“ For The Buffalo that could not dream, German photographer Felix von der Osten chronicles life on Montana’s the Fort Belknap Reservation, where since 1888, the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Native American tribes have raised their families and continued to foster a deeply-felt respect for the land. “
You know what, I have gotten my life limit of looking at pictures of natives that white people have taken. Hell, we still gotta deal with Curtis and his baggage he left. Also, the photographer was there for a month and suddenly can shoot photos with feeling that a Native couldn’t have done with an eye far more clear for having experienced it their whole life?
No, my friends and family, you want to see some amazing work, look into the book, “Shooting Back From the Reservation”, where Native children were given cameras to capture their lives and did so with grace and laughter and leave this German bozo alone.
All right, Fam, I got some pretty horrible hate mail for this opinion of mine so now I’m going to expand on my LOVE for “Shooting Back from the Reservation”, and why I dislike this German man’s photos of Natives.
If you have seen Edward Curtis photos (and who hasn’t?) these were taken in the same vein and tell about as much about Natives as Curtis’ did (which is not a lot).
Posed, un-smiling, dressed in regalia - heck, not one picture that this Felix guy took has anyone who is smiling! Not even the children! All posed and stern, with serious faces - this is not the full reality and isn’t the most important part of our communities! Even in the landscape pictures he conveyed isolation and emptiness when it’s not really like that. How can the land be empty when my grandpa taught me how to speak to it?
Shooting Back was made by Native children who were sharing and exploring different aspects of their LIVES. It shows how life really is within a Native community by young Native people. It’s not someone who showed up on a reservation for a month because his girlfriend had extended family there and took pictures. This is a glimpse of a moment out of their day and holds so many aspects of their life that you cannot view from an outsider’s pictures.
It shows you that there is no one way a Native is suppose to look,
It has chubby babies with big heads and intelligent eyes,
And shows that often our places are run down, and held together with more than a little duct tape, WITHOUT it being poverty porn,
It shows the love of rez dogs and rez cars,
And dads that make funny faces just because he likes to hear you laugh,
It shows a cemetery with too many graves,
And those medicine wheels that your aunt makes when you get a new to you car,
It shows kids playing, goofing around, and laughing!
And standing kinda awkwardly next to a white guy,
And elders that make silly faces too!
But my favorite part of this book is that in a society where our Native youth have some of the highest suicide rates, where they are silenced twofold because not only are they Native but they are also children and apparently that means that you’re not a full person yet, this book gives them a platform for their voice.
And I. I just really love this book. So if you want to see what Native life is, not just the poverty porn and the Edward Curtis wannabes, please check this book out. That is all.
Just bought the book, thanks for the rec!
OMG!!! So excited about that! Please let me know how you like it!
Fix is an engaging story about two disabled teenage girls trying to cope with internalised ableism, weird boys and overbearing mothers.
This was a visceral book for me to read. I tried reading it 12 months ago and had to put it down about 10 pages in because the way Mann writes about Eve, our leading lady, waking up from spinal surgery just triggered the bleep out of me. But I wanted to see how her story ended and I’ve found so few disabled authors writing about disability that I wanted to try the book again - this time skipping the triggery start.
And I got a really good reading experience. Mann writes about Eve’s fear and pair so starkly that it’s impossible to look away as she falls apart again and again. There was a nice element of mystery with her best friend, Lidia, who is present in the flashbacks written in verse but not in the present-day prose. And I liked the friendship Eve developed with Thomas.
An excellent read for fans of Far From You by Tess Sharpe and any disabled people wanting to feel seen - but do read with caution if medical trauma is a trigger for you.
Warnings: drug use and abuse, medical content and medical trauma.
Cee awoke on an abandoned island three years ago. With no idea of how she was marooned, she only has a rickety house, some basic survival skills, an old android, and a single memory: she has a sister, and she needs to find her.
STEM prodigy Kay wants to escape from the home she once trusted. The Metropolis is Earth’s last unpolluted place, meant to be a sanctuary for those committed to planetary protection. As Kay gets older, she realizes the Metropolis is populated by people willing to do anything for refuge. Now, she’ll have to decide if she’s ready to use science to help humanity, even though it failed the people who mattered most to her.
This sci-fi novel is perfect for fans of Marie Lu’s Legend series, and for fans of the Maze Runner books. Stick with it through the twists and turns for a really satisfying finish.
Ellie lives in a magical version of the USA populated by vampires, werepeople, fae, wizards and ghosts; whom she has the power to call back from the dead. When her beloved cousin dies in a mysterious accident, she finds herself caught up in a thrilling adventure to find the truth. However, she must do so without calling her cousin’s ghost back from the dead in order to honor her family and the ways of her people, the Lipan Apache.
A gripping tale of friendship, family, tradition and finding your own way.
