The exhaustion has set in. AND THERE’S still five days left.
I kinda want to give up on this posting-every-day business.
I may have binge watched Gossip Girl.
Anita Silvey spoke again, and she was amazing, again.
Swati Avasthi taught again, and she was brilliant, again.
Another person who spoke today was Dr. Sarah Park Dahlen. Her talk was titled “What’s wrong with Being Exotic? A Guide for Writing Culturally Diverse Literature.” Her talk, well, (to use a terrible clique), opened my eyes to the many issues in children’s literature concerning diversity. To be honest, I’m still digesting what she had to say. Her ideas are intelligent, thought-provoking, and honest. If you’re interested (and you should be if you’re an aspiring YA writer), go here.
Maybe the reason this post was the hardest to make myself write is because I’m sad. I’m sad that some narratives are never told, that some stories die.
The thing is, I want more stories. All THE stories. From every walk of life.
Story allows us to live a hundred of different lives. Story takes us places we could never go, let’s us meet people we’d never meet, see places we would never see, and understand things outside of our own experience. This is why story has power.
We should live in a world with no barriers where no matter who you are or where you come from, you get to tell your story.