In the six months since I last updated this blog, my microphone has gotten a tiny bit larger. Thanks to a few journalists interviewing me about the landscape of today’s children’s and young adult literature, and being invited to write occasional children's book reviews and op-eds, my words are reaching an audience far wider than I could have imagined just one year ago.
Thank you for sharing my initial research and ideas-in-progress with your friends, and thank you for sharing and attributing my ideas more broadly to the general public. As I complete my initial work on The Dark Fantastic this year, I hope to continue to grow this site as a resource useful for anyone interested in theorizing, researching, and critiquing diversity in speculative fiction and media. Please watch this space for a redesign that will be easier on the eyes soon.
This was a post that I intended to write in September 2014, but life being what it is, have only just been able to edit and finish today. The serendipity of finding the critic’s path means that I now have a special interest in promoting the work of diverse children’s and young adult authors, illustrators, screenwriters, and filmmakers. That serendipity has led me to look beyond my individual perspectives and lived experiences to the larger culture.
Here's why I think we need to diversify the metaphors we use to read the word and the world (Freire & Macedo)... and why my next step will be to participate in the 25th Annual National African American Read-In, sponsored by NCTE's Black Caucus, during February 2015.
