Own Voices and the Authentic Voices of the Caribbean

 

Down sizing and clearing shelves of books, one entirely of children’s and YA literature; in a digital world not many people or even libraries want them. What then will happen to our voices for our children? I once did a presentation at an ASCD conference in the USA entitled, Our Authentic Voices Call Out To Us: Do we listen? I presented a local version  Authentic Voices: The Case for Caribbean Children’s Literature in Teachers’ Colleges in Jamaica. In both, I referred to writers like Merle Hodge (Crick Crack Monkey), Olive Senior, Lorna Goodison, and research papers which highlighted the significance of  authentic voices in the material for our children and young people. 

Suddenly, it seems, America has identified Own Voices, and the Black Lives Matter movement has led to the ‘discovery of minority (African American) writers and children’s books.’ Then, since the prejudice against Asians has been uncovered, Asians are beginning to be included. We cannot but be pleased. Inclusion is essential, we know. 

The term Own Voices has been around for a few years, from 2015, it seems. If I’m wrong about this please write me or post a reply on my blog and I’ll acknowledge it.  It seems the  term ‘own voices’ was brought  back into focus because someone had written a book, to great acclaim, about Hispanics, and then was criticized as not giving an accurate portrayal of the particular group by a member of that group. I am being deliberately vague because I do not wish to rake up a discussion, which must have been painful for the writer and the critic

One publishing house has this to say about the concept:https://bluecrowpublishing.com/2018/03/30/what-does-ownvoices-mean/. “Own voices means that if you are writing a main character who is part of a  marginalized group, you are part of that marginalized group.   . . . .. If you are writing about an American Indian main character, you are American Indian. If you are writing about a disabled main character, you are disabled.” (This last point seems somewhat  counterproductive. You may not be disabled but be close to someone who is.)

 The quote continues: “Those books that are # Own Voices have an added richness to them precisely because the author shares an identity with the character. The author has the deepest possible understanding of the intricacies, the joys, the difficulties, the pride, the frustration, and every other possible facet of that particular life — because the author has actually lived it.”

I think this must be especially important with  books for Native American or First Nation children. Who else could ever tell their stories? I gather also that an African American had quite rightly pointed  out that he did not think 'others' should  be trying to write about the African American experience. However having made this point, he set a story in a country he had never visited and was called out on that.

So that leads us to another point of view: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/04/228847/...
“Taken to its logical conclusion, this approach to storytelling will set strict and claustrophobic limits on imagination, confining authors according to an ever-narrowing concept of which identities, settings, or narratives are their own."

 What has this to do with us here in the Caribbean? Certainly, we have been telling our own stories from we started to write children’s literature. We recognized the need for our children to see themselves in books, to validate their lived experience, especially  in  our post colonial territories,  socialized by British stories fist,  followed by their American counterparts. While adult literature blossomed early it took some time for us to get to this stage where we see increasing awareness and acceptance of children’s and YA literature of our own, where perhaps we could say that we now have a third generation of authors and publishers.

Moreover we, as a multicultural, multiethnic region, seem to have worked out who can tell what stories. The challenge we face is not lack of representation of all our people in books;  we have built up  a trust amongst ourselves; we are sensitive enough not to write about what we don’t know. I can write about Indian children ( almost half of the population in Trinidad and Tobago and in Guyana) but the stories I have written are generalized, things that could occur among any group going to school, for example, Twins in  a Spin. Interesting though, there are twins in my family. This story is true to a twin experience that we in our family  had wondered about. So it is still ‘write what you know’. However, I would never write a coming of age book for an ethnicity  to which I do not belong, without consultation/a reader who represents this group. There is a connection, therefore,  to the concept of own voices and our authentic voices and validation of our lived experience.

This brings me to the importance of the Burt Caribbean Awards  for Young Adult stories, and regretfully its absence from our young adult coming of age lived experience. That will be for another blog.

