Summer! Wiscon! Desserts!

so now that the madness of summer (at least work-wise) is simmering down, school madness is picking up. the kids have end-of-year events all month and it has got to be hard for working parents to juggle being there for their kids and trying to keep the bills going at the same time.

i just returned from my second wiscon and i can totally see why folks get hooked. there are people who've been going to wiscon for decades. it's one of the few places to have the kind of discourse i crave all year long. to be around people who just let you be. to be inspired and awakened and unsettled and enlightened.

this year was a mixed bag for me, but i am still sad it's over. here are a few pics of the people i met (some are courtesy of LaShawn Wanak), and the desserts i consumed. i'm already eagerly looking forward to next year.

l-r: Sheree Renee Thomas, Ibi Zoboi, me, and Zola Mumford

l-r: Jenn Brisset, Ibi Zoboi, me, LaShawn Wanak

key lime pie at the dessert salon - so, so yummy as you can see. i ate most of it before remembering to take a pic.

 

yes, i ate all of the above.
the aforementioned key lime pie, chocolate decadent mousse cake with raspberry something-sauce, and chocolate eclairs.
i would have gone back to get the maple pecan pie, but the speeches were starting.

Coming Up

Happy Asian-American Heritage Month! Happy Mother's Month! (Yes, I think we deserve a MONTH.)

Tomorrow, Wednesday, I will be participating in a live-chat on Twitter with a few of the other authors involved in the Diversity in YA tour. The Tweetchat starts at 9pm EST, so join us if you're on Twitter!

And the book-signing-turned-into-panel at Books of Wonder takes place on Saturday, May 14th, at 1pm. I am keeping my fingers double-crossed that they will have copies of my books this time! The other panelists are Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, Jacqueline Woodson, Rita Williams-Garcia, Matt de la Pena, Kekla Magoon, and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich. The panel will be moderated by Cheryl Klein. Please join us if you can!

At the end of May, I am off, once again, to Wiscon, the *echoing announcer voice* WORLD'S LEADING FEMINIST SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION. This conference is something I do for myself because I love the people I get to meet and I always have a great time engaging in the kind of discourse I enjoy having. If you're going, let me know! Would love to say hi :).

And this is not in May, but I'm going to plug it now, anyway, in case you're planning vacations and such. On June 9th, I will be sitting on a panel with two other Sikh women for SAWCC (South Asian Women's Creative Collective). We will be discussing faith and feminism within a Sikh context. Should be an interesting conversation and a lot of fun. More on that soon, though.

Have a great day!

Links, Upcoming Events, Awesome Video

I shared this video on Facebook, but love it so much I want to share it here, too. It was created by my partner-in-crime, Hollis, and it ROCKS.



Interview
If you're not sick of me like I am, you can check out a recent interview on Sayantini Dasgupta's blog. I'm not doing many interviews these days, but Sayantani had the best, thought-provoking questions, and I cleared off some space to answer them. Check that out here.

Events
I'm going to be in Albuquerque, New Mexico from November 5-7th for YALSA (the Young Adult Literature Symposium of the American Library Association)'s conference on diversity, and on November 22nd, I'll be in Orlando, Florida for the ALAN conference (the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents, a branch of the National Council of Teachers of English). If you're in or around either of those, please come by and say hello!

Statement Worth Reading

Here is a link to the Carl Brandon Society's official statement on the Elizabeth Moon controversy. I particularly like these two paragraphs:

"Regarding “tolerance”: “Tolerance” is often considered one of our primary duties as citizens. “Tolerance” does not mean agreement, consensus, likeness, or even understanding. It does not mean assimilation. It does not require friendship, nor even dialogue. It is simple. It means refraining from expressing negativity towards things that are different from or alien to you. Tolerance is part of our social contract: you tolerate me, and I tolerate you; we both refrain from attacking one another; we live and let live. On the other hand, tolerance doesn’t deserve reward, either. As a social responsibility, it doesn’t change, lessen, or end; you never cease to be responsible for tolerating others. 

Regarding “teachable moments”: It is not the responsibility of members of marginalized groups to educate others about their group’s reality, history, or oppression. In situations like the current one, where someone has made bigoted statements against members of a particular group, members of that group have the right to be outraged and hurt without being forced into a false “teaching” position . . . " 

Wiscon Pics

It was amazing. Here are a few pics . . .

