- Lucy Pearson
Diverse Voices? Thinking about BAME Literature in the UK
UK children’s literature has a diversity problem. That was the conclusion of a recent report, Reflecting Realities by the Centre for Literary in Primary Education (CLPE), which found that only 4% of 9,115 children’s books published in the UK in 2017 featured a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) character, and only 1% a BAME main character (against 32% of children in English schools from minority ethnic origins). A report on the percentage of creators of colour by the charity Booktrust is pending; meanwhile, a study focusing on YA literature by Dr. Melanie Ramdarshan Bold showed that only eight percent of YA literature published in the UK between 2006 and 2016 was by authors of colour, and that this percentage is in decline.
These problems are a key concern for Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children's Books in the UK, which is dedicating to preserving and celebrating the UK's rich heritage of children's literature. Who gets included in our 'national' story, and how do we ensure that all voices are represented? Professor Karen Sands-O'Connor (Buffalo SUNY), who was working as a Leverhulme International Professor at Newcastle University's Children's Literature Unit (CLU), proposed that Seven Stories and the CLU should host a symposium to address these questions.
Diverse Voices? Curating a National History of Children's Books took place in November 2017. A key priority for all the partners was to ensure that this should be an 'own voices' event and so we tried to ensure that as many of the guests as possible were from BAME communities. As a result, the day highlighted the amazing talent which is so often overlooked. We heard from pioneering publishers such as Verna Wilkins, who spoke movingly about her desire to publish books which reflected her own family; writers of realistic fiction, poetry, historical fiction, and fantasy; and fantastic illustrators. We considered the role of prizes in a lively panel with Jake Hope, judge of the prestigious Carnegie and Greenaway medals and author Alex Wheatle, who fiercely criticised the Carnegie for its failure to include BAME authors on its longlist in 2017. Participants also had the opportunity to explore some material from the Seven Stories collection and reflect on the stories it might tell – and the stories it misses out. You can view video footage of the conversations from the day on the Diverse Voices? website.
One strong theme which emerged during the day was the importance of books written by and about the UK's BAME community. The need for books featuring characters of colour has often been met by importing stories from the USA, and though it's a pleasure to see books like Angie Thomas's amazing The Hate U Give on award shortlists in the UK, there is a strong need for books which reflect the UK's communities. For example, although Black Britons found much common cause with the Civil Rights movement in the USA, for example - indeed, the symposium took place as part of a year of events commemorating Newcastle University's award of an honorary degree to Dr. Martin Luther King - the history and culture of this community is very different to that of African Americans. Books about communities in other countries are enriching in their own right, but they are not mirrors for BAME children in the UK. Another issue, as many delegates pointed out, is that the UK has often found it more comfortable to pay attention to issues of race and racism in other countries, rather than considering how these issues play out at home.
There are many initiatives underway in the UK at present which aim to address some of these issues, and we hope that the Diverse Voices symposium will have a lasting legacy. Since November, all the partners have been continuing the work started there, and we have just released a short report on our ongoing projects. We're especially excited about the way the symposium helped us think about how to embed BAME voices into the story told by Seven Stories, and the opportunities to foster further scholarship in this area.
It was with that last aim in mind that Professor Sands-O'Connor proposed that the CHLA International panel for 2019 should focus on BAME literature in Britain. We're thrilled that one of the speakers from the Diverse Voices event, author Patrice Lawrence, will be joining the CHLA Conference in Indianapolis as distinguished speaker for the panel. If you're a scholar interested in this area, please consider submitting an abstract for the panel.
Do you want to know more about BAME British children's literature? For urban realism with a uniquely British voice, try Alex Wheatle's Crongton Knights series, which starts with Liccle Bit. Patrice Lawrence's Indigo Donut is a brilliant novel about crime, identity and family. Or travel back into the past with Catherine Johnson's The Curious Tale of the Lady Caraboo, which explores how what people expect to see can both oppress and liberate. Yu Rong’s beautiful illustrations for Rachel Bright’s Snowflake In My Pocket use traditional Chinese papercutting techniques to create a winter wonderland. There are many more great writers and illustrators - why not check out the work of some of the other speakers at the Diverse Voices event, or the list of 50 books to diversify your school library compiled by Professor Sands-O'Connor and educationalist Darren Chetty. For a more in-depth exploration of BAME representation in British literature past and present, see Karen and Darren’s series for Books for Keeps ‘Beyond the Secret Garden’. Happy reading!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lucy Pearson is a Lecturer in Children’s Literature at Newcastle University, where she collaborates closely with Seven Stories: the National Centre for Children’s Books. She specialises in children’s book history, especially publishing history, and has research interests in heritage and the archive. Her publications include The Making of Modern Children’s Literature in Britain: Publishing and Criticism in the 1960s and 1970s (2013), and an edited collection on Jacqueline Wilson (2015), the UK’s most prominent author of social realism for children, as well as chapters in The Routledge Companion to Children’s Literature (2010), The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain: 1914-2000 (2019) and Postwar: British Literature in Transition, 1940-60 (2019) and articles in International Research in Children’s Literature and Strenae. She is currently working on a history of the CILIP Carnegie Medal. Follow along with her observations on past winners here.