Here is my summary (to the best of
my abilities!) of Professional Program Day 2 of the 11th biennial Reading
Matters Conference.
And here’s my chance to say how
great the program was – wonderful authors from diverse backgrounds and
nationalities celebrating youth literature. The Centre for Youth Lit
programmers really outdid themselves (I’m looking at you Adele Walsh! You superstar!) and
the whole Conference was simply marvelous – my hat is off to you, everyone at CYL
(Adele, Jordi, Anna and Bec!!)
It was also wonderful to catch up
with the Aussie YA crowd – both those on the program and everyone who came along
to soak up the #YAmatters goodness.
And Jess, of The Tales Compendium fame, was my
Reading Matters buddy again! We met at the 2013
Conference (the first one for both of us) and we decided then & there
that it’d be our book-blogging-buddy tradition – so far we’re 2 for 2 and I
look forward to attending Reading Matters 2017 with her!
Representation Matters: Diverse voices for all readers
– Sara
Farizan
Sara Farizan called her talk: 'People
Are More Than One Thing: intersecting identities and writing with anxiety' and
she was simply marvelous. She treated her talk like a “first date” with the
audience.
Sara took us on a time-warp to
1984, to the first cartoon she became obsessed with – FYI, her favourite Ninja
Turtle was Donatello because all he needed was a stick. Steve Jobs was also sowing
the seeds for a career in computers, a young Sara was liking Michael Jackson
(she can do his famous high-kick!), Ronald Reagan had yet to acknowledge the
AIDS epidemic and Iran–Iraq War was raging. Though Sara is Iranian-American, she’d
never been to Iran but her parents, "Taught me that they are more than the
country of their origin."
Sara spoke about her younger
years and what an anxious child she was – case in point, she became worried
every time she watched the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood intro, hoping he’d get
dressed before the intro music ran out.
"Television was everything
& I know I probably shouldn't say that on a day about education,” Sara said
– before professing her love for Belle from Beauty
& The Beast who helped her begin to figure out her sexuality; "I
didn't want to be Belle, but I was
jealous of brutish Beast for winning her affections." Sara then played one
of Belle’s solo songs from the Disney movie, and I’ve gotta say, she’s kinda a
great feminist heroine: "I want much more than this provincial life!"
Sara then showed more pop-culture
examples that started her on a path to articulating her sexuality and embracing
her cultural identity. Sara referenced the famous Whoopi Goldberg story about
seeing Nichelle Nichols playing Uhura on the original Star
Trek: “Well, when I was nine
years old, Star Trek came on. I looked at it and I went screaming through the
house, ‘Come here, hum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there’s a black lady
on television and she ain’t a maid!’ I knew right then and there I could be
anything I wanted to be.”
Something similar happened for
Sara when she read Annie on My Mind by
Nancy Garden. Further to this, she said; “The library helped me learn about
myself with dignity and in a safe space,” because at school; “there were no
examples of who I could be.” Sara even mentioned one eighth grade assignment on
same-sex marriage and equal rights was the first time she had her eyes opened,
and a parent tried to have it scrapped. She also referenced the ‘Day of Silence’, which is a
national day of action in which students across the country vow to take a form
of silence to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and
harassment in schools – this was another initiative that started to familiarize
Sara with this world she’d never otherwise been exposed to.
As for Sara’s debut novel If You Could Be Mine – it started out as
her school thesis, and she never thought it would get published. She wrote it
for herself, partly to fill the gaps in her own reading growing up.
Sara is an Iranian-American
writing about Iranian lesbians, but she’s never been to Iran and is very
conscious of appropriating other people’s culture and stories, she always tries
to be respectful. She said she won’t always write about lesbians, because she
doesn’t want to be a mouthpiece – and she actually hopes that people come along
who are better writers than her, and keep telling these stories.
"The more connections I make
with people who are not like me, the richer my life becomes,” Sara said. And as
for other people writing diverse characters, Sara asked them to please consider
that; "Everybody wants to be the hero sometimes."
