>> Lee Ann Potter: Good morning.
>> Good morning.
>> Lee Ann Potter: I feel
like I'm interrupting recess
[laughter], and I feel bad
about that, but I'm
excited to have a chance
to welcome you this morning
to the Library of Congress.
I'm Lee Ann Potter.
I direct the Office of
Learning and Innovation here,
and it really is my pleasure
to welcome you this morning
on this beautiful spring day.
I think the stars
must be aligned,
because it is a perfect
spring morning to be here
in Washington, so
you guys are charmed.
As you know, today we're
here for our symposium first
on diversity in children's
literature followed
by the Walter Awards.
The program this morning is
entitled Read, Discover, Grow,
and it is being co-hosted
by both the Library
and We Need Diverse Books.
I think we need to
do a good shout-out
to We Need Diverse Books.
[ Cheering ]
[ Applause ]
As most of you know, We Need
Diverse Books is a nonprofit
organization whose
aim is to help produce
and promote literature that
reflects and honors the lives
of all young people, yay.
This program is being
livestreamed, so if you want
to do a shout-out to, you
know, your nieces and nephews
and children and sisters and
brothers, now is your chance.
Go ahead and wave.
You know, when I
do that with kids,
they get all over it [laughter].
Just saying.
I do want to thank our audience
at a distance for joining us
as well, especially those in
time zones other than ours.
You know, for those folks
in the mountain time zone
and on the West Coast.
It's a really early
morning for them.
So thanks to those
at a distance.
Thank you as well to
colleagues who are in this room
who are making this
livestream happen
and making this recording
happen.
Magic like that doesn't happen
by itself, so thank you guys.
I'm excited to introduce this
morning's panel moderator,
but before I do, I have to
tell you a little short story.
My parents think it's horrible
that I no longer subscribe
to a regular daily newspaper.
So when they come to
visit, they make sure
that the Wall Street Journal
weekend edition is at my house.
And so they've now
gotten us a subscription
to the weekend edition of the
journal, so it's always there,
and I'm happy to report
I've gotten into the habit
of reading it every
Saturday morning,
especially the review section.
And I happen to have
my little cutout here
of the Wall Street Journal
review section from February 2
of this year, and this is
where my story comes in.
So on that Saturday, February 2,
while reading the review section
of the journal, I came
across an article entitled
"Handing out the Hardware."
In it, I read the following:
Each year the Newbery Medal goes
to the book considered by
the selection committee
to be the most distinguished
contribution
to American literature
for children.
This year, it went to Meg
Medina's kindhearted novel for 9
to 12-year olds, Merci
Suarez Changes Gears.
Although the article continued,
I simply squealed and shouted
for the rest of my
family to hear.
Hey, I know her.
This is cool.
And it is cool.
Meg Medina is a good friend
to the Library, and I am glad
that my path has crossed with
hers on a number of occasions.
She is the 2019 John
Newbery Medal recipient.
[ Cheering ]
[ Applause ]
She is also a Cuban-American
author who writes picture books,
middle-grade and
young adult fiction.
Her YA novels include Burn
Baby Burn and the The Girl
Who Could Silence the Wind.
Her picture books
include Mango, Abuela,
and Me and Tia Isa Wants a Car.
Meg's works have been called
heartbreaking, lyrical
and must-haves for
every collection.
In addition to the Newbery,
they have earned her the
Pura Belpre Medal and honors
and Ezra Jack Keats Award.
Meg's works have
also been long listed
for the National Book Award and
were twice named as finalist
for the prestigious Kirkus Prize
for young people's fiction.
Her work examines how
cultures intersect as seen
through the eyes
of young people.
When she's not writing, Meg
works on community projects
that support girls, Latino
youth and or literacy.
She lives with her family
in Richmond, Virginia.
Please join me in welcoming
Meg Medina who will be serving
as our panel moderator.
[ Applause ]
[ Cheering ]
[ Applause ]
>> Meg Medina: Buenos dias.
It's so nice to be here this
morning, and I want to call
up my friends to join me today.
Thank you very much for that
welcome and hi everybody at home
and on the West Coast and
welcome to young people
who are with us today.
I have very short bios.
You're going to hear more
about these exquisite
people in a moment.
But for now, when I call
you, just come on up, please.
The first person
is Tiffany Jackson.