Here I am with Guest of Honor, Mary Anne Mohanraj. I first met Maryann over six years ago when we were both panelists at a South Asian women's lit fest. That was before she was a mom - still a powerhouse, but not yet a mom ;).

Haitian SFF writer, Ibi Zoboi, is sandwiched between me and Nora (N.K. Jemison). Apparently, "N" names are very popular among women of color - at least at Wiscon - Neesha, Nora, Nnedi, Nisi, Nalo . . .

Guest of Honor Nnedi Okorafor with Ibi and I after our lunch on day one of the con. I was both delighted and relieved to discover that Nnedi and I share similar (unpopular) views on Avatar, sheltering children from violence, and roles of creation versus destruction in the universe.

Here is my Wiscon roommate, Hiromi Goto, author of the incredible HALF WORLD. She is a brilliant mind, a warm and connected spirit, and a generous, creative soul. She is also a fellow Canadian, fellow child of mushroom farmers, and fellow fierce author of color.

Sheltering Children

This Friday, I head off to Wiscon for three panels. One of them is called "Should Children be Sheltered from Violence?" In a previous post, someone asked me what my views were on this subject. I started to respond to her, but soon realized I'd need to write an entire post. So here are a few quick thoughts . . .

I grew up in a home where no one was allowed to talk about sex . We all acted like it didn't actually exist. I couldn't even say the word b-o-y without someone interrogating me for a good month or two afterward. We (my brother and I) couldn't date, and we couldn't be seen in public with anyone of the opposite sex. And yet, no one ever considered sheltering us from the violence we watched on a regular basis on television. My parents let us watch everything - evening news, horror films, all kinds of violent and bloody epic battles on TV.

It got to the point where I started self-censoring the images I consumed because they would flash through my mind constantly, and I was in a perpetual state of anxiety. I was afraid to be alone in any room of the house, even the bathroom. To this day, I have to cover my eyes when the scary music comes on at movies. There have been numerous studies about the long-term effects of violent media images on children. Nancy Carlsson Paige has an entire site devoted to the subject, and makes some interesting points about the relationship between deregulation of the entertainment industry in the '80s, and increased marketing of violent films directly toward children.

I know "protecting children" is the official line of most censorship boards, but to me censoring is NOT the same as protecting. Censoring is about control. It is a blanket prohibition of all things related to the material considered offensive, rather than looking at the context of the material and the possible benefits of exposing young minds to said material. Sheltering/protecting, however, connotes providing guidelines, looking at material with young people and having thoughtful, honest dialogue during and/or afterward. "Sheltering" (I'm sure there's a better term), in my view, is more of a response to caring about the emotional and psychological health of young people - not wanting to control or contain them.

The censorship of books like Judy Blume's, Chris Crutcher's, J.K. Rowling's, Ellen Hopkins', and a whole list of others is more about the fear of the adults doing the censoring - not about what kids can handle. Reading those books never damaged me as a child, and children reading them today are not being subjected to long-term emotional or psychological damage caused by the content within their pages.

Then I think about the MIA video I blogged about earlier and how shaken up I was by it. It depicted brutal violence at its most graphic. I'm glad I saw it because it really is a remarkable statement about the fallacy of using violence to "end" violence, and the whole concept of profiling terrorists, but I couldn't eat for the rest of the day after I watched it. The images made their way into my dreams and I was jittery for days. And I would NEVER watch it again.

I don't think children should be kept away from what is real and what affects them in their daily lives. Things like cursing (there are words a hundred times more painful to hear than some curse words), poverty, racism, sexuality, gender issues, etc. are around us all the time and should be honestly discussed - not hidden, softened, or prettied up. Children aren't dumb and selectively blind. They see things, hear things, are highly sensitive witnesses. They want and deserve the truth. They need to understand and we, as the adults in their lives, are their primary source of information.

At the same time, witnessing acts of extreme violence and brutality can be traumatizing to adults, never mind young people. Within the context of a film or television show (or music video!), the viewer is expected to suspend his/her disbelief. Children do this far more readily than adults. When you suspend your disbelief, you immerse yourself in the narrative. You become part of the emerging story. And if that story is violent and scary, you actually LIVE it. You experience it fully. It's why we're on the edge of our seats and our hearts are in our throats as we read a book or watch a film.

Ultimately, I think we have to know what children are seeing and/or reading (especially since children tend to read "up" from their age/grade level), we have to be prepared to talk about it and answer the tough questions, and we have to be comfortable with the discomfort.