We Need Diverse Books: Under-represented voices
– Clare Atkins, Sara
Farizan, Abe Nouk, Jared Thomas
This panel was chaired by Ambelin
Kwaymullina, author of one of my all time favourite Aussie YA series – The Tribe.
I’d actually interviewed Ambelin for Junior
Books+Publishing ahead of the conference on this very topic, and you can
read the article here,
but there is a pay-wall.
Jared Thomas kicked off this
discussion with a truth bomb: "Race doesn't exist. Racism does,” he said
we are just the human race. Clare Atkins talking about her book Nona &
Me said she didn't want to write from an indigenous perspective - given
the history of colonisation in Australia, Clare didn't want to join that list
of people taking. Clare ideally would
have liked to co-write the book with an Indigenous author, but those in Yirrkala
(Northern Territory) who would have been the best candidates (for their English
literacy and interest) were already stretched so thin, helping their own
community that they just didn’t have the time. The compromise was working
closely with Merrkiyawuy, who was extremely generous with her knowledge and
time.
Sara Farizan wondered if writing
on a topic that is seen as “taboo” automatically makes an author “controversial”?
But she probably had the best summary for reasons we need diversity; "Nobody
is better than anybody else - we all have to go to the restroom." Sara
said that upon being published, author Malinda
Lo (of ‘We Need Diverse Books’
fame) said; "Welcome to the club. There's three of us." [lesbian women of
color].
Ambelin quoted Malinda at one
point - "Diversity is reality. Let's stop erasing that." And I thought
it was very heartening that the day before this Reading Matters conference,
Malinda had been sitting on a panel at Book Expo American discussing the exact
same thing. As to that – here are just a few Tweeted thoughts from Malinda, but
I highly recommend you read through the #BEA15 live-tweets of her session too!
Abe Nouk said he finds connecting
with an audience “magical and mystifying,” and said in telling your story, "People
have to step-up for themselves first and foremost. And that is terrifying."
Abe is so eloquent, he also dropped this truth bomb: "We strip away
people's dignity when we tell them where to stand …the only way to evolve a
culture is to respect it.” And then he spoke about ‘the myth of ownership,’ in
our society.
Ambelin summarized beautifully,
when she said; “If all the images of people like you are absent/negative, you
never see yourself as positive … When you don't hear those [diverse] voices in
books, it's a false perception of reality.” Ambelin also suggested that
publishers should think about what’s happening behind-the-scenes, establishing
fellowships and building up expertise so you have someone in-house who can pinpoint
when something is disrespectful etc.
Jared Thomas made a great point
about how buoyed the Australian film and television industry has been because
it tells Indigenous stories (off the top of my head: Redfern Now,
The Sapphires,
Black Comedy and
so many more) … and book publishers should
take note!
Sara Farizan said she was frustrated
by children's books in which there are more animals than people from diverse
backgrounds – an example of how this insidiousness starts young.
Clare Atkins noted that we; “Also
need diverse characters whose diversity is incidental, not the whole plot -
many accessible levels of diversity.” She thinks tackling diversity comes in at
three levels; more diverse authors, characters and to normalize their stories.
A question came from the audience
about “how do we get these books into schools?” Ambelin acknowledged that it’s
going to be harder – it just is, sorry. The publishers who are producing these
books tend to be independents, so they don’t have the same sales reps and
publicists and accessibility that big publishers do. But that’s no excuse not
to become familiar with the likes of these incredible publishing houses and the
books they are gifting us;
·
Magabala Press·
IAD
Press·
Backroom Press·
Aboriginal Studies Press
Jared Thomas also suggested that
teachers and librarians link these books to things like Reconciliation Week. It’s a
way to build communities, and you can invite authors to come speak! He asked teachers/librarians
to be proactive in getting these books & authors into your schools – be
proactive, do research – it’s going to be a little bit harder but we all need
to work together to make a difference (I’ll refer to Malinda Lo’s Twitter
call-out to bloggers/vloggers doing their part too!)
I also found it very heartening
to hear that the Sydney Morning Herald 2015
Best Young Australian Novelists were a fantastic mix of diverse voices; Maxine
Beneba Clarke, Alice Pung, Ellen Van Neervan, Omar Musa, and Michael Mohammed
Ahmad.