[ Cheering ]
[ Applause ]
Tiffany is the author of the
critically acclaimed Allegedly
and Monday's Not Coming,
which recently won the Coretta
Scott King-John Steptoe New
Talent Award [laughs].
[ Applause ]
A TV professional by
day, novelist by night.
We have to talk about this.
She received her BA from
Howard University and her MA
in media studies
from The New School.
Next up, Emily X.R. Pan.
[ Cheering ]
[ Applause ]
Emily is the New York Times
Bestselling author of--
a book I love-- The
Astonishing Color of After,
which was a finalist also
for the Los Angeles
Times Book Prize.
Oh. Longlisted for the Carnegie
Medal, and she was the recipient
of the APALA Honor Award.
Emily currently lives
in Brooklyn, New York
but was originally from
the Mid-West and born
to immigrant parents
from Taiwan.
Next up, mi amigo, David Bowles.
Come on up [laughs].
[ Applause ]
David is a Mexican-American
author from South Texas
where he teaches
at the University
of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
His books have received
the Pura Belpre Honor
and have been included on
Kirkus Best YA Books 2018.
And last but definitely not
least, Veera Hiranandani.
[ Applause ]
Veera is the author
of The Night Diary,
which received a
Newbery Honor this year
and the 2018 Malka Penn
Award for Human Rights
in Children's Literature.
She's a former book
editor at Simon & Schuster,
and she now teaches
creative writing
at Sarah Lawrence
College Writing Institute.
Please give them
all a big round.
[ Applause ]
So this is how it's
going to work, people.
I don't like podiums, so I'm
going to go sit with my friends,
and we are going to have a chat.
I have given them a sneak peek
into questions, but the idea is
for us to interrupt each other,
to add to each other's comments,
to take us on wild excursions
away from these questions.
You know, it's free-flowing.
And I think they're game,
because they're all book
people, and they love us.
So I say we're in, okay?
All right, here I go.
[ Applause ]
Okay, is my mic on?
You can hear me?
Okay, so the first thing
I was curious about--
Because all of your novels
had such voice, all of them.
We have a novel about
a girl at the time
of partition writing a diary to
her mom who's no longer living.
We have a boy trying to
make sense of his life
and his family and his identity.
We have a girl struggling
with her mother's suicide.
We have a story of a
girl trying to make sense
and discover the reasons
behind the disappearance
of a dear friend.
And what came across
to me for all
of them is just the
sense of voice.
So I think the first thing I
want to ask you is for you,
in your novels, where
did you find this person
that was going to
lead that novel?
Where was your protagonist?
How did you find them?
Did you find a story
first or the person first?
Give us some sense of
that, and I'm going
to pick on poor Tiffany.
You were close.
She was like, "No,
no, not me [laughs].
Not me."
>> Tiffany Jackson: I was
secretly trying to say
with my eyes, like, no.
>> Meg Medina: Don't
do it, Meg [laughs].
Don't do it [laughs].
>> Tiffany Jackson: So
the main protagonist
in Monday's Not Coming--
Her name is Claudia.
And she honestly--
I sort of dialed
into myself, me as a child.
I was a relatively shy child.
I had a best friend
that I didn't really want
to share with anyone.
I still don't like to
share my toys today.
I learned disability, and
I lived in my own bubble.
So it was really actually
easy for me to write something
like this, because it was
easy for me to just dial
into my own personal
experiences, to find that kid
that I pretended not
to be but I truly was
when I look back on her.
>> Meg Medina: Anybody else?
Where did you find your people?
>> Emily X.R. Pan: For me,
I started with the story,
which is, I know, very odd,
because the book is
so character-driven.
But I knew that I wanted
to write about a girl
who was hearing her
grandmother's stories
for the first time,
because the grandmother
in my book is shamelessly ripped
off of my grandmother [laughs],
like, basically copy,
paste [laughs].
And so I had this gap of
this character to fill,
and then it took me many years
to start to dive into myself.
It took me a really long time
to be willing to go there.
I think I was really
afraid at first.
I think in the beginning I was,
like, "Oh, I'm going to write
about this totally fictional
person completely different
from me, because, you know,
I didn't want to, like,
dig up shadows and explore all
these things that were conflicts
in my brain, were
things that I was trying
to wrestle with myself.
And so that was an
interesting process.