 

 

Memories and Ancestors: to spark creativity

 

At last I'm writing a blog. I've been aching to do it. I have not written one in ages, even wondering if there is any point. But perhaps one needs to believe that there is a purpose. Maybe this is one of the characteristics of faith.  In the time that I've not written, so many, many things have happened in the world that would cause us to lose some aspect of faith.  And yet if we give in, then it will truly be all over. And in spite of lockdown, with all that time to write, many of us have not written. I think we are just overwhelmed. If you have written please tell us your secret.

I hope you can find this blog. Between my old blog address and the computer being determined to give me a new blog location, I'm not sure what will happen One of the things that technology does to you whether you want it or not. Yes, you can ask for help, but they are all robots so there is no recourse.

The posting below is just to remind us that we missed Calabash this year. It's clearly a long time since I've been but this post helps me, and hopefully you, to recall the joy of being with other creatives.

 

Memories of Calabash, 2014

 Calabash was, as usual, a feast of emotions. You come away from Calabash full of writing and determined to write, even if you don’t. But yes, I have, in spite of my Capricorn spirit which insists that 'work' should be completed before everything else. 

The last time we had Calabash and I did my blog on it, I focused on things said that I thought could be applicable to children’s literature. This time I think I’ll just share what moved me, what contributed to that gorgeous feeling of fullness to overflowing.

 Because I so admire the craft of writing and writers, just being in their presence can make me joyous. (Yes, I know I’m one too, but I don’t seem quite mysterious enough to myself). So to hear and see Mervyn Morris (our poet laureate then) and Velma Pollard, although I know them personally, is still a delight for me. Hearing Zaidie Smith -  a feast of words. I love the voice in her work, the voice in her voice.

 In the following, if anything is a direct quote, it would purely be by chance. Consider everything reported speech, and anything not quite right is my fault, and not that of the writer to whom the comment is ascribed.

 Karen Lord from Barbados pointed out that ‘choices lead to change and opportunity, and are the cutting edge of chaos, but even chaos cannot overcome choices’.  Fascinating! I’m still thinking that through. It’s as if this should after all be quite obvious, and yet there are depths still to be fully understood - implications. (  September 2020 comment: I have to look at that again, investigate it; turn it this way and that, especially at this time of chaos. There is a story here.) 

The interview with Salman Rushdie was a surprise for me. I had no idea that he had as many interests outside of what we might consider writers are interested in – whatever that might be. Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley, a part of his past, his youth, like ours, others all over the world. I liked his statement ‘that fiction is a journey to the truth’, I liked that in his writing he has tried ‘to look at where private lives intersect with history’, my favourite type of story, ‘man is a story telling animal;  helping us to understand what sort of creatures we are’, with reference to Toni Morrison, ‘magical realism is another way of telling the truth’. 

What is it about Calabash? It is in itself magical; the venue combined with the auras of the people; no, I don’t think  it’s the camaraderie, although that is certainly there. It’s a quietness, a resting, even with the music drumming and throbbing, it’s quiet and restful (perhaps the genetic memories of the ancestors). The sea, the breezes? Ah the sea! Perhaps that is it. Just writing about it brings back the desire to write, to create.

 

From a 2019 post:  I heard both Olive Senior and Lorna Goodison, at Talking Trees, 2019. Two of my favourite authors at the same literary Festival. My cup overflowed.

 Ann Margaret Lim was also there: a powerful performance: I was fascinated by her reference to her Chinese grandparent(s). We are indeed  an island of Out of Many, One People, in spite of some wanting to change our motto.  I would say to those who want to change the motto: Never judge others. You do not know what is in their hearts, what they hold dear. Do not attempt to erase other people’s ancestors. They are not yours to erase. For myself: All the people who went up into the making of me, I value; I celebrate the me that has survived throughout history. You know I feel strongly about this, don't you? I can be quite a little warrior. And now I have a beautiful new granddaughter (one year +) and she is part Chinese, and I am in love with her. Don't ever fool with me guys when it comes to our motto and who it represents. Sorry, clearly  I've been under lockdown too long.

 

Photo: Velma Pollard, Ann Margaret Lim, Raymond Mair at Bookophilia

(Change of font size in body text one of the mysteries of technology)

 

 

 

On Considering Inspiration and Creativity

 This is the remains of a blog written in April 2017. What happened? Why haven’t I written a blog since 2017?

