On Supporting Diversity

Photo credit: Thomas Hawk on Flickr

So as sometimes happens when something negative goes viral, bookish Twitter took action on Monday and responded to an anti-diversity rant that had gone up the night before with a powerful message—that we as a community support diverse narratives.

It began with an author asking people to raise their voices and support diversity and the marginalized in the process. The author later asked to become anonymous and people not connect them to the hashtag anymore, because the backlash against the positive hashtag that came out of it unfortunately brought loads of racists and hateful people into their mentions—another problem all on its own. The hashtag began as #IStandForDiversity, but later transitioned to #ISupportDiversity because the first hashtag was unintentional ableist, but important tweets were shared at both, so I'm going to share some here.

#ISupportDiversity because humanity's only way forward is in understanding each other, valuing each other, and listening.

— RebeccaCoffindaffer (@callmebecks) September 5, 2016

#IStandForDiversity because I don't want to *search* for diverse books. I want shelves to reflect the world we live in.

— Laura Silverman (@LJSilverman1) September 5, 2016

#IStandForDiversity because it shouldn't take someone 20+ years to find meaningful representation of themselves in a book.

— Tara Sim (@EachStarAWorld) September 5, 2016

But also, #IStandForDiversity so kids like me who grew up in small town bubbles have a chance to see there's other lives out there.

— Summer Heacock (@Fizzygrrl) September 5, 2016

#IStandforDiversity because without it we grow up believing there is no place for us in stories, on bookshelves, or in the world.

— Anna-Marie McLemore (@LaAnnaMarie) September 5, 2016

#IStandForDiversity bc everyone deserves books that encourage them to love themselves for who they are, & to empathize & love others.

— Beth Phelan (@beth_phelan) September 5, 2016

#IStandForDiversity bc marginalized adults shouldn’t have to say “I didn’t see myself in fiction until I was 20/30/40” or “I still haven’t.”

— Mark O'Brien (@mobrienbooks) September 5, 2016

#ISupportDiversity because mirrors are as important as windows and doors. Because books with authentic rep can save and change lives.

— Katherine Locke (@Bibliogato) September 5, 2016

#ISupportDiversity because every good thing in my life has come from embracing complexity & realizing the world is much bigger than just me.

— Mike Jung (@Mike_Jung) September 5, 2016

#ISupportDiversity because there are still SO MANY incredible voices & stories that deserve to be out in the world saving lives.

— Beth Phelan (@beth_phelan) September 5, 2016

PSA: Hashtagging and discourse are great and all, but the actual best way to advocate for diversity is to throw money at it

— =KRUEGER THINGS= (@NotLikeFreddy) September 5, 2016

YES. If readers don't buy/support already existing diverse books? Publishers less apt to contract more. https://t.co/3XSJ3sOBWN

— heidi r. kling✨ (@HeidiRKling) September 5, 2016

As Paul and Heidi said, one of the best ways to really support diverse books and marginalized authors is to buy books and request them at the library. So, of course, here are a couple book recommendation threads.

• Michael Waters on diverse YA releasing soon.
• Sam Taylor's diverse book rec thread.
• Sam's second diverse book rec thread.
• Julie C. Dao's list of POC kidlit authors debuting in 2017.
• My #ownvoices book rec thread from August 30th. 
• Marieke Nijkamp's thread full of diverse books giveaways ending on 9/9!
• Ashley Herring Blake's #ownvoices books giveaway ending on 9/13!

And, in conclusion:

Great way to support #OwnVoices books is to READ THEM. Talk about them. Review them. Buy them & request them from your library.

— Ashley Herring Blake (@ashleyhblake) September 6, 2016

So there you have it. Support with your voices, and more importantly with your bought and requested books. Because representation is so, so important and we're just getting started. 

Diverse Books Resource List

Photo credit: Yours truly

Being part of the online bookish community and very much supportive of the We Need Diverse Books movement, I've seen a lot of really amazing lists of diverse books for readers to easily find. It occurred to me, however, that most of these lists are pretty scattered all over the interwebs, and so it might be good to put a bunch of them together on the same page to make it easy for readers looking for all manner of diverse books to be able to go to one place. 

Thus the idea was born! And I started searching. 