I wrote many, many drafts and
finally arrived at a place
where I was, like, "Oh,
I have to talk about me
and my experience with my
family and what it felt
like to straddle different
identities growing up."
>> Meg Medina: So that was the
thing that was keeping you,
that notion of identity
and fear.
Am I hearing that right?
>> Emily X.R. Pan: Yeah, I mean,
in original drafts of the book,
my character was very, very--
Every single time
I rewrote the book,
it was a completely different
cast of characters except
for the grandmother's character,
because she was my grandmother.
>> Meg Medina: Emily, that's
a lot of pages [laughter].
>> Emily X.R. Pan:
It is a lot of pages
and a lot of characters.
And then when I finally
landed upon Lee's character,
it became this way of expressing
and exploring all these things
that I didn't even realize
I was still wrestling
with from my childhood of, like,
you know, not quite fitting
into this culture, not quite
fitting into that culture
and trying to find my
place in the world.
>> Meg Medina: And
how about el Guero?
>> David Bowles: So, yeah, well,
They Call Me Guero didn't really
begin as a novel in first.
It was originally meant to be
kind of like a character study,
a collection of poems in
a boy's voice just to get
across the complexity of the
Mexican-American identity
and try to break with a lot of
the stereotypes and push back
against some of the noise that
we hear in society right now.
The first poem I wrote, it
was even before I had thought
of the idea of the book.
It was a poem called Border
Kid that was commissioned
by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell
for an anthology they did right
after the election that
kind of helped kids of color
who were kind of distraught
about the things
they were hearing,
the leaders of our
country saying,
to grapple with their
anxiety through poetry.
And so I wrote this poem called
Border Kid, and it was reprinted
in the Journal of Children's
Literature, and then I read it
when I was inducted into the
Texas Institute of Letters.
And as I was coming down off the
stage, an editor came up to me
and said, "I love that poem,
and if you can write
another 50 poems
in that kid's voice
[laughter], I'll publish it."
[Laughs] So I was like, that
was not on my writing calendar,
so I sat down and started trying
to find out who this kid was.
And I realized that while his
identity intersected with mine,
he was also partly my
son, partly the boys
that I had taught when I
was a middle school teacher
for nine years, partly just
my cousins and, you know,
other muchachos,
traviesos of the area.
And, you know, bit
by bit, this complex,
real human character
just blossomed.
And after a while, I could
hear his voice so clearly
that the poems just,
like, came naturally,
just poured out of me.
It's a gift when that happens.
Guero's kind of an amalgamation
of all these wonderful things
about being a Mexican-American
boy on the border unique,
you know, a gymsy [phonetic]
kid who's kind of nerd.
He's travieso.
He's mischievous.
He gets in trouble
with his friends,
but he's got a good heart.
He doesn't mean any
real malice by it.
He's beginning to fall in
love for the first time,
and he's deeply rooted
in this community,
but he's a Mexican-American
in 2019,
so he's also grappling with,
like, all kinds of bullying
at the local level and at
the national level as well.
He finds poetry.
He has a teacher who
helps him to discover it,
and he finds his voice.
And I found his voice, and
it's nice for that to happen.
>> Meg Medina: So good thing,
because 50 poems is hard
to write without a
voice [laughter].
So you came through.
>> David Bowles:
Well, you can, but.
>> Meg Medina: Guero
came through.
>> David Bowles: Robotic
and boring, right?
>> Meg Medina: Hey,
Veera, what do you think?
>> Veera Hiranandani:
Yeah, that idea of sort
of finding your voice and
finding your character's voice,
and it's sort of two different.
And then your character
finding their voice.
They're all these
layers of voice I feel
like that you're
kind of unearthing.
And I started The Night Diary
kind of really way back,
and I knew that I
wanted to write a story
about the 1947 Partition
of India.
I wanted it to be inspired by
my own father's experiences
and my father's family's
experiences,
but I really wasn't
sure how to access it.
And so, you know,
I started actually
with a young male character,
and I was just, like,
in third person, my
very early sketches.
And as I was kind of writing
pieces, I realized I was trying
to write my father's story,
which is not really
what I wanted to do.
I wanted it to have
that connection,
but I also needed a
more personal connection
with the main character.
And so I sort of moved that male
character over, and Nisha kind
of blossomed, the
main character,
and I knew that somehow she
was very quiet, very shy
and would have trouble talking
to people outside of her family.
