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We beg for scraps from a table we're not invited to sit at. The problem is and has always been the exclusion of writers of color and other marginalized writers who have to push aside their own work and fight for inclusion, over and over and over again. It is thoroughly immersive, finely detailed and the action has me breathless. I am currently reading Don Winslow's The Cartel and I never want to put the book down. We don't want to take anything away from the writers who have been included on the list. What's more, these lists put writers and readers of color in a deeply awkward position. Discussing diversity in publishing is the worst kind of Groundhog Day. Narrow reading is a less passive activity than some will claim.Īs a writer and critic, I am not just bored with this conversation. The arts, entertainment, and books desks at every major publication and outlet are flooded with them, and an entire ecosystem of critics, producers, and editors is involved in compiling and signing off on these lists.
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And I assure you, I'm not the only one getting these galleys. Had I been home with the collection of galleys I've recently received, the list would have been twice as long and composed in half that time.
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I put together the above list of books in five minutes in a hotel room. This isn't a logistical issue, a problem of critics not including diverse authors because they simply don't know about them. The message we get is, "We don't see you. If these sites truly want - and, increasingly, need - readers of all colors and all backgrounds to tune in, monochromatic content is working against them. Big, national, general interest news brands like NPR and the NYT say they are. But those sites make it clear that they're not trying to talk to everyone. The Root publishes reading lists of all, or mostly, African-American writers. It's one thing if a media brand deliberately targets segmented audiences. No list can be comprehensive, but when we see alabaster roundups year after year, it warrants some scrutiny.
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"As a writer and critic, I am not just bored with this conversation. "While our selection reflects the summer releases offered by book publishers, we will be more alert to diversity among authors in the future," says communications director Danielle Rhodes Ha. In a response emailed to NPR, the New York Times also stressed that their list was not meant to be comprehensive. "We are not implying that this list is comprehensive," says Cara Tallo, senior supervising producer for Morning Edition, which ran a story featuring that list. NPR also published a monochromatic reading list recently. It is worth noting that the Times's recommended summer readings lists in 2012, 2013, and 2014 were similarly lacking in diversity. Gawker's Jason Parham marveled that the list has achieved " peak caucasity" while Divya Guha and staff at Quartz offered an alternate reading list comprised of Indian writers.Īnd that's what's so frustrating about this list this summer brings so many excellent books from writers of color, many of whom are very well known and have enthusiastic audiences - Balm by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Loving Day by Mat Johnson, In the Country by Mia Alvar, Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capó Crucet, The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson, Only the Strong by Jabari Asim, Lovers on All Saint's Day by Juan Gabriel Vasquez, Re: Jane by Patricia Park, Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh, and others - that it requires magical thinking to avoid an uncharitable reading of the NYT's picks. This year's New York Times summer reading list, compiled annually by Times literary critic Janet Maslin, offered up zero books by non-white authors. Another day, another all-white list of recommended reading.