to tackle how to describe race in fiction. There are many schools of thought about [...]
Representing Race in Fiction
Last week I swore that this week I would blog about race in fiction. I absolutely intend to adhere to my resolutions, but I will need help in the coming days. Today I am going to blog about representing race in fiction, what I’d like to see, what I think (and hope) works, etc. However, [...]
I’m Korean and I’m Okay
So I have a confession to make. For most of my life, I refused to identify myself as Asian-American. I know, right? In hindsight it seems silly, because, well, look at me. Or rather, look at who I wished I looked like. I’ve always wanted to be a gamine pixie sprite, with big eyes and [...]
Show Me Some Love