I thought about  writing on my blog, but have been quite successful in ignoring the thought. Why I wonder? It might be the state of the world, the state of our own little  worlds. Did I know that my husband would become ill in that year, which in a way would turn our lives upside down? (Note to self: Don’t be dramatic,  DB!) Did I know that one of my very best friends would get ill about the same time as he did, and  die a year and a bit later? (Did not expect it!).  Yahoo has simply changed the design and colours of my mailbox – just so! I would naturally call her to talk about the high handed approach of technology and ask her how to change it back. She always knew those things.

And yet I’ve not been short of inspiration nor neglectful of my writing. So we must presume that  inspiration has had its effect on creativity.

So what inspired me then and kept me writing while ignoring my main contact with people - my blog?

There was a reading at Bookophilia of Derek Walcott’s poems by Raymond Mair, Velma Pollard and Ann Margaret Lim (see photo above).  Raymond I’ve known since I was 16: image of him reading  poems at the foot of the hill where his cousin, my friend, lived, Tarrant Gully in the background. He was mature to our young years and we were very impressed. Velma I have had the privilege of getting to know later in life. This was the first time I was hearing Ann Margaret Lim although I’d heard her name many times before.  I was inspired by the reverence and respect for this giant of a man by others skilled in their craft.

Then there was the investiture of Lorna Goodison as the new Jamaican Poet Laureate.  In the future if anybody ever researches me (what a thought- will anybody be reading anything that extends beyond 140 characters?) they may find a picture of a bunch of us captioned, ‘St. Hugh’s Old Girls’, with me in it. This is how people make mistakes about history. I was sitting among St. Hugh’s Old Girls (Lorna’s alma mater) but I went to St. Andrew. Inspiration taken from this:  the sound of Lorna’s voice reading her poetry, her brilliant choice of an outfit which was like a floral effect of a Joseph’s coat of many colours. One can be inspired by objects, colours, sensations.

Then there was Talking Trees Literary Fiesta on May 27. Amongst the authors,  brilliant young writer Roland Watson-Grant,   and featuring  Lorna Goodison, Olive Senior and Ann Margaret Lim.  I heard again the Lorna Goodison poem,  A Forgiveness  but this time it fell on fallow ground and I  took it to heart. And perhaps that is why one morning in 2019, I could, to my total surprise, discover that I had forgiven the main characters on my journey, just like that. I had been praying about it, but  my mother's family is not a forgiving one. Malice is their middle name and I am descended from them.

I was fascinated by Ann Margaret Lim’s reference to her Chinese grandparent(s). We are indeed  an island of Out of Many, One People, in spite of some wanting to change our motto.  I would say to those who want to change the motto: Never judge others. You do not know what is in their hearts, what they hold dear. Do not attempt to erase other people’s ancestors. They are not yours to erase. For myself: All the people who went up into the making of me, I value; I celebrate the me that has survived throughout history.

Then in the late evening Olive Senior  made me feel quite wonderful as she told me that she really liked my children’s book Abigail’s Glorious Hair. So I came away celebrating others  and feeling very creative.

And though I did not go home and write a story in a weekend (first draft), as I did last time I was at Talking Trees, I have been writing.

·         Finished a YA novel I’ve been writing for about 2 years and put it on Amazon. My editor said she could barely put it down.

·         Submitted two adult/YA short stories to competitions. No, I did not win anything, but I enjoyed writing them. One is a romance in an altered state.

·         Started another YA novel. Love it! Have no idea where it is going or why. Waiting for the characters to tell me as I would like very much to read it.

·         Writing two YA short stories: one about divorce, and the other about identity in a dystopian setting (see the effect of inspiration above) I can finish both now, but don’t know what to do with them once I've done that.

·         Finished two short stories for 12 and under; sold one, it was a commission – no big money at all. The other, I think that project has fallen through, victim to the violence we strew. Not a word from the people. Oh well!  Do we know books can be big healers?

Inspiring creativity!
 

