Via Deborah at Gnomic Utterance: Tu Publishing will be a small press “dedicated to publishing fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and historical fiction for children and young adults inspired by many cultures from around the world….” They plan to start acquiring their first two books, which will be fantasy or science fiction, in January.
It’s exciting to hear about a publisher explicitly setting out to fill this enormous gap. F/SF is pretty uniformly whitey-white; how many of your favorites have non-white protagonists or are based in non-European-American cultures? You can probably think of a couple — yup, I thought of Bridge of Birds, too — but they’re the exception that proves the rule (as much as I hate that expression).
Tu is trying to raise the necessary capital on Kickstarter. Which is a pretty nifty idea in its own right: you pledge to back a project, for some kickback (discounts on their books once they’re published, mostly), but you only pay if the project gets funded in its entirety.
I’m tossing them some money. If diversity of literature for kids is important to you, maybe you will, too?
2 responses so far ↓
1 Randy // Oct 29, 2009 at 4:11 pm
I don’t disagree with your basic rule, but I’m also aware that I’ll tend to assume “just like me” unless my nose is rubbed in the fact that they’re not. For instance, I didn’t realize that almost everyone in the Earthsea trilogy is dark skinned (I’m pretty sure “black” would apply) and the barbarians (Kargads) are the only Caucasian like folks.
2 Sam // Oct 30, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Fair enough. Though I bet it’s easier to assume “just like me” when you are the cultural default.
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