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If you follow me on Twitter, you already know that I’m a big proponent of diversity. I’m part of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks executive team, I’m the co-founder of CAKE Literary – a book packaging company specifically focused on high concept diverse reads – and I sometimes weep on panels (yes, more than once) when talking about the fact that my little brown daughter, 6, can still barely find herself in books, some 30 years after I was a little brown girl looking for myself in books.
So when I read the CCBC survey stats, I was floored. Of the 112 books about Asian characters published in 2014, for example, only about a third were by Asian writers. And there were 81 books by Asian American writers that had no Asian-related content whatsoever. (Those numbers held fairly stable for 2015 as well.) Translation? People are writing Asian stories – but mostly not Asian writers. And Asian writers are publishing. But not Asian stories.
It took me a while to wrap my head around exactly why. But then I realized that I very much could use myself as a case study to unravel the findings.
After all, my first two published books Tiny Pretty Things and Shiny Broken Pieces (both co-written with Dhonielle Clayton) feature Asian characters – but they’re not South Asian characters, which is what would qualify them as #ownvoices in my particular experience.
And one of the questions I get most frequently as an author asks why I didn’t put an Indian character into my first two books.
The reason? It wouldn’t ring true. I know, I know. It’s fiction. But the world of the Tiny Pretty Things series is based on pre-professional ballet, and it’s a world Dhonielle witnessed firsthand while teaching at a cutthroat DC ballet conservatory. One where there were hardly any black girls, let alone Indian kids. But there were a lot of East Asian kids, particularly Korean and Chinese. We wanted our books to be as authentic as they could be to that world. A South Asian kid wouldn’t fit, wouldn’t serve the story. And so, that’s the decision we made.
Which is not to say that there’s none of me in that book. In fact, I’d say each of the three protagonists has pieces of me in her. But most especially June, the half-Korean girl, who struggles mightily with issues of identity. She frequently feels misplaced and displaced, neither here nor there, knowing no community is quite willing to claim her. I’m not biracial, but I am a knee-high generation kid, who grew up in the thick of central Jersey, not Indian in India and not American in America. Like June, I faced racism and colorism, grappled with identity and belonging. I relate to her a lot.
But like my kid (and the kid I was), I’m still looking for a glimpse of myself in the pages of a book. There have been books that have come close, but I’m realizing that maybe it really is up to me to make that happen.
So I’m working on them. Stories where the little Indian girl from Central Jersey gets to be the hero, gets to hate mushrooms and save the day (or the planet), and yes, kiss a boy (or girl) or two. And on my writing journey, I can happily say, I’ve found other Asian American writers, ones like me but also not, ones who were searching and have found, too, that they need to raise their voices. There are so many of us now, and we contain multitudes. Our stories will be told.
Sona Charaipotra is a journalist and author who’s written for everyone from the New York Times to Teen Vogue. The co-founder of CAKE Literary, a boutique book packaging company with a decidedly diverse bent, she’s also the co-author of the dance drama TINY PRETTY THINGS and its sequel SHINY BROKEN PIECES. She’s proud to serve as VP of content for #WeNeedDiverseBooks. Find her on the web at SonaCharaipotra.com, or on Twitter @sona_c
Shiny Broken Pieces is available for purchase.
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