With a name like Felix Love, you’d think romance was a big part of Felix’s life - but you’d be wrong. As a Black, queer, and transgender teen, he’s still trying to figure himself out - and finding love isn’t exactly easy. But that’s the least of his worries because this summer, he’s struggling - struggling with his visual art project at the prestigious art school he attends, with friendships beyond the safety of his best friend Ezra, and with his father, who loves him but doesn’t understand his decision to transition.
When a series of traumatizing transphobic acts against Felix occur, he decides he’s had enough. He concocts the perfect revenge plan - one that quickly backfires and brings about startling revelations about his friendships, his love life, and, most importantly, Felix himself.
Kacen Callender’s Felix Ever After is a beautiful, eye-opening story about love, friendship, and self-discovery. An Own Voices novel, check out this MCTBA nominee today!
In case you don’t know what the title references let’s talk about that. The Daiyuverse is the patreon based project I’ve been doing for the last couple of years.
TL:DR it is an ongoing novel/lla about a Black queer magical girl named Daiyu. It is urban fantasy that takes place in Seattle, down the west coast etc.
What I’m doing is wanting to show how the sausage is made. One of the…
I saw the movie Ma recently and (spoilers in link) and I have some thots. Buckle up. SPOILERS bro.
On the surface of it, Ma is a pretty okay movie. Good amount of suspense, interesting main antagonist but, by the time they started to “reveal” Ma’s backstory it was really too late. This was obviously not written by a Black person. I checked and sure enough, nope.
Okay my babes. Buckle in cause I’m about to go in on the homie Gabino Iglesias.
If you haven’t been with me for a while, Gabino is one of my favorite writers. I wrote a review on his book Zero Saints here. Open that in a new window and read it next.
SO lets GET INTO THIS. Coyote Songs* by Gabino Iglesias.
[image description: a book cover with a weathered but beautiful Virgin Mary, the title is in…
At one day past my due date, I am currently in either the best or the worst position to review Joanne Ramos’ thought-provoking page-turner The Farm.
At the moment, the slightly-too-plausible premise of farming out pregnancies via pricey surrogacy does not seem so bad. Having endured morning sickness occurring all times of day that does not cease after 1st trimester, exhaustion tantamount to being hit repeatedly by a bus, never-ending constipation and pains in places I didn’t know existed, might I hire someone to trade places? Tell me where to VENMO.
And yet, in a way, this isn’t even what The Farm is about. The bookstore employee suggested it was like The Handmaid’s Tale, perhaps in an effort to warn my obviously gestating self that it might not be the best time to read it. In fact, it is only really like The Handmaid’s Tale in that there are pregnant women at its center.
It’s also not about the price of motherhood, the high-achieving women who are penalized at work for having children, nor about the fact that the US is the only developed country without paid maternity leave. These topics could have doubled the size of the book - and I would have gladly read more.
WhatThe Farm is about is far more personal and insidious - a sort of collective history and culpability woven into the fabric of the American flag - Betsy Ross stitching in her trinity kitchen all the while going blind.
The story follows Jane, a young Fiipina mother, trying to survive in NY. Her cousin presents her with an opportunity: interview at Golden Oaks, a resort-style surrogate facility, where the wealthiest clients pay top dollar to outsource their pregnancies. The facility provides comprehensive nutrition, weekly prenatal massages, yoga, wellness tracking and …alpacas. There she meets Reagan and Lisa, two caucasian “hosts,” who pull her into their orbit. With the payouts for healthy babies so huge, each “host” has her own reasons for signing up for 10 (yes, look up how long pregnancy actually is) months of incarceration, so to speak.
In addition to a brilliantly-paced speculative fiction thriller, what starts to unfold is a social commentary about opportunity, access, immigration, and skin tone. And by the end of the novel, as Jane marvels at her own brave smart daughter, I start to wonder about the American Dream - who has been duped and who is benefitting from doing the duping. We expect it to pay its dividends in one lifetime. Come “your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” not well,…three generations down the road. And when my own great-grandmother emigrated, gnawed family photo in hand, I wonder if she ever thought about three - and any day now, four - generations down the line, and where her sea voyage would lead.
And perhaps it’s not that the American Dream is dead - perhaps we just always thought it was free. What if it’s always been pricey? And the questions are: how much are you willing to sell?Andhow much are you willing to pay?
Drop everything right now and get this book and a liter of Smart Water.
It is not surprising that Dry is an unblinking-eyes-glued to the page-terror-filled car-crash that you can’t look away from type of read. It does, after all, have Neal Shusterman at its helm. Co-written with his son, Jarrod Shusterman, I suppose is proof that genius may in fact be genetic.
You may remember Shusterman from earlier entries about the incredible and terrifyingly possible world of The Unwind Dystology. If you were a fan of that, you will surely be a fan of this. A little Michael Grant’s Gone Series paired with Emmy Laybourne’s Monument 14 world but wholly Shusterman in eloquence and verisimilitude to our world today.
