CBC Diversity
Month
I grew up reading books by diverse authors and thinking about the characters who lived in them and the questions they raised. I went to a “good” college where we often discussed issues of race, culture, ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexuality. Yet here are a few of the things I wasn’t aware of when I started working as an editorial assistant in 2000:
Tell us about your most recent book and how you came to write it.
My most recent book is Minnie McClary Speaks Her Mind. Like most authors, I invest a lot of myself in my characters and I’ve had a lot to say apparently about things that aren’t right, that should be right. About how people should be treated regardless of ethnicity, gender, class, disability, sexual orientation, etc., etc. And I believe that children should be encouraged to think, not just fill in bubbles on state-mandated standardized tests. Miss Marx, Minnie’s teacher, is the kind of teacher I wish I had been when I taught middle-school years ago. She encourages the students to think, to question, and to write about the things that concern them. It takes courage, especially these days, to be the kind of teacher she is.
Do you think of yourself as a diverse author?
I hadn’t, I suppose because as a white woman I’m not considered “diverse”, but my beliefs certainly fall into that camp.
