Diversity: The Daily Telegraph Debate
Lorna Bradbury, Daily Telegraph's book reviews editor, talks to acclaimed writers, Liz Kessler (Read Me Like A Book), Bali Rai ((Un)arranged Marriage) and Shannon Cullen from Penguin Random House about the need for diversity in children's books and what that really means. No topic is off limits.
I've included the description of this Bath Children's Literature Festival event because as was admitted on the stage, it wasn't really a debate, more of a discussion as all the panelists had the same view.
Simply summed up, the consensus is yes we need more diversity, but the real question is where does that diversity need to come from?
I'll just pick up on a couple of the topics mentioned, other wise I'll end up waffling for ages on this topic.
Encouraging creative writing. There are stories of people who read books to their kids and realised that if they wanted diversity they were going to have to write it themselves. As sad as it is to hear this it is also a great thing to hear, we need people from these backgrounds to want to write. A scheme was mentioned during the talk that is in the pipeline, it will get mentors into schools to help cultivate an interest in writing early and explain aspects of the process to them. With comments from the audience as well it was clear that there is much more to think about on this subject, we need to remember that different cultures have different ways of telling stories and those need to be embraced as well.
Times are changing, it's taken a while but we're getting there. The most interesting thing was Liz Kessler telling us that she wrote her latest book (Read Me Like A Book) years ago, at a time when same sex relationship were much more taboo. She's now come full circle and publishers are saying yes they want to publish it. As far as she's concerned it's just a story of love that just happens to not be between a boy and a girl.
Getting the message across. An audience member asked about how the panel felt about the issue behind books and true life getting translated into films when the original source is changed [essentially to make it more marketable]. I liked the answer, and although Liz Kessler worried she was sitting on the fence over some of her points during the talk this one was very true. Do we want to preach to the converted or reach a wider audience? Should we feel cheated that a story has been twisted for a wider audience if it gets the message to people who wouldn't have watched it had it been the original story?
My last topic is about publishers themselves... the publishing world hasn't changed that much... it's still the same middle aged white guys [and girls]... I can't quite remember how Bali put it but it's true. While publishers are accepting these changes need to happen there will still be some degree of personal bias. I mentioned above that different cultures have different ways of telling a story, that narrative might not appeal to a publisher when they read it, it's not prejudice, it's just inexperience. Ultimately, Shannon Cullen said, publishers are looking for a fantastic story... of course they want to make money off an investment so that's what they're going to pick... and I think that brings us full circle to the first point.
The eternal debate never gets any easier. Are we doing enough to get more diverse books? Probably not... but we are doing something.
I've included the description of this Bath Children's Literature Festival event because as was admitted on the stage, it wasn't really a debate, more of a discussion as all the panelists had the same view.
Simply summed up, the consensus is yes we need more diversity, but the real question is where does that diversity need to come from?
I'll just pick up on a couple of the topics mentioned, other wise I'll end up waffling for ages on this topic.
Encouraging creative writing. There are stories of people who read books to their kids and realised that if they wanted diversity they were going to have to write it themselves. As sad as it is to hear this it is also a great thing to hear, we need people from these backgrounds to want to write. A scheme was mentioned during the talk that is in the pipeline, it will get mentors into schools to help cultivate an interest in writing early and explain aspects of the process to them. With comments from the audience as well it was clear that there is much more to think about on this subject, we need to remember that different cultures have different ways of telling stories and those need to be embraced as well.
Times are changing, it's taken a while but we're getting there. The most interesting thing was Liz Kessler telling us that she wrote her latest book (Read Me Like A Book) years ago, at a time when same sex relationship were much more taboo. She's now come full circle and publishers are saying yes they want to publish it. As far as she's concerned it's just a story of love that just happens to not be between a boy and a girl.
Getting the message across. An audience member asked about how the panel felt about the issue behind books and true life getting translated into films when the original source is changed [essentially to make it more marketable]. I liked the answer, and although Liz Kessler worried she was sitting on the fence over some of her points during the talk this one was very true. Do we want to preach to the converted or reach a wider audience? Should we feel cheated that a story has been twisted for a wider audience if it gets the message to people who wouldn't have watched it had it been the original story?
My last topic is about publishers themselves... the publishing world hasn't changed that much... it's still the same middle aged white guys [and girls]... I can't quite remember how Bali put it but it's true. While publishers are accepting these changes need to happen there will still be some degree of personal bias. I mentioned above that different cultures have different ways of telling a story, that narrative might not appeal to a publisher when they read it, it's not prejudice, it's just inexperience. Ultimately, Shannon Cullen said, publishers are looking for a fantastic story... of course they want to make money off an investment so that's what they're going to pick... and I think that brings us full circle to the first point.
The eternal debate never gets any easier. Are we doing enough to get more diverse books? Probably not... but we are doing something.
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