But she would be able to
express herself in a diary
and find her voice that way.
And then creating Nisha writing
in her diary helped me figure
out kind of my voice for
the book and her voice
and then her finding her voice.
So all of those layers.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah.
I was thinking also
about just the form,
the way you guys decided
to tell your story,
because that's a thing, right?
You're sitting there, and
you could tell the same story
in so many ways.
So in your case, it's
an epistolary novel.
You're telling it
through a diary.
So you guys played with
time, sometimes chronology,
sometimes magical realism.
How did you decide on your form?
I hear now how Veera did it,
but how about the rest of you?
Was that conscious?
Did you experiment with other
ways of telling this story,
or did it flow pretty
much from the beginning?
>> Tiffany Jackson: You're
looking at me again [laughter].
>> Meg Medina: You'll forgive
me one day, Tiffany [laughter].
So Monday's Not Coming
is told in a series
of befores and afters.
So it's before Monday--
Claudia's best friend--
before Monday's disappearance
and after.
And I did that honestly
for a threefold reason.
One, I really wanted everyone to
get to know Monday and Claudia.
I wanted them to get to
know their relationship.
I wanted them to see it
build and see it blossom
and see how best friends
could really love each other.
And two, or a second reason
is I didn't want specifically
because I write thrillers.
And if you notice a lot
of thrillers there's
always sort of, like,
a dead girl in the background,
and she's not really
talked about.
And I didn't want Monday to
be just another dead girl.
I wanted her to actually, like,
really thrive on the page,
for you to really
get to know her.
So whenever the outcome of the
story is, you're more affected
by it, because you
know the girl.
It's not just, like, you
know, a phantom person.
Three, I really wanted this
story to be an experience.
Of course, it seems like
the chapters are sort of all
over the place, but that's
exactly how Claudia was feeling.
She was disturbed.
She was frustrated.
She was confused.
She was dealing with her
own learning disability.
She was dealing with the fact
that she had a best friend
that was missing and felt
like no one else seemed
to acknowledge that.
I wanted the reader's feelings
to parallel Claudia's feelings.
It was sort of a
threefold, like, kind of.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah.
>> Tiffany Jackson: You
know, a mixed stew there.
>> Meg Medina: It was
challenging though,
manipulating time that way.
>> Tiffany Jackson: Oh, yeah.
>> Meg Medina: It was
tricky [laughter].
>> Tiffany Jackson: I
mean, and to be honest,
I didn't originally
write it that way.
I actually wrote it in
chronological order.
And then, of course,
like many of my books,
I come up with an
idea out of nowhere.
And I woke up at 2 o'clock
in the morning, and
I was, like, "Oh.
Oh, we should do it this way."
And that's literally what I did.
And honestly, the only
reason why I was able
to even remotely do it and not
completely drive myself crazy is
because I do have
a film background.
So I take every chapter, and
I consider it like a scene.
So I was able to
rearrange everything just
like you would do
in an edit room.
And that was the only way.
So when people are like,
"Oh, teach me how to do this,
I was like [makes noise]."
>> Meg Medina: Right.
Get a media degree [laughter].
That was actually one of my
questions also that I wanted
to range on was all of
you have these colorful,
incredible professional
backgrounds.
Like, you've done
other stuff, TV.
But, you know, Veera
was an editor.
David's a professor.
And so, like, I'm
wondering, like,
how do your past experiences--
How did they help shape how you
attacked maybe the structure
of the novel and so on?
So I see certainly
the film part of it
and how you would tell
a story like this.
And to say that you write
a thriller is, like,
the biggest understatement
[laughter].
I read this book,
like, you know,
[laughter] in terror basically.
So just be warned.
But I definitely saw that.
So how do your past
experiences--
How did it help you
tell it in terms
of how you picked the forum and.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: I feel like
you just made the question
so much harder [laughter].
>> Meg Medina: I'm
tricky that way.
>> David Bowles: Everyone
on this had already
prepared [inaudible].
>> Meg Medina: Whoever
wants to jump in,
you can be brave,
you can be brave.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: I mean,
my background is kind of all
over the place, and I
feel like my book is kind
of all over the place.
>> Meg Medina: Good.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: See what
I did there [laughter]?
I wish I could write, like,
a book that's linear
chronology, start to finish.
I think my life would
be so much easier.
