This week has been hard. There’s really no other way to put it. We’ve watched as cities all over the country, all over the world, have stood against racism and police brutality. We’ve seen people stand together, defiantly, tearfully, bravely saying the names of those we’ve lost to the violence of white supremacy.
This week has also marked the start of some real and hard conversations— many of which were long overdue. The literary community certainly isn’t immune from inequality, and in this week’s literary news, you’ll find several articles looking at ways that the community is grappling with issues of race and inclusion. You’ll also find some lighter news, like great reviews, book releases, music, and more, because taking breaks to take care of ourselves (physically or mentally) and celebrate our wins is also an important part of this.
CLMP has a great list of books coming out this month, including two of our own— Bitter Pill by Peter Church and Outside the Lines by Ameera Patel.
“Here are a few crime novels that take us into the tensions between policing and communities, and between the wants of individuals and the cruel prejudice of an uncaring system.” CrimeReads lists 11 novels that explore tensions between police and communities.
An older piece, but one that is (understandably) making the rounds again, is “The Ferguson Theatre Syllabus,” compiled by Claudia Alick and Megan Sandberg-Zakian. This list of plays “can catalyze the difficult but vital conversations we need to have now.”
A great piece at the LA Review of Books explores the life and work of Sarah Maldoror, the mother of African cinema.
“The recent presence of queer desires and bodies – lesbian, gay, intersex, transgender, or indeterminate – has gained new visibility in the political discourse of African democracies.” June is Pride Month, and The Conversation has a great conversation (naturally) between academics Aretha Phiri and Rocío Cobo-Piñero about the latter’s paper “Queering the Black Atlantic: Transgender Spaces in Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater”
At The Walrus, Tajja Isen writes about the history and job of sensitivity readers, and how publishers can’t use them as a cure-all, but as part of larger changes. From the piece:
However, the seemingly straightforward role has become deeply contentious. Some proponents have begun treating sensitivity readers as a panacea: a cheap and effective way of achieving diversity in the ranks of publishing that doubles as insurance against future criticism. Meanwhile, detractors have built these readers up into all-powerful agents of censorship, harbingers of the death of literature. Sensitivity readers, of course, are none of these things—what they are is a piecemeal fix in an industry that continues to push minority voices to the margins.
The audio version of National Book Award winner’s Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America is available for free on Spotify.
In more Catalyst news, Ameera Patel’s Outside the Lines is getting a lot of praise lately. In addition to her starred review in Publishers Weekly, her book has also been featured in Ms. Magazine, Shelf Awareness, Mystery Scene Magazine, and CrimeReads (twice!). You’ll be able to read this family drama/thriller on June 9. Order your copy here.
“I don’t think of my efforts as being so much about diversity as much as I think of them as being about equity.” Publishers Weekly takes a look at how authors are using their voices, time, and resources to make publishing more diverse.
“One thing we can do during this time is to remind Black children that we see them, that we support them, and that they are loved.” The Cincinnati library has a Black Joy Booklist for children and young adults.
The University of Minnesota Press has a selection of books that are free to read online. From their site: “To promote understanding and action for change, this collection of antiracist books is available to all to read online for free through August 31, 2020.”
“As African writers without borders who are connected beyond geography with those who live in the United States of America and other parts of the African diaspora, we state that we condemn the acts of violence on Black people in the United States of America” Read this open letter “penned by over 100 African authors condemning the acts of violence on Black people in the United States of America.”
And finally, Barbara Boswell, the author of the award-winning novel Unmaking Grace, has a new book coming soon—And I Wrote My Story Anyway: Black South African Women’s Novels as Feminism (Wits Press, Sept 2020). She recently chatted with The Cheeky Natives about the book. You can watch their conversation here. From their talk:“As a PhD student, this is the book I wanted to read. I wanted to have an idea about the history of Black South African women’s writing, and because that book did not exist, I decided to write it myself. This is a history that risks being lost if it isn’t documented, and I wanted to record the contribution of Black women to South Africa’s literary canon before their works were completely erased.”
