Continuing the "diversity" conversation

“Diversity” commentary has bloomed all over my Twitter feed lately, with so many smart and interesting voices contributing. I had planned a big follow-up post with links. Librarian Kelly Jensen beat me to it, so how about I just send you over to Book Riot?

Her comprehensive post, with links: We Need Bigger Megaphones for Diversity in Kid Lit

Plus a few other posts not captured in her excellent list:

-- Jim McCarthy, The R Word  His response to the NYC Teen Author Fest panel that prompted my previous post.   Snippet: "I actually don't have any answers-just more questions."

-- Veera Hirandani, What I Learned from Lisa Bonet  Snippet: "I never read about someone like me in a book and I read a lot of books. I found ways to identify with the characters, but I always felt like something about me had to be altered to fit."

 -- Diversity in YA blog, Malinda Lo on Diversity in Publishers Weekly 2013 YA bestsellers  Snippet:  "I’ve taken a look at the 2013 figures to determine how characters of color, LGBT characters, disabled characters, and authors of color are represented in these bestselling titles."

-- IW Gregorio, My Writing Process: #diversity and #amrevising edition    snippet: "I’ve always found empathy to be the driving force of all my writing. I write because I care about my characters. Step 2 of my process, research, flows naturally from this."

-- Zoraida Córdova, What we talk about when we talk about diversity in YA  snippet: The thing is, we need to feel uncomfortable, and like Jenny [Han] said, "That's the risk."