Today's Inkpot post is from Claire Rudolf Murphy*, an amazing author and MFAC professor at Hamline University. Diversity is a big topic, and one Claire explores through the examination of two Alaskan novels, My Name is Not Easy and The Smell of Other People's Houses.
Hello, Inkpot Readers. My awareness of the
need for more diversity in children’s books has been deepened by our work in
the Hamline MFAC program. As we read more widely and I reflect on my own work
and respond to student work, my understanding has grown, but also a realization
about how complex it is to get it right. Diversity comes in many forms - along
with race and culture, it includes religion, social and economic levels and
setting. Regardless, we must do our best to avoid stereotypes. A nonfiction
writer can only write what actually happened, so the diversity comes by doing far-reaching
research on one’s subject in all its complexities.
A novelist has many choices when developing a
cast of characters. I learned a great deal about culture during my 24 years in
Alaska, but in my first novel I failed the stereotype test. To the Summit features white climbers on
an expedition up Denali (Mount McKinley.) I wanted to include a Native Alaskan
character, so I developed a Yup’ik guide named Gabe based on my experiences
teaching in a Yup’ik Eskimo village for three years. I got help and worked hard
to get the cultural details right, but looking back I realize how unlikely and
inauthentic it was to write about a Yup’ik person from the coastal part of
Alaska who climbed mountains for adventure rather than necessity.
But two current Alaskan writers succeed
admirably, their stories featuring characters of many cultures. Debby Dahl
Edwardson was raised in a Norwegian Minnesotan family, but for 30 years has lived in Barrow, Alaska
with her husband and his extended family. Fro her web site: “My
husband is Inupiaq (Eskimo) and most of the stories I write are set within this
cultural context. It is not the culture I was born into but it is the one I
belong to, the one that has become home to me as a human being and as an
artist.” (See
www.debbydahledwardson.com.)

On a
guest blog post about writing across cultures, she wrote: “People
sometimes say that I write outside of my own culture or that I write through a
borrowed culture. I can't imagine consciously doing any such thing. If you
understand the worldview of your characters and write from within that
worldview you are not writing outside of anything and you are
not borrowing—you are immersing yourself within. Does your own individual
perspective on life bleed through? Sure. But you are aware of this and you
control it—not as a bad thing, but as a conscious thing.” See: cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2011/11/guest-post-debby-dahl-edwardson-on-lens.html

But Bonnie-Sue also spoke to me about the
responsibility writing about this setting and these characters. “Did I do this
right? Did I do it justice? She laughingly told me she is working on a story
right now in which “place isn’t such a
huge character.” Alaskans have embraced the novel. And readers unfamiliar
with Alaska will come to experience it through these well-rounded and riveting
characters. Bonnie-Sue worked hard to make sure the cultural details remained
in her story. And she won another fight, too. “Normally audiobooks are read by professional actors. But
I knew that the voice of Dora had to reflect her character--a young Inupiaq
girl. I sent the New York producer some news stories featuring teenage voices that I had produced in Alaska and she agreed
with me that Dora's character absolutely needed authentic representation."
An Alaskan actor was hired.
Learn more about Bonnie-Sue at her web site www.
Hitchcock.bs.com. Listen to her interview: http://www.kcaw.org/2016/02/22/author-writes-about-smells-and-memories-in-new-book/. I also posted a more detailed
review of Bonnie-Sue’s book this week at: http://renegadesofdiversity.weebly.com/blog/april-04th-2016.
Thank
you, Debby and Bonnie-Sue for showing us the way by writing such powerful
stories with diverse characters.
*Claire Rudolf Murphy is the author of over a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction and a professor in Hamline University's Master in Writing for Children and Young Adults program. To learn more about Claire and her writing, please visit her website or faculty page.
*Claire Rudolf Murphy is the author of over a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction and a professor in Hamline University's Master in Writing for Children and Young Adults program. To learn more about Claire and her writing, please visit her website or faculty page.
What a wonderful pièce, Claire. Two strong stories and it sounds like they can both teach us a lot about voice.
ReplyDeleteYes, yes. thanks for commenting.
DeleteClaire, I read this post just now, here at Buryat State University in Ulan Ude, Russia (in Siberia, as you know, with my Fulbright grant). I am currently using the first few chapters from MY NAME IS NOT EASY in one of my courses with Russian and Buryat students here. There is strong interest in my departments (English Philology and English Translation) in "teenage literature" in English, and I'm very glad that I brought along Debby's novel and also Sherman Alexie's ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN. I look forward to reading THE SMELL OF OTHER PEOPLE'S HOUSES when I return to Alaska in the fall. And I am thrilled to share your blogpost with my colleagues and students here in Siberia! Diversity in literature and teaching materials is something I discuss a LOT with them, and I know they will be interested in your thoughtful, very informative and readable blogpost. Thank you!!
ReplyDeleteCarolyn, so good to hear from you and such a surprise. I am happy that your year is going so well and look forward to catching up.
DeleteClaire, thank you for introducing these two novels which feature a diversity of cultures. I appreciate you sharing your personal journey as a writer, too. I think it is this kind of transparency that helps move us all forward.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Such a journey that keeps evolving. I am lucky to have trusted friends like you for the trip.
ReplyDelete