Previously in my life, I wouldn't have thought that there would be a necessity for a publishing house that was strictly for multicultural SFF for young adults and children. I would have thought, the major houses really need to step up. I would have assumed that there weren't a lot of multiethnic SFF writers writing. I would have come up with all kinds of thoughts on the topic, including the worst one, I'm sure there's multicultural SFF for kids and teens out there somewhere. I just haven't found it yet.
Yes, once upon a time, I wouldn't have thought that there would be a necessity for a publishing house that was strictly for multicultural SFF for young adults and children.
But.
I'm on the Cybils SFF committee this year, kids, and with the notable exception of Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo... and, now that I'm looking, Hiromi Goto and Nahoko Uehashi, there's not a lot of ethnic makeup in SFF represented. This is not to say that there aren't characters of color within a novel, but cover representations -- are not "representing." And it makes me wonder. Where are the Latino weredragons? The African American starfighters? The Native wizards and the Asian faeries?
Every kid wants to see themselves represented in a work. Every young adult wants to imagine themselves flying or throwing fireballs or hacking apart vines to save the sleeping... prince. Why can't everyone play?
Et vous? Et tu, multicultural peeps. Tu Publishing. Please, pass the word along.
9 comments:
Yay! Thanks for posting. I'm still trying to find a few spare minutes to put up some other links, too.
Happily, I saw Cindy Pon's book at the library last time I was there, though I reluctantly put it back on the shelf because I already had an armload of books. Next time!
Oh, I so want to read that Hiromi Goto book.
Off the top of my head, the only other 2009 fantasy title I can think of is Sharon Shinn's Gateway (Chinese adoptee protag, China-like fantasy setting).
I JUST. GOT. THE. GOTO. BOOK.
The library here rocks. I'm excited.
It's great to see a publisher trying to fill this gap (and ridiculous that there's such a lack of representation)!
Every young adult wants to imagine themselves flying or throwing fireballs or hacking apart vines to save the sleeping... prince.
Yessssssss!
i think it's a great press to support. can you believe i grew up *never* reading a book w an asian character in it--much less featured on the cover?
Cindy, this is why you rock, TWICE. Thank you for writing. Seriously.
Amen! I want to see 'Latino weredragons, Native American wizards, Asian faeries and African American starfighters.' It would also be nice to see a fantasy world with mor ewidespread diversity or even the majority being of color (I have a similar rant to historical fiction, but this is neither the time nor the place).
I really love the Tu Publishing idea and I hope people donate (I'm asking my family to do that for Christmas for me!)
tanita, thank YOU for caring and supporting!!! gonna tweet about tu now. =)
Thank you so much for helping spread the word. I am so excited for them, especially because they made their goal! More stories for everyone can only be a good thing.
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