Ambelin asked the authors to
finish this sentence: ‘We Need Diverse Books, because …’ Sara said; “because I
don't want any kid to feel ‘less than’.”
Anthology Live!
– Abe Nouk
Abe Nouk gave us chills again
with a stirring poetry slam performance. I said it in my Day 1 post, but I
can’t say it enough: buy his book,
watch him on YouTube
and if you’re a teacher/librarian – reach out to him to learn more about his Creative
Rebellion Youth Enterprises!
Comic Culture: Stories among us
– Tom Taylor
Tom Taylor is a multi-award-winning
and #1 New York Times bestselling author, playwright and screenwriter. He is
best known as the writer of the bestselling DC Comics series Injustice: Gods Among Us and Marvel’s Superior Ironman.
Tom Taylor’s talk was called 'Comics:
the single greatest storytelling medium on earth (really)' he began by asking
for a raise of hands to show who has and has not read comic books. I’ve got to
say – I was shocked and disheartened to see how many in the audience have never
read a comic book … but I think by the end of Tom’s talk, they were all
changing their tune.
Tom explained that he got his
start in comics because he had a story about a suitcase at Flinders Street, and
he appealed to the Internet to help him find an illustrator to go with his
story. The Internet bit back, and pretty soon he found himself with a job
writing for the Star Wars comic
series. Then he got jobs writing Injustice:
Gods Among Us and Earth 2 series
for DC Comics.
"Comic books aren't just for
kids anymore!” Tom said (which was partly why he decided to write his The Deep series for kids!). And Tom
wanted the audience to know that comic books aren’t just for boys anymore (if
they ever were) either – with 48% of comic book readers in the US being female.
Comic books have come such a long way – and Tom said for him, he was allowed to
push the envelope with the series’ he was writing; "Injustice was weekly. So they didn't have time to edit me!" -
on having female superheroes marrying each other etc … He wrote a black
Superman & Filipino Aqua Woman too.
"The higher your brow goes,
the smaller your brain gets,” –Tom summarized people who don’t or won’t read
comic books, and “Ignoring an entire storytelling medium is insane!” He also
said it’s a shame that comics are read widely around the world, but there’s
still such a stigma in Australia: "Comics are for everybody!"
Tom asked for a raise of hands
from librarians if they have lots of comic books getting stolen from their
stacks (so many hands went up!) and he said “When people are stealing things,
it's a good sign,” and asked librarian to please consider those kids who feel
bad that maybe they don’t have $2 for a late fee (so maybe scrap it
completely?)
There was a totally legit
question/concern from the audience, about the history of comic books
sexualizing women and Tom tackled it brilliantly. He reiterated that 48% of
female comic book readers in the US are women and because of that we're seeing
less sexualisation of female comic book characters (because the industry just
won’t stand for it anymore). He name-checked the new Batgirl
who doesn’t have a skimpy costume, and the first Muslim female superhero in
the new Ms Marvel.
More to this point about how
female-friendly comic books are now (and I’ve written
about this before) – after Tom’s talk I was thrilled to discover news in my
Twitter-feed that a fantastic comic series called Lumberjanes
would be adapted into a live-action movie. AND
another great comic book series called The
Wicked + The Divine would be heading to TV! It’s a great time to be a
female comic book fan, people! There are still problems – case in point was an
all-male panel at Denver
ComicCon who were bought together to talk about Women in Comics (yes,
really) … BUT they were raked over fiery hot coals for the serious insult –
because like Tom said, the industry just won’t stand for that kind of rubbish
anymore.
And because I love comics and want
everyone to love them too – here are some more female-friendly comic
books/graphic novels that you should definitely look up:
·
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
·
The
Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
·
anything by Alison
Bechdel
·
Relish:
My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
·
everything by Raina Telgemeier
·
Rat
Queens by Kurtis J Wiebe
·
The
Dreamer online comic by Lora Innes
·
El
Deafo by Cece Bell
·
Through
the Woods stories by Emily Carroll
·
Delilah
Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant by Tony Cliff
·
This
One Summer written by Mariko Tamaki illustrated
by Jillian Tamaki
·
Saga
by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
AND if you’re in Melbourne you
should definitely come along to the monthly All Star Women's
Comic Book Club!