Dry opens with a sputtering faucet, as the Morrow family tries to fill Kingston’s water bowl. The tap is dry. So begins the “Tap-Out,” a water crisis for all of Southern California. Seemingly not an unsurmountable event- well if it weren’t for all of SoCal becoming a dust bowl in recent years and the Frivolous Water Act draining all swimming pools, fountains and the like. Because people can survive for a time without transportation, electricity and adults - but every body needs water.
So embarks the tale of three misfits: the stalwart Alyssa, her younger brother Garrett and the survivalist creepy kid next door, Kelton. Three shortly turns into four and then five once a gifted street urchin and preppy spoiled business kid join the mix. This motley collection of characters proves that even the unlikeliest alliances can form during a catastrophe.
Shifting in narration amongst our rogue troupe while alternately periscoping outside into the unraveling martial law mob landscape compounds the growing tension in the narrative. We learn the sum of all the stories whereas each character only sees from one perspective, and in this case, maybe ignorance is bliss.
I almost started to reread this book as soon as I turned the final page. It was that good. It made me simultaneously want to stock up on perishables and take shorter showers. But this is the type of book-satisfying hydration that is not just skin deep. It is worthy of book-group discussions about mob mentality, about what lengths people will go to in order to survive, about conservation and climate change. But then, this at the core of all Shusterman novels: a serious question about humanity disguised as a YA page-turner.
We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) will no longer use the term #OwnVoices to refer to children’s literature or its authors and we have removed mentions of #OwnVoices from previously published blog posts. Moving forward, WNDB will use specific descriptions that authors use for themselves and their characters whenever possible (for example, “Korean American author,” or “autistic protagonist”).
#OwnVoices was created as a hashtag by author Corinne Duyvis in September 2015. It was originally intended as a shorthand book recommendation tool in a Twitter thread, for readers to recommend books by authors who openly shared the diverse identity of their main characters. The hashtag was never intended to be used in a broader capacity, but it has since expanded in its use to become a “catch all” marketing term by the publishing industry. Using #OwnVoices in this capacity raises issues due to the vagueness of the term, which has then been used to place diverse creators in uncomfortable and potentially unsafe situations. It is important to use the language that authors want to celebrate about themselves and their characters.
We Need Diverse Books believes in supporting diverse authors and their books, and we will continue to uplift their voices through our programming.
[Image description: Graphic featuring a tiled background of diverse book covers, the WNDB logo, and text that reads, “Why We Need Diverse Books Is No Longer Using the Term #OwnVoices.”]
I’m not even halfway through but I have decided I love this book a LOT. So experimental, so precise in the way it hurts and heals. Masterful writing by @yararodriguesfowler, you can’t tell this is a debut book. It’s out next week so make sure to treat yourself to this new kind of brilliance. You deserve it!
[Image: Three figures at night, caught in a searchlight shining from a destroyed cityscape. There are a child and adult holding hands, and a taller figure walking with arm crutches.]
Defying Doomsday Apocalypse-survival fiction with disabled and chronically ill protagonists
Hey all—Editor Diane here.
Look, with the world the way it is… I’ve given a lot of thought to various apocalypses, natural disasters (hellooo Cascadia subduction zone), and war. What would I do? What could I do? I’ve devoured all sorts of apocalypse and dystopian fiction, but I was still left asking, what does doomsday look like for sick and disabled folks? It feels lonely when nobody seems to be talking about it.
This book really filled a need for me. There are very few disabled folks in science fiction (let alone well-developed and represented ones), and to see a character like us is powerful. Even more powerful is to actually see scenarios played out—see the ways disabled folks survive, help, or even die in the apocalypse, just like able-bodied folks see anytime they pick up a dystopian fiction novel. It’s a form of recognition. It’s a form of processing. And it’s a real source of validation.
The stories in this anthology are really fantastic, with an extremely wide range of disability and chronic illness. They don’t all have happy endings (in fact, some of the are really gritty), but they do explore what the apocalypse means to us.
[Image: A digital painting of a person with long hair, cute headband, and utility shoulder belt seated in a futuristic-looking wheelchair and holding a small potted plant. They look at butterflies and plants nearby. Behind them is the grown-over ruins of a city.]
Hey folks, Twelfth Planet Press is at it again! Say hello to Rebuilding Tomorrow, a POST-apocalyptic companion to Defying Doomsday.
They’re currently crowdfunding to make this wonderful idea a reality, so please do help if you can! The eBook version is quite affordable, at ~$7 USD (prices on site are AUD), and although the crowdfunding site Pozible may not be familiar to you, we can confirm that signup and payment is super easy.
