#WeNeedDiverseBooks

Six Nods To #NoVoices

June 6, 2017

Admin Navel Gazing #CripLit, #NoVoices, #OwnVoices, #WeNeedDiverseBooks, Disability, Diversity, Exchange of Heart, Intellectual Disability, Munro vs. the Coyote, Neurodiversity, New YA Lit, Special Needs, YA, YA Lit Leave a comment

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#OwnVoices is an essential movement. If you don’t know about it, you should read this. Incontrovertibly, marginalized groups must be afforded every opportunity to tell/write/publish/sell their own stories. Privileged, able, cishet, white, middle-class, dude scribblers like me do not have to stay out of the imaginative lanes of these groups, but we must drive with extreme care. It bears repeating — #OwnVoices is an essential movement.

No less important are those groups with #NoVoices.

‘Exchange of Heart’ – The Stuck-in-an-Elevator Pitch

January 31, 2017

Admin News #WeNeedDiverseBooks, Assisted Living, Book Blurb, Coming Soon, Disability, Diversity, Exchange of Heart, Fair Go, Heart Problems, LoveOzYA, New Books, New YA Lit, Special Needs, Student Exchange, YA Leave a comment

Sometimes, Life takes on a life of its own…

Since the sudden death of his younger sister, Munro Maddux has been stuck. Flashbacks. Anger. Chest pains. And a voice – taunting, barking, biting – that his counsellor calls ‘the Coyote’. Munro knows a student exchange will not be the stuff of Disney movies. But in Australia he intends to move beyond his troubled past.

Forced by his new school to join a volunteer program, Munro discovers the Coyote is silenced in one place: Fair Go, an assisted living residence in Brisbane’s west, where Munro gets to know his team of residents: dogged designer Bernie; sleeping refugee Shah; would-be wedded couple Blake and Dale; comic creator Iggy; and self-defence tutor Florence. As this unlikely group shows Munro the sights, Munro’s notion of what it means to be a big brother begins to change.

But the burden Munro carries is not so easily cast aside, and unexpected developments at Fair Go prompt a devastating flashback that threatens to end the student exchange. Will the Coyote ultimately triumph? Or can Munro find the fortitude necessary to mend his heart?

‘Funny-sad, authentic and uplifting – Groth is a writer who can pivot from heartbreak to humour without missing a beat.’ Vikki Wakefield, author of All I Ever Wanted

Exchange of Heart will be published in AUS/NZ July 31, 2017. In CAN/US, the book will be released October 17, 2017 under the title Munro vs. the Coyote.

You can mark it as ‘to-read’ on Goodreads here and here.

‘Another’ Post About Book Diversity

May 15, 2014

Admin Arguwrite #WeNeedDiverseBooks, Another, Are You Seeing Me?, Authors, Autism, Autism Fiction, Autism Writing, BookCon, Books, Children's Books, Difference, Disability, Diverse Books, Diversity, Fiction, Kindling, New Work, Novels, Other, We Need Diverse Books, Writing, Writing Books, YA Lit, Young Adult Books 1 Comment

First, the good news:

The recent #WeNeedDiverseBooks Twitter coup was an admirable rebuff of the longstanding hegemonies in children’s and young adult fiction. It doesn’t look like a flash in the pan either, so that’s good too.

Now, the bad news:

The whole exercise has further illustrated – dare I say, reinforced – the pecking order of minorities in both the book debate and the wider society looking on.