I need to get over my hesitation, and find a way to write believably, or just stop feeling self conscious that I’m not writing it right.

I wrote an essay just last semester questioning this very thing,’ethnic’ voice appropriation (based Ourika by Claire De Duras, some essays by Diderot, Pauline Johnson). As a black girl, my knee-jerk reaction was to decry it, because
obviously *the white people will never understand!*

But as I worked on it, and let me tell you I’ve never worked on an essay so hard in my life, I came to the conclusion that though there are many pitfalls to doing this (getting it wrong, stereotyping, more credit etc.), it has the potential help us break those socially constructed barriers between ethnicities. To ‘take on’ a minority voice has to make a writer/reader consider what really makes us that different and more importantly what makes us the same, which I think proves that ones skin colour is just that, the colour of your skin.

So all in all, you seem like a really cool lady and I can’t wait to read your books.

I will admit that I was upset that people read this post as my loving the cover. I worked very hard on the wording precisely to avoid any indication that I actually liked the cover but also to avoid dissing my publisher. The enthusiasm expressed was for making the front of the catalogue—a first in my career (and a very bitter sweet one given the cover). The analysis of that post here by Courtney Milan (who I don’t know) is spot on. (I also had my sly fun mocking the cover.)

But, really, big deal, I’m a writer, I get misread all the time, goes with the territory and unlike many I have multiple venues from which to be heard. I am far more concerned about our readers, the teenagers of all colours, who don’t deserve a world where every publisher has their token Asian or African or whatever writer amongst a sea of many, many white writers. The idea that people who aren’t white have just the one story while the white folk have many is nonsensical, stupid and racist.

(I also have issues with brevity. As in, I’m not.)

Kyi: Thank you. Your comment made me a bit teary. And, yes, it’s absurd this notion that all African-American girls are the same with one united point of view. We have to challenge it every single time it’s said. Good on you!

Also, I do believe it was you who recommended that I read Motherless Brooklyn, by Johnathan Lethem…? Either way, hands down one of my favorites.

All the best!
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When I first read the reports on the LIAR cover, I thought you originally were happy about the cover, then changed your mind. In fact, I think many people thought this. But I’ve been mulling the quotes over in my mind and reading other people’s anaylises (is that the plural for analysis?) and realize you never actually came out and said, “I love this cover.” And I can completely understand the reasons an author wouldn’t come out and say such a thing.

I was so relieved and heartened to know that you were never, in fact, excited about the original cover. A tough thing, this–trying to figure out what is true, who to believe, and who to trust, no? Particularly if you happen to be a PoC, a woman, LGBTQ, or anyone else whose reality is smudged out of existence on a daily basis.

Anyway, it’s often easier for white authors to write PoC characters, particularly when the author has a proven sales record. And, as you write above, when white writers write PoC characters — just as when men write the “autobiographies” of women — there is much applause, back-patting and congratulation. Much harder for PoC to break into publishing with stories about their own people, histories, and backgrounds.

This would be such an easier battle if we could see, clearly, the links between oppressions: gender, sexuality, race, class, etc. It all boils down to the same thing and, ultimately, it all works in the same way to the same end.

I appreciate that you are making the connections. You are a sister in the struggle in the way that Ursula LeGuin, Marge Piercy, and Marion Zimmer Bradley are/were—all wrote books with characters of color, the working class, and LGBTQ folk in the spirit of alliance and justice.

There will always be differences within the ranks and privileges to negotiate. But as long as there is openness and willingness, there is hope. I look forward to more books from you and reading lots more of your opinions .

(Sorry for the long post. Seems I am unable to write anything less than 200 pages.)

Neesha

I’m glad you’ve said that Sometimes people tend to think “white” is all one culture, when it isn’t. Same thing goes for “black” or any other ethinicity.

Anyway, I’m also a white writer who tends to write about ethnicities other than my own (currently writing two books, one with an Japanese protag and another that’s half Japanese and half American in a time when being mixed wasn’t accepted) I write whatever characters speak to me, no matter what race.

I think you are right. I once had a few chapters of a WIP reviewed by an editor at I liked a lot. But I was taken that she made the following observations when critiquing my work:

1. she didn’t know the protagonist was black until late in the chapter.
(I replied – that she is black is not the main thrust of the book)

Isn’t it sad that on a first read the assumption of many people is that the character is white unless we state – overtly – that they are not?

You would be surprised how many of my writing peers who are white get push back from their editors about their black characters because if they don’t fit a certain “mode” they don’t sound authentic.

So I once asked an editor at another house (who said she was looking for an authentic voice) how she would recognize an “authentic voice” and she replied “it must sound authentic to me!”

Hence why all publishers need a little “color” on their staffs or at least editors who have some clue about the breadth of “voices” in ethnic communities extends beyond poverty, civil rights angst, and inner city settings (editors with first-hand experience, please, not experience gleaned from MTV, BET and PBS documentaries).

I think this is a wonderful post and I appreciate you articulating your thinking about race and YA literature in this way, because I think it’s something that people would otherwise not think about.

What I always wonder regarding these issues of race is how you might persuade someone else in your profession to think in this way. You are clearly a thoughtful, reflective individual who is willing to take the feedback of your YA readers seriously…but how do we get to not only listen but exhibit the type of curiosity needed to continually push yourself to examine a perspective different from your own…especially when it seems like there is little support from the industry to think about these things?

I admire the writing insight you provide on your blog and look forward to seeing if something positive comes of this.

Ahh.. I see how some people are offended by this. Really I do. But . . . why not just say she i a different characte or a random person.

But if publishers give books about black people “white” covers, and never the other way around, it’s not random, is it? This is not about random errors, it’s about partially erasing an entire group of people from our little slice of culture (books).

And on to the white covers sell better… well yea probaly true. . . . But well its the facts

So it’s okay to erase a group of people as long as you’re making good money off it?

But, well, a lot of times book covers with people on it aren’t similar to the character. At all. I mean how many times have you read books with a pretty girl on the cover-even though the girl in the book is described as being plain or whatever? Or a girl with completely different something hair color? I guess skin color however gives reason to cry and rant? Either way, image shouldn’t mater. And besides, who said the girl on the cover was even your main charatcer? Why not just say she i a different characte or a random person. Really, don’t make this in to a bigger thing then need be.

And also did it ever occur to yo that the reason covers are primarly “white” is because charaters are primlary white? You can’t denie that. In YA, I can’t even think of ten books where the main charater was black, and I read a lot. The girl i Shine isn’t even black. I’ve read lots of books with Asians though.

And on to the white covers sell better… well yea probaly true. I’m not saying I do that personaly (cause I don’. I actualy read the two books you mentioneed about.) but well its the facts.