Decolonizing Fiction with Antoinette Van Sluytman

Antoinette's breakout session is called "Decolonizing Fiction: The Nuance of Representation"

Antoinette Van Sluytman (center) appears with ASL interpreter Caroline

Antoinette Van Sluytman is a speculative writer, graphic designer, junior literary agent, part-time museum and writing convention volunteer, and freelance illustrator with a background in traditional fine art, having attended many local art shows in San Diego, California. While studying for her bachelors in graphic design at The NewSchool of Architecture and Design as an honors student, Antoinette works as a part-time literary assistant at the Irene Goodman Literary Agency, helping illustrators and writers with highlight campaigns and editorial development. Antoinette also volunteers at the African Diaspora Museum & Research Center and at writing nonprofit organization, WriteHive, as a diversity ally, artist professional in residence, and moderator. Antoinette considers herself an entrepreneurial scholartist who advocates for countering literary hegemony through speculative radicalism and diverse narratives within the mediums of art and writing.

Antoinette begins with a discussion of what Colonization was and is, including the -isms that came with it, including sexism, ableism, homophobia, classism, imperialism, and racism.

Colonization was about power. Power was about wealth. And wealth was about land... [and controlling the labor of other people.] ...And maintaining a pipeline of wealth for the colonizers.

Antoinette talks about the pitfalls of our Western patterns of storytelling and how we project it into our fiction. Patterns like a hero with an enemy to defeat, and the lack of matriarchal systems in fiction. Where are the matriarchies in fiction? Or equating the color black with evil, which is a cultural thing. Or how the color red has different meanings in China than in the west...

Story structure (i.e., the hero's journey) is also discussed. "Villains may not be a person but a system." Self-actualization can be seen as a form of freedom to achieve. The examples of different narrative structures Antoinette shared included Kishōtenkentsu, a 4 act narrative structure 1) introduction 2) development 3) twist or catalyst 4) conclusion - different parts of story come together in a finale. 

Antoinette also discusses the way we write different ways of speaking - and asks us to be aware of the negative impact of other-izing it (like by using italics for words in non-English language).

There's lots more covered, including tropes to avoid, and the importance of un-colonizing our minds and the choices we make - for example Antoinette points out that we scorn the Maasai cultural practice of drinking a mix of cow blood and milk but we drink coca-cola, a mix of acid and sugar! 

One more great point made by Antoinette in this presentation:

"Diversity is a spectrum and not a monolith that we can conform to... Diversity is more than just skin." —Antoinette Van Sluytman

Adriana Domínguez: Writing with Cultural Authenticity

 

Adriana Domínguez

Adriana Dominguez, a literary agent at Full Circle Literary Agency, has more than 20 years of experience in publishing. The agency motto is "representing books that break barriers and stand the test of time."

Before becoming an agent, she was Executive Editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books, where she managed the children’s division of the Rayo imprint. Before that, she was Children’s Reviews Editor at Críticas magazine, published by Library Journal. She's also worked as a translator.

Being an agent helps her put her varied background to work to help writers.

Adriana talked to us about diversity, and how and why it's a vital topic to understand. She approaches the subject of diversity with a lot of humility, and recommends we do this too.

In our industry, a lot of things have changed in the five years since We Need Diverse Books was founded. But some things haven't changed so much, she said.

Not all that long ago, she heard things like "diverse books don't sell." It was discouraging. But it was essential to keep going, because children don't see people who look like them in books, they internalize the idea that their stories don't matter.

This year, though, Full Circle Literary has had multiple bestsellers by diverse creators: The Day You Begin, Taking Flight, Amal Unbound, and The Distance Between Us.

"A lot of things have changed. That is the great news. That is part of why you're hearing so much more about diversity."

Diversity is not a trend. She wants to talk about why. "Trend" reminds her of things like vampires, or passing fads. Trends aren't an essential part of the publishing world; stories about marginalized people are.

While things are improving in terms of books being published by and about people of color, there still aren't enough books written by people with that lived experience. Also, there are more books about animal characters than there are about children of color.

"We're still a long way to go from being where we need to be," she said. 

Another disheartening stat: 5 percent of books are about LatinX characters, and 20 percent of kids in school are LatinX. 

Here's what diversity isn't: stereotypical or didactic—the literary equivalent of Brussels sprouts. The books that are like this might have been the best creators could do at the time they come out. But we're past that. 

She gave several ways to understand "cultural authenticity"—here are a few:

• It's instantly recognizable by readers from within the culture being written about 
• It's the opposite of generic and stereotypical 
• Culturally authentic literature is specific and universal

And some do's and dont's:

• Don't write in first person from outside a culture 
• Have someone from within the culture read your book
• Do your research, reading both fiction and nonfiction, as well as immersing yourself in pop culture

She recommended we look at some award winning books, because we need to "read, read, read":

The Coretta Scott King Award
Schneider Family Book Award
Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Award
Pura Belpré Book Award
Stonewall book Award
Americas Award
Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award

#ownvoices titles represented by Adriana

Panel: Culture, Identity, and Writing: Malinda Lo

Malinda Lo is the author of several young adult novels, including most recently A Line in the Dark. Her novel Ash, a lesbian retelling of Cinderella, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and was a Kirkus Best Book for Children and Teens. She has been a three-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Malinda’s nonfiction has been published by The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Huffington Post, The Toast, The Horn Book, and AfterEllen. Her website is www.malindalo.com.

