Sheila:

I could not agree with you more, across the board. Your comment is not only thoughtful and thorough, but spells out, in poignant detail, so many specific aspects of why this trend — as a misguided remedy to the lack of diversity in the industry — is so corrosive.

I hope the noise from all sides of this debate gets and stays loud enough to truly shake up the publishing industry in a way that permanently changes entrenched, systemic exclusions.

Thanks for reading and for your wonderful comment!

Best,

Lorraine

Jeanne:

First of all, your books sounds really interesting, a story I’d love to read, so I’m sorry you got that kind of pushback from an agent. Obviously, since you read the article, you know I went through the same thing, over and over, which was not only upsetting to me on a personal level, but rang all sorts of alarms bell for me as part of the literary community.

I think sensitivity, authenticity, research, thoughtful work put in, to make sure characters and stories outside our cultures are realistic and representative, are all really important and should be employed. But I also think agents and publishers — and even other writers — can’t just give lip service to the notion of “anybody should be able to writer anything—as long as they get it right,” but have to actually honor it by NOT making comments like the kind both you and I heard.

The industry and its gatekeepers also need to do more than pay lip service to the notion of diversifying and expanding opportunities for #OwnVoices and writers of diverse demographics. They have to DO it.

Thanks for reading and commenting, and good luck on your book!

Best,

Lorraine

Thank you, E.V. I appreciate the comment!

Reading fiction, studies suggest, helps children develop empathy, which is, I think, a desirable human emotion. Authors work hard to make their characters seem realistic so their readers become invested in these imagined people — or animals. Yes, we do need more diverse books for and by all sorts of authors. But the quality of a book is more important than what the author looks like. I feel as though we will lose so much by dismissing authors because of their background. Let’s each of us expand our knowledge and look for the most engaging stories then tell them the best we can.

No two authors have identical abilities and each of us has many unique perspectives. I know Mildred Taylor was never a teenaged white kid, nor Ezra Jack Keats a small black boy, nor E.B. White a runt piglet. But those characters, (Jeremy Simms, Peter and Wilbur) helped readers to step out of their own lives, walk in the shoes of another, and even helped open doors for writers who’d been denied access so long. Rather than adhering to some new narrow-minded rules, let’s open our minds and our hearts.

Now, what’s really interesting is the book I am currently reading, Such a Fun Age, written by a black woman, has two POV characters – a black woman and a white woman. It is BOTH of their stories, not just a black story. So how is that okay and yet it’s not okay for me to write a similar one?