While this is by no means an exhaustive list, I was able to find a pretty sizable amount of really awesome curated lists that bring attention to books with representation all across the board. I'll try to update this post as I see new lists, but this is what I have so far and I think it's a pretty decent start. :)

The whole list is organized alphabetically. Enjoy! 

Disability lists:

• BNTeen Blog's Great 2014 YAs Featuring Characters with Disabilities
• BookRiot's 3 On A YA Theme: Blind Characters
• BookRiot's 3 On A YA Theme: Characters With Disabilities
• BookRiot's 6 Novels Featuring Mental Illness for World Suicide Prevention Day
• BookRiot's Books That Understand Bipolar Better Than "Homeland"
• Disability in Kidlit's collection of themed book lists
• Eight Modern-Day Fantasy YA Novels with Disabled Protagonists
• Nine MG/YA Novels Featuring Protagonists with Hand or Arm Amputations
• Nine YA Novels with Protagonists Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
• Nine YA Science-Fiction Novels with Disabled Protagonists
• Seven MG/YA Novels Featuring Disabled Black Protagonists
• Six MG Books with Protagonist Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
• Six MG/YA Novels Featuring Protagonists with Albinism
• Six MG/YA Novels Featuring Protagonists with Depression
• Six YA Novels Featuring Queer Disabled Protagonists
• Seven Non-Contemporary Fantasy YA Novels with Disabled Protagonists
• Ten Historical MG/YA Novels with Disabled Protagonists
• Ten MG Novels with Protagonists Who Limp
• Ten MG/YA Novels with Disabled Protagonists of Asian/Pacific Islander Descent
• Ten YA Novels Featuring Disabled Women of Color as Protagonists
• Three MG/YA Novels Featuring Little People as Protagonists
• Three YA Novels Featuring Protagonists with Tourette's Syndrome
• Disability in Kidlit's Goodreads shelf
• My (short) YA with Chronic Illness rep list

Race, Ethnicity, & Religion-related lists:

• BNTeen Blog's 5 African Myth-Inspired Teen Books to Read Right Now
• BNTeen Blog's 6 Chanukah Gifts for Teens
• BNTeen Blog's 6 Compelling YA Examinations of Faith
• BNTeen Blog's Diverse In Verse: 7 Must-Reads for National Poetry Month
• BNTeen Blog's 7 YAs Based on Myths and Tales From Around the World
• BNTeen Blog's 8 Must-Read Diverse YA Fantasies
• BNTeen Blog's 8 New and Forthcoming YAs with African American Narrators
• BNTeen Blog's 8 YA Fantasies with Eastern Flair
• BNTeen Blog's Fifteen 2015 YAs with Narrations of Asian Descent
• BookRiot's 3 (+3) on a YA Theme: Compelling Female Protagonists Who Happen to be Muslim
• BookRiot's 3 On A YA Theme: Beautiful Black Faces On Covers
• BookRiot's 3 On A YA Theme: Diverse Takes On Romeo & Juliet
• BookRiot's 3 On A YA Theme: Girls of Color Who Dance
• BookRiot's 3 On A YA Theme: Recent Diverse Mysteries
• BookRiot's 3 On A YA Theme: YA Set in Africa
• BookRiot's Black History in YA Fiction: A Time Line
• BookRiot's Buy, Borrow, Bypass: Novels About Immigration
• BookRiot's Giving Voice to Black Youth in YA
• BookRiot's Oy Gevalt!: 32 Books for Jewish Book Month
• BookRiot's South Asian YA: 5 Titles to Read
• BuzzFeed's 34 Books By Indian Authors That Everyone Should Read
• BuzzFeed Books's 12 Amazing YA Books By Latino Authors You Wont Be Able To Put Down
• BuzzFeed Books's 13 Must Reads For The Black Feminist In Training
• BuzzFeed Books's 34 Young Adult Novels To Diversify Your Bookshelf*
• BuzzFeed Books's My 2015 Reading List Includes Nothing Written By White Men
• CBC's Goodreads shelf (categorized by race/ethnicity)
• Dahlia Adler's Books By and About People of Marginalized Races
• Disability in Kidlit's Seven MG/YA Novels Featuring Disabled Black Protagonists
• Disability in Kidlit's Ten MG/YA Novels with Disabled Protagonists of Asian/Pacific Islander Descent
• Disability in Kidlit's Ten YA Novels Featuring Disabled Women of Color as Protagonists
• Latin@s in Kidlit's Children's Lit A-K list
• Latin@s in Kidlit's Children's Lit L-Z list
• Latin@s in Kidlit's MG Lit list
• Latin@s in Kidlit's YA Lit A-M list
• Latin@s in Kidlit's YA Lit N-Z list
• Lee & Low's Diverse Dystopias Pinterest
• Rich in Color's Goodreads Diversity list (YA & MG)
• Rich in Color's resource list
• Stacked's Black Girls Matter: A YA Reading List
• Written in Wonder's Asian-Australian Kidlit*
• Written in Wonder's Indigenous Australian Kidlit*
• YA Interrobang's List of the Week: Black YA Leads
• YA Interrobang's List of the Week: Hispanic YA Leads
• YA Interrobang's List of the Week: Indian YA Leads
• YA Interrobang's List of the Week: Non-Christian Religious YA
• YA Interrobang's List of the Week: Ten Native American Protagonists