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Malinda shares how dialog in one scene of her YA novel, "A Line in the Dark" was pulled from her own life, and how sometimes writing truth isn't joyful, but a catharsis.

Speaking of Arthur's prompt of a quote from Alexander Chee's How to Write an Autobiographical Novel regarding transforming Gay and Asian stereotypes, via drag, to power, Malinda tells us about her current novel being about drag. The book is about a queer Chinese American girl and Drag Kings, and performance, and twisting and subverting gender. How Chinese Americans in that time faced casual everyday racism. And Queer people faced many homophobic stereotypes, but her character discovers that in this drag nightclub, those challenges are subverted.

"The point is to center the Chinese-ness of these characters and to show their world. When it comes to whether outsiders can understand it...? I used to be more concerned with that."

That's a profound comment. That we don't have to explain things to people outside the culture. Those readers can jump in and figure it out. We can center the culture and stories we need to tell.

When Malinda wrote her debut Ash, she imagined the characters as Asian (it's a fantasy lesbian re-telling of Cinderella), yet she explains that while writing it,

"I thought the gay part was big enough problem." She felt that this book was going to get a difficult reception, so she did not include any clear signs of Asian-ness. She tells us how she imagined them in her head, but decided to not put them in the book, saying, "I thought it would be too much."

Malinda then explains how in writing the follow-up novel, Huntress (a prequel), she set out to make it very specifically a Chinese-inspired fantasy world.

Malinda speaks of much more, including the "double othering" she faces as a Chinese American: the othering from "Mythical China" (telling us a story of visiting China when she was in college, and how it was so clear to the people she met there that she wasn't Chinese), and at the same time how to some of her fellow Americans she's perceived as a perpetual foreigner.

It's a brilliant panel that goes so much deeper than the surface discussion of 'yes, diversity is good.' Diversity is real. Diversity is complex. Diversity is intersectional.

A final impassioned thought from Malinda:

"Too often race is seen only as skin color..." Race is a cultural construct. "Race is an experience. You have to go inside."

Diversity Social at #LA17SCBWI

Did you check out the Diversity Social at #LA17SCBWI?

The Diversity Social began with remarks about We Need Diverse Books by Sona Charaipotra, Miranda Paul, and Linda Sue Park, followed by greetings from some of WNDB's founding members and SCBWI faculty support.

I loved hearing about the successes of their mentorship programs and advocacy programs -- from partnerships with the Scholastic Book Club to measurable results of WNDB's mentorship program. 

An attendee asked how they can support diverse authors if they are not from a diverse background. The committee suggested:

• Buy and read diverse books, and support those authors.
• Talk about diverse books; promote those authors and their books.
• Advocate for diverse voices to be represented at events or programming you're involved in.
• Write and illustrate characters from diverse backgrounds. Pat Cummings asked: do your characters default to a specific ethnicity or background?
• Mentor with WNDB, if applicable. (generally looking for authors with multiple books published in a particular genre.)

After the Q&A, there was time to mingle. I enjoyed chatting with first-time conference attendees / authors Traci Sorrell, Lindsey Metcalf, and Madonna Bock [from the KS/MO chapter]; agent Stefanie von Borstel of Full Circle Literary; Executive Art Director Cecilia Yung at Penguin Random House; and many others at this thoughtful, relaxed gathering.

You can sign up for the WNDB mailing list to be notified when mentorship applications are available.

Check out WNDB's new book discovery app called Our Story

Weslie Turner: Celebrating Diversity, Tradition, and Change

Weslie Turner is an assistant editor Arthur A. Levine Books.

Arthur's current staff grew up with Harry Potter.

It wasn't just the books, it was the community of readers that made these books special to Weslie.
Harry Potter made being a good person cool. It showed in action what it meant to be a good person.
As someone who grew up being a called a goody two shoes, Weslie really appreciated that.

When publishers say "own voices" they are speaking to characters of marginalized backgrounds where the writer shares at least one aspect of that character's identity. Own voices started out as a hashtag, but it's now a term used in publishing conversations. But Weslie also points out that there's a balance of an identity the writer knows and of some she or he does not.

Weslie is hage fan of sci-fi-and speculative fiction. Key to such books is strong immersive world building.

The Summer Prince is a diverse speculative fiction story based in Brazil.
At its heart it's about civic engagement and not in a way that's dry and boring, but in way that a kid can empathize that there is something wrong with this world and wanting to do something about it.

Weslie says she wants to publish revolutionary children's books, and the rest of her team cries out, "Yes!"

The Case for Loving is about Loving v. Virginia and Mildred Loving, Richard Perry, and their three kids. It was was written by an interracial couple. It draws from the creators' experience. "I consider love revolutionary. This is also a revolutionary picture book."







Daniel Jose Older's Shadowshaper books are ones with revolutionary and social justice elements.





The Cleo Edison Oliver books are about a black, female, adopted entrepreneur. It's a book that Weslie saw herself in.

As the group talks about Mike Jung's Unidentified Suburban Objects, Weslies says it's more than the best book of it's kind, it's the only book of it's kind.


Sparrow is a book Weslie has been waiting 10 years to read. A book that authentically portrays an authentic resonate experience and has a beautiful unique literary voice.