Comic books rock!
Science vs Magic: Realities of a different kind
– Jaclyn Moriarty, Sean
Williams
This was a great debate between
sci-fi writer Sean Williams, and Jaclyn Moriarty who loves a touch of magic in
her books … Sean bought along a sonic screwdriver, while Jaclyn was armed with
THREE wands!
"I'm aware of the problems
but I don't know how to fix them,” said Sean Williams on the science in his
books – and more to that, science fiction (good science fiction) should have
more questions than concrete answers.
Jordi Kerr was moderator of this
session, and she had some great questions like - "Does technology make us
more human or less human?" To which Sean mused, "The day we run out
of questions we may no longer need to live.”
I loved this debate, but Jaclyn
Moriarty won me over with her recitation of the Lamia poem;
Do not all charms fly
At the mere touch of cold philosophy?
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:
We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air, and gnomèd mine—
Unweave a rainbow, as it erewhile made
The tender-person'd Lamia melt into a shade.
Our Forgotten Rebels: Writing non-fiction for teens
– Clare Wright
Clare Wright is an Australian
historian, author and broadcaster. Her latest nonfiction release, The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, was the
2014 winner of the Stella Prize.
I think she really swayed the
crowd when she spoke about her ten-years worth of research investigating false
gendered roles in Australian history. She stressed that her research into the
Eureka Stockade has uncovered new human history, not just women’s history – and
she highlighted this through artwork that was so blokes-heavy to the point of
ridiculousness. She was prompted to look differently at this slice of
Australian history by asking the question “Where am I in this story?”
Quite frankly – Clare Wright’s
book asks us to move beyond the blokes, blokes, blokes history of Eureka, to
think critically of all the women who are erased from human history - I want to read that!
Drawn to You: Imagery and imagination
– Priya Kuriyan
Priya began by saying that,
growing up, "I didn't think that a person like me had a place in a book” –
on the lack of representation in the books she read as a child. As such, when
she started drawing her own comics they were full of blonde-haired, brunettes
called Andi (because that’s all she knew!) "Diversity should be looked at
as an advantage, rather than a disadvantage!"
About her book Eat
the Sky, Drink the Ocean (Allen&Unwin) which is edited by
Australian author Kirsty Murray, Priya said the idea for the collaborative work
was prompted by the awful 2012 Delhi gang rape
case that sparked feminist outcry in India and around the world, including in
Australia. As such, the book is a celebration of feminist speculative fiction
(it’s incredible – BUY IT!)
Priya likes to tackle tough
topics through her illustrations – she makes it a point to "Shake up what
is normal ... a princess can be goofy, not traditional thin/fair." And
because India is so divided by class, she tries to portray diversity in her
novels because issues of caste and class are internalised by children at a very
early age – and picture books can change this.
Priya spoke about the initiative
‘Room to Read’ - Indian company that
creates picture books very cheaply for impoverished children living in remote
areas.
A final message from Priya was, “A
good image brings good luck.”
Literary Landscapes: Place, space and everything in-between
– Clare
Atkins, Sean Williams, Kyle Hughes-Odgers
This was a great talk that
included Kyle Hughes-Odgers – a visual artist, exhibiting artwork across
Australia and internationally. Kyle and Meg McKinlay (author) won the 2013
SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for Australia/New Zealand for the children’s book Ten Tiny Things. (seriously, follow him
on Instagram – he’s
incredible!)
My big take-away from this
session was Clare Atkins moving to Yirrkala in 2007, Arnhem Land – and
discovering that she could have an adventure in Australia after growing up
thinking adventures happened anywhere else but here.
I loved Sean Williams line about,
"The world is not permanent. You can change it, and it changes you,” and
discovering as a teenager that the world is impermanent.
Hashtag Teen: Engaging teens and young adult advocacy
– Amie Kaufman,
Tom Taylor, Kyle Hughes-Odgers, Will Kostakis
This was an incredible panel,
moderated by the fabulous Adele Walsh!