I have a lot more to add on this topic - particularly from the perspective of writers and artists who create work about (or that includes) violence, but I will save it for the panel at Wiscon. If you have thoughts you'd like to add, I'd love to read them.

I will do a post after the conference, too, so hopefully I can cover more of the discussion points then.

May Happenings

Okay, May is zooming by. Earlier this month, I was at the Hudson Children's Book Festival - which was great fun. I blogged about it here. Since I came back, I got romance novel number two (written under a pen name) on contract and am waiting for the edit letter from my lovely editor for that - should have it any day now. I have a manuscript on sub and am working on romance number three while waiting patiently :). BEA is in a couple weeks, and events at my kids' school are revving up as we start winding down the school year.

At the end of the month, I will be at Wiscon, [deep, movie-announcer voice] the leading feminist sci-fi convention [/deep, movie-announcer voice]. I'll be on three panels - Race Basics; What is Feminist Romance?; and Should Children Be Sheltered from Violence?. That last one I am moderating. So, if you are in or around Madison, WI, please send me an email! I'd love to meet you if my schedule permits.

Just checking in to say that I am in the thick of writing and revising. But the New England Association of Teachers of English (NEATE) conference was awesome. They passed a fantastic resolution on the No Child Left Behind act--you should all read it and forward to any teachers and/or educators you know. It's here, just scroll down to the pdf link.

In less than two weeks, I'm off to North Carolina for the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) conference. Very excited to meet those school librarians. It was school librarians who introduced me to the amazing novels of S.E. Hinton, Natalie Babbitt, Judy Blume, and the African tale of Tiki Tiki Tembo (which resonated with me on a most profound level--still can't really make sense of why except that it was a "fairy tale" I could relate to).

And in December, I will be signing at Books of Wonder in New York City. If you're in town, please come by and say hello! I'll bring candy, or something yummy--I promise.

Have a great week!

N~

English Teachers

I'll be in Rhode Island this weekend, giving a workshop at the NEATE (New England Association of Teachers of English) conference. I'm really excited about this one because English teachers have totally saved my life in the past. Twice, to be precise.

The first time was in grade ten. I was fifteen and my youngest brother was three. Guess who got to look after him most of the time while mommy and daddy worked? Lucky for me (everyone, really), I adored the little pudge. So, on top of zits, plummeting self-esteem, popularity angst, and a boyfriend that I would nowadays refer to as "quasi-potentially abusive", I had a child to take care of. Enter Ms. Cute Blonde English Teacher.

Ms. CBET took a keen interest in me and my writing. She introduced me to books that truly opened doors and windows, she read my work aloud in class (while I sunk down in my seat), and she exuded warmth and kindness. I looked forward to her class all week and as soon as I walked through the doors, she lit up with that smile. I think I got all my vitamin D from her.

Then, in grade twelve. Seventeen now, and things had gone steadily downhill. I was now looking after a five-year-old who came to depend on me like a second mother. The quasi-potentially abusive boyfriend had just gotten out of juvie and was becoming more of what he'd been going in (thank goodness for friends who smack you around and say, "he's a LOOOOOSER! Dump him. NOW."). And, to top it all off, I'd just dealt with a groping teen counselor (groped a friend, not me) and a teacher who'd yelled in my face that I was making up my nationality. Enter Ms. Less Blonde, But Slightly Butchy former-English-teacher-turned-guidance-counselor.

Ms. LBBSB was like a personal guardian angel. I credit her with turning me around and putting me on  a better path when things could have gone any which way. She read my (dismal) poetry, put it all together for me and said that it was what would become my first book (she was wrong about that, but isn't that sweet?). She took photographs of me in the school yard and said they'd be my author photos (wrong about that, too, but again--how sweet is that?). And she gave me the number for an excellent, ethical teen counselor (for aforementioned friend who was groped).

Then, after I finished my MFA (this is not part of the official two "why English teachers are awesome" stories--just a bonus), another cute, blonde English teacher enthusiastically championed my application to teach at a New York City college. I wouldn't have gotten the job if it weren't for her inexhaustible support.

I think teachers often don't realize how much of a difference they can make in the lives of teens and MFA graduates looking for jobs. In my ideal world, teachers and moms would be paid the kinds of salaries pop stars and athletes make, and only the best of the best would be given the honour to work with young minds and hearts.

I can't wait to meet these English teachers on Saturday and pay it forward, even if it's just a teeny little bit.