Beyond the Secret Garden: Outside, Over There
In the latest in their series examining BAME representations in children’s literature, Darren Chetty and Karen Sands-O’Connor look at prizes and British Children’s Literature.
At the CILIP Carnegie Kate Greenaway medal ceremony recently, Carnegie medal-winner Elizabeth Acevedo said how proud she was to be the first woman of colour to win the award. The Dominican- American slam poet champion’s first novel, The Poet X, tells the story of Xiomara, a young woman who struggles to find her voice, experiences her first love, and challenges her parents’ beliefs. These are, of course, common young adult literary tropes, but expressed in what the judges called ‘a truly innovative verse structure’. Acevedo’s book had competition from other verse novels shortlisted by the Carnegie judges, including Jason Reynolds’ A Long Way Down and Kwame Alexander’s Rebound. Additionally, she was not the only woman of colour on the shortlist; Candy Gourlay’s Bone Talk also made the list.
Acevedo’s win follows ‘two years after the prize instigated an independent review into its historical lack of racial diversity, following widespread anger at 2017’s 20-book, entirely white longlist ’ (https://
www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/18/carnegie-medal-first- writer-of-colour-elizabeth-acevedo-the-poet-x), according to Alison Flood. In fact, however, Acevedo is not the first woman of colour to be awarded a prize by CILIP (The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals); in 2018, Angie Thomas won the CILIP Amnesty Honour Book for The Hate U Give. The medal was part of a special Amnesty International UK and CILIP joint project to raise awareness of books that promoted human rights. Thomas’s book did not win the Carnegie, although it was widely praised by groups that shadowed the shortlists. This year, the Amnesty award was replaced by a Shadowers’ Choice Award; according to Amnesty officials, this will continue the values of the Amnesty Honour book because it ‘strongly upholds children’s human right to a voice’ (
https://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/ amnesty-CILIP-honour.php). The Shadowers in their inaugural prize agreed with the Carnegie judges and picked Acevedo’s book as well.
CILIP, through the changes it has made following the independent review, has certainly shown a commitment to valuing the contributions of all British readers. It recently launched Pen and inc., a new magazine and listings guide to celebrate diversity and inclusion in children’s publishing, freely available online. CILIP
has also just launched a BAME network led by Shirley Yearwood- Jackman, to provide a forum for
librarians and information
professionals from Black Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds to share their experiences, support each other and network. In addition, the authors of this piece were part of a team of volunteers in an advisory group for the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Awards this year. We were invited to observe judges’ shortlisting sessions, offer questions and prompts for the judges’ deliberations and give our views on the judging criteria. We were also invited to provide a training session for the 2020 judges.
Whilst there are many signs of progress, it is notable that all the shortlisted books for this year, and Thomas’s CILIP Amnesty-winning book from last year, all are about people of colour in parts of the world other than Britain. Writing about the Carnegie Medal, Pearson, Sands-O’Connor and Subramanian suggest that, ‘Race and racism continue to be issues “out there”, not “over here”’ (“Prize Culture and Diversity in British Children’s Literature,” 102). White author Tanya
16 Books for Keeps No.237 July 2019
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