Congratulations to Vivian Pham on the release of The Coconut Children! A moving #ownvoices debut by a young Vietnamese-Australian author co-host Wendy #weneeddiversebooks #diversity #ownvoices #asianlit https://www.instagram.com/p/B9YluTngBMq/?igshid=u91oxlonqn9i
Co-host Wendy recently spotted these MG/YA #Asianlit books at Kinokuniya in Shinjuku, Tokyo!✨ • #AThousandBeginningsandEndings, edited by @elloecho @elsiechapman • #LalanioftheDistantSea by @erinentrada • #SouloftheSword by @juliekagawaauthor • #TheBeastPlayer by #NahokoUehashi • #KiraKira by #CynthiaKadohata • #PieintheSky by @rrremylai
Head to our blog today for co-host Wendy’s review of All Who Live on Islands, a thoughtful and moving essay collection by Rose Lu @plainricedinner. Link in bio.
here are some books by trans authors I’ve loved and some coming in 2021 that I cannot WAIT for (covers edited in! I don’t have copies!!)
Also I’ve made some graphics of more trans authors’ books coming in 2021. The way they are so beautiful and I want to read them all feel free to share!! It’s trans week and these authors deserve love and hype for their stories. Not just now, but always.
Emma and Saje in Purples⭐️ • I’ve been thinking about these characters since 2015. I’ve tried literally five times to write their story, sometimes just 50 pages, sometimes whole books that I tossed and started from scratch. ✨ I just finished another draft of another manuscript with their names written in it, and it’s my favorite yet. It’s not perfect, but it’s mine. I wouldn’t have gotten there without the five other tries and countless hours of editing and deleting. ✨ What I’m saying is, keep going. If you love it, keep going. Maybe someday you’ll be happy you did #oc #sweetrock #thewitchesofsweetrock #swru #queerwriters #queerartist #writer #writersofinstagram #artistsofinstagram #witches #forager #bestfriends #fantasy #urbanfantasy #lowfantasy #manuscript #amwriting #amediting #queerwitches #ownvoices #asexual #bisexual #queer #strongfemalecharacters (at Lebanon County, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/CRJ7_v_nLg-/?utm_medium=tumblr
Kalp is a widower, burdened with an unimaginable grief, who escaped his dying world with nothing but his own life and a half-finished toy for a child that will now never be born.
Gwen is a language expert covertly recruited for a United Nations initiative to integrate a ship-full of alien refugees into life on earth. She becomes Kalp’s teammate and lifeline.
Basil is the engineer who lives with, and loves them, both. But he has no idea how to defend his new relationship against the ire and condemnation of a violently intolerant world.
Part "District 9", part "Lost in Translation", and part "Stranger in a Strange Land", TRIPTYCH is a poignant, character-driven science-fiction story about tolerance, love, loss, and the desperate attempt to find connection in a world that no longer makes sense.
Named one of the best books of 2011 by Publishers Weekly (@pwpics).
Kalp is a widower, burdened with an unimaginable grief, who escaped his dying world with nothing but his own life and a half-finished toy for a child that will now never be born.
Gwen is a language expert covertly recruited for a United Nations initiative to integrate a ship-full of alien refugees into life on earth. She becomes Kalp’s teammate and lifeline.
Basil is the engineer who lives with, and loves them, both. But he has no idea how to defend his new relationship against the ire and condemnation of a violently intolerant world.
Part "District 9", part "Lost in Translation", and part "Stranger in a Strange Land", TRIPTYCH is a poignant, character-driven science-fiction story about tolerance, love, loss, and the desperate attempt to find connection in a world that no longer makes sense.
Named one of the best books of 2011 by Publishers Weekly (@pwpics).
Forgot to post this photo from my visit to Portland last weekend. The giant @powellsbooks downtown has an #ownvoices endcap in the YA section! I spy many friends plus ASH on the bottom row. That book just keeps going! #bookstore #shelfie (at Powell’s City of Books)
Hey pals! This week the first book I ever helped illustrate came out in the U.K., & on 18th March we’re having an online book launch for it! LINK IN BIO it’d be great to see you there! ‘Just Like Me’ is written by Louise Gooding @onceuponalouise & illustrated by me, @melissaiwai1 @angelchangart @caterinadellicarri & published by @studiobooks (with the frankly amazing @thegingerbread_lady )& it’s about a series of neurodivergent & disabled people who’ve done amazing things! Here’s my illio of #FridaKahlo made for the book ILYSM thanks for being here for me lately, friends. I appreciate your company & your energy so so much ☔️ . . . . #ownvoices #weneeddiversebooks #diversityandinclusion #kidlit #kidsbooks #frida #neurodiversity #neurodiverse #autisticillustrator #queerartist #queerillustrators #nonbinaryillustrator #transillustrator https://www.instagram.com/p/CMh9-j9nJHe/?igshid=1o6ak9voo354z