QUILTBAG+ lists:

• BNTeen Blog's 13 Under-the-Radar LGBTQ YA Must-Reads
• BNTeen Blog's 15 YAs Celebrating Bisexuality
• BNTeen Blog's A 2014 LGBTQI YA Preview
• BNTeen Blog's Honey Girl Author Lisa Freeman Shares Her LGBTQ Reading List
• BNTeen Blog's What To Read (and Watch) in Preparation for National Coming Out Day
• BookRiot's 10 Recent & Upcoming Queer Reads
• BookRiot's 3 (Ok, 7) on a YA Theme: Bisexuality in YA
• BookRiot's 3 On A YA Theme: Asexuality
• BookRiot's 3 On A YA Theme: Gender Fluid, Genderqueer, Gender Unspecified
• BookRiot's 3 On A YA Theme: Intersex Teens
• BookRiot's 3 On A YA Theme: Trans* Experiences and Identities
• BookRiot's Coming Out and Coming of Age: YA LGBTQ Books
• BookRiot's Genre Kryptonite: LGBT Young Adult Novels
• BookRiot's Highlights in Gay YA: Interracial Romance and Racial Diversity
• BookRiot's Lesbian & Queer Women Halloween Reads
• BuzzFeed LGBT's The New Genre of Trans Women's Memoirs: Lives Beyond Our Identities
• Dahlia Adler's LGBTQIAP+ Books By and About People Who Identify as LGBTQIAP+
• Dahlia Adler's QUILTBAG Compendium
• Disability in Kidlit's Six YA Novels Featuring Queer Disabled Protagonists
• Gay YA's LGBTQIA+ YA Masterlist
• Masterlist: Asexual/Aromantic (including demisexual/romantic/everything along the ace/aro spectrum)
• Masterlist: Bisexual/Pansexual/Polysexual
• Masterlist: Gay
• Masterlist: Intersex
• Masterlist: Lesbian
• Masterlist: Transgender (including nonbinary identities)
• New York Public Library's Telling the Stories of the Trans Community
• YA Interrobang's List of the Week: Bisexual YA Leads
• YA Interrobang's List of the Week: Genderqueer & Transgender YA Leads
• YA Interrobang's List of the Week: Ten Lesbian Protagonists
• YA Interrobang's Holiday Shopping Guide: The Best LGBTQIAP+ Titles
• YA Interrobang's List of the Week: Queer Historical YA
• YA Interrobang's List of the Week: Queer YA Fantasy/Sci-Fi

Lists that reach across categories:

• Alisha Rai's Romances We Can All Enjoy*
• BNTeen Blog's 15 YAs That Get It Right
• BNTeen Blog's 7 Diverse YA Horror Reads
• BNTeen Blog's 7 Great Works of Diverse Historical Fiction
• B&N Reads's 10 Children's Books That Celebrate Diversity
• BookRiot's 30 Diverse YA Titles To Get On Your Radar
• BuzzFeed LGBT's 15 Children's Books That Are Doing It Right
• BuzzFeed Life's 19 Unforgettable Children's Books That Celebrate Diversity
• Diversity in YA's collection of themed book lists
• We Need Diverse Books's Where to Find Diverse Books list

* = suggested from readers! Thanks, guys! :)

Where do you go to find diverse books?

Twitter-sized bite: 

Looking for places to find diverse books? @Ava_Jae puts together resources to find representation across the board. (Click to tweet)