I think she best summarized this whole panel halfway through, when she said "Being
along for the journey is much more important than telling them [teens] what the
journey is." YES!
Amie Kaufman said she prefers the
back-and-forth interaction of Twitter. “Go to where the kids are - that's how
engagement happens,” Amie said.
Adele said Will probably does the
most school visit of any Aussie author, and he said he levels with kids by
being honest, admitting to them that when he was their age: "I couldn't
catch a ball to save my life, but I could hold a pen and sort of form a
sentence!" But he’s always a little deflated by teacher’s attitudes to how
he connects with kids – they’ll turn around and congratulate Will on getting
the kids to write so much, but in the next breath they’ll chastise him “because
you said ‘crap’ and that’s unacceptable.” You’ve gotta give a little, is Will’s
message to teachers.
On the inherent engagement of
comic books, Tom Taylor said; "You turn the page and something happens
EVERY SINGLE TIME!"
Adele put some images up on the
big screen – showing all the authors interacting with kids in person and
online. Will Kostakis actually had a great story of an English teacher who
couldn’t afford to bring him out for a school visit, so he did a creative
writing class via Twitter with the kids – it got to the point where the teacher
couldn’t type fast enough for how many questions the kids were firing at him … that
was great, but Adele made a point of reminding the audience to ‘Pay the Writers’
(and don’t bombard Will for freebie online tutorials! lol)
Adele threw up a lot of social media logos on
the screen and asked the audience to consider how many of them they recognized –Twitter,
Instagram, Facebook were some obvious ones – but others like AO3 Status were a little more obscure
for the audience (all about fanworks – fanfiction and fanart!)
Educators need to know the importance of these online communities to teenagers.
But Adele also reminded us that not every teenager has acsess to a personal
tablet, iphone, laptop – which is why libraries are so important!
Tom told us about the awesome Stan Lee Excelsior Award - the UK book award for graphic novels and manga - where kids aged 11-16 decide the winner by rating each book as they read it. Would be great to get something like this in Oz!
There was a big shout-out to Penguin Teen Australia for how
they’re engaging teen readers online – especially through the weekly #PTAchat that
happens on Twitter! Amie name-checked Dear
Teen Me, as a great website full of truly heartfelt letters from YA authors
who were teens once too. And the Centre for Youth Literature has developed an
invaluable resource in ‘Shift
Alt Story’ – a unique way to engage with storytelling in the digital era!
The End
In conversation: Continents collide
– Sally Gardner, Laurie Halse
Anderson
Listening to these two literary
heavyweights talk was a real treat. Again, I didn’t live-tweet because I just
wanted to listen and let it all soak in.
A big take-away from this talk
for me was:
#1 – Laurie Halse Anderson hates
the term “reluctant readers” (they’re just "readers with very high
standards")
#2 – Sally Gardner says the way
we teach (in Australia, US and UK) is "We teach for accountants
basically." (tick-boxes, anyone?)
#3 – Sally and Laurie differed on
the age at which they think children are turned off reading. Sally guesstimated
age 2 (possibly because of her horrid experiences, compounded by dyslexia)
while Laurie guessed it was around age 12 that kids no longer read for pleasure
(which is when they start to be told “read this – not that!”). To combat this,
they both agreed that you should never tell a child “you can’t read that!” or “you
can’t write that!” Laurie in particular addressed the room of “gatekeepers” and
said she understands there will be times when you pause, and question a book or
an author and whether or not children should have access to it. That’s okay –
fear is okay, but just sit with it for a little while and ask yourself what it
is that’s scaring you about this topic/author etc. Laurie stressed that it’s
often when these decisions fall on one person’s shoulders – with nobody to turn
to for a second opinion – that those fears double. So she encouraged everyone
in the room to have a “conference buddy” – someone you met and connected with
and can reach out to in the future to talk these things through. And Laurie
also said that she understands wanting to have some say over your child’s
reading habits (and you absolutely should!), but there’s no way in hell she’s
going to have somebody else telling her kid what they can and can’t read.