Despatches: The Great Amazon Expedition! Children’s Publishing in the Caribbean, a Cottage or Boutique Industry

 I cannot believe that my last post was last year.

That was when I was going to do a dramatic push with my two latest books on Amazon, The Happiness Dress, the story that won the Special Prize for a children's story from  the Commonwealth Foundation in 2011, and Abigail’s Glorious Hair. Picture an expedition into the somewhat unknown.

That did not turn out as well as I had anticipated. First, there was a new app offered by Amazon, Kindle Kid’s Book Creator, which was brilliantly simple to use. Even I could use it, and proceeded to do so. Both books looked fine right up to and including the review of the book. However, once they were up on Amazon, the type was not as clear as I wanted. My friend, Hazel Campbell, who usually uploads my books, had to rescue one by putting it into Word first, which required rearranging of the layout.  I was greatly disappointed in my efforts. I gather that other people have been complaining about this aspect of the app. We know that this won’t matter to Amazon until they have worked through this kink, somewhat like an experiment. In my opinion, nobody in technology  cares about these complaints really. They just continue working to build a better mouse trap. So in my annoyance and disappointment, I did not promote the books much, and consequently got little sales. So Amazon and I fell out, unbeknownst to Amazon. Whose nose was cut off, eh! I suspect that my failure to do regular posts on my blog had something to do with this. Cut off your nose once; cut off your nose twice.

 However, I still believe that it is near to impossible to get the traffic to and interest in the Caribbean children’s books on Amazon. And self promotion continues to be a challenge for me. Nobody is to blame. As they say now, ‘It is what it is’.  So I set out armed essentially with my imagination of what could be. And now the great Amazon expedition is over. I’ll still upload books; it is a place to locate them. I suppose I will still promote them now and then.

 I was, therefore, convinced that I needed to produce print copies of these books. They deserved it. With a monetary gift from a relative, I have been able to do so. They are now printed and are lovely. I plan to launch them early in May, Child Month. However, without that gift I could not have done so. Even then, I could only afford to print 500 copies of each. This means that the unit cost is high. The market cannot bear more than a certain selling price. Consequently, I will not even make enough money to recover costs and do another print run. In other words, my expectation is to be able to cover costs. Without the monetary gift  . . .etc. 'It is what it is'.  And of course, I still have to promote and sell them. I think it  should be much easier than dealing with cyberspace. I’ve done it before . . . albeit some time ago. Let's hope it’s not another expedition of the imagination.

The finances explained above lead me to conclude that nothing has significantly changed in the production of children’s books in the last 30 years. Sorry! No! Something has changed; there are far more writers in the field, which is a very good thing, and many of them are doing self publishing. And there are some young publishers, one in particular, who has published a number of prizewinning books. In fact, there is quite a bit of activity in other Caribbean islands. So there has been progress and there is excellence. Generally speaking, however, publishing of children’s books will continue to be for the love of and passion for it, a cottage or boutique industry. Prove me wrong! Please prove me wrong!

 

No, I’m not disillusioned. Writing for children  is a passion. Passions have to be pursued. And that the next generation is carrying on this passion is truly wonderful.

Kingston Book Festival also speaks to the vibrancy of the literary scene. From the opening readings  on March 6 at the University of the West Indies, which featured Olive Senior reading from The Pain Tree, which has gone on to win the Bocas Award for Fiction, award winning poet, Vladimir Lucien, from St. Lucia, previous YA Burt Award winning writer, A-dZiko Simba Gegele, Mel Cooke, poet and Tanya Shirley, poet,  to the final Bookfair on Saturday. I read from my latest children's books at the National Library of Jamaica Open Day and the Bookfair turned up the most delightful group. They are called Kozy Korner. They have a great idea, a Kozy Box. They  will produce and deliver a gift box of books, accent on local books, with a few international items  to a very lucky child that you know. Fantastic! How innovative! Each generation brings something new to the table. I wish them every success. You can email them at: KOZYKORNERBOOKSJA@GMAIL.COM. I think they will need corporate sponsors as well as the general public.