But I start writing, and
I immediately get bored.
And I got to throw a
wrench into things [laughs],
and I got to throw
another wrench into things,
and then suddenly I'm
juggling multiple timelines.
And I'm like, "What's going on?"
[laughs]. And for me,
it was also that I sort
of hinted upon how I
do iterative drafting,
so my drafts tend to look hugely
different from previous drafts.
When my agent and
I sold the book,
it actually was more
of a fantasy novel.
It, like, cut back and forth
between a fantasy world
and the real world, and it
was all braided together.
And then there were different
timelines within those also,
and then I realized a fantasy
world really wasn't working the
way I wanted it to.
It sort of took the weight
out of the story I was
really trying to tell.
And so I ended up stripping
that entirely out of the book,
but I still needed
to somehow be able
to access memories
from the past.
Because in the book, Lee gets
these memories that belong
to other people, that she
couldn't have gotten any other
way except via magical means.
And so through that, the
need to fill that kind
of guided my timeline
and my jumping around.
Then I ended up with, you
know, also a big stew.
>> Meg Medina: [Laughter] Yeah.
>> Tiffany Jackson: Stew?
We like food.
>> Meg Medina: It's fun
to see how it all works.
How about you guys?
>> David Bowles:
Yeah, well, you know,
as somebody who was an
English teacher for 14 years,
and after I got my
doctorate, I was in charge
of an English language
arts program
and the ESL bilingual program
in an entire school district,
and now I'm teaching university.
When the idea came for me
to write a bunch of poems
in this kid's voice, I
started thinking as a teacher.
Well, what do teachers need from
a book of middle-grade poetry?
What would they like to
have [laughter], you know?
They've got to teach, like,
all these different forms
and all these different, like,
you know, elements of prosody.
So maybe I can have him, like,
playing around with [inaudible]
poetry, because so many novels
and [inaudible] are going
to be written in free verse.
I was like, "Let me do something
a little bit different."
And so before I even knew
it was going to be novel--
And, first, I had him experiment
with writing a sonnet,
with writing, you know,
different types of, like,
more metered poetry
and so forth.
And the collection was broken
up into sections initial
chronological section
that was a little more free
verse and then sections
where he's experimenting with
different forms and writing
about celebrations and people
in his family and so forth.
And as I was writing, it was
really, really a lot of fun,
but, you know, I handed off
the rough draft to my editor,
and he's like, "Well, this is,
you know, a great exercise in,
you know, [laughs] in
creating a textbook
or something, but" [laughter].
>> Meg Medina: Oh, rats.
>> David Bowles: You got to
stop thinking about the teachers
and think about the
students, clearly.
And then he was the one
who showed me, look,
there's obviously a
narrative thread here,
a story that wants to be told.
Rearrange all this stuff
in chronological order,
and let's take a look at it
and see where the gaps are,
start filling those in.
And he started making
suggestions for changes to some
of the poems or things
for me to think
about that were disrupting,
you know,
whatever the form the
poem was being written in.
So some of the poems are
now, like, weird fusions
of an original, like,
formal poem and then some,
like, free verse elements.
I'm very happy with the
final thing, but, you know,
when you go into it thinking,
"Oh, I want to make something
that has utility for teachers,"
it doesn't always turn
out quite the way.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah [laughs].
>> David Bowles: Students are
going to be happy with it,
and I think we've found a place
in the middle that is going
to be exciting and
fun and meaningful
and that first students
will resonate with them,
be a mirror for Latinas kids,
be a window into
Mexican-American culture
for others but that also
teachers would be, like, "Oh,
there's a sonnet in this book.
That's awesome" [laughter].
>> Meg Medina: Yeah.
I think the warning
is always, like,
the moment you start
writing for the adults,
if you're a children's author.
>> David Bowles: Yep, yep.
>> Meg Medina: Or YA author--
The moment you start considering
what the adults are going
to think, say, you're a goner.
>> David Bowles:
Yeah, yeah [laughter].
>> Meg Medina: Yeah,
don't do it.
What do you think?
Now, you're the editor,
so I'm really feeling,
like, wowsa [phonetic].
>> Veera Hiranandani: Wasn't
that great an editor [laughter].
No. The truth comes
out [laughter].
>> David Bowles: This is
when I moved into writing.
>> Veera Hiranandani: I
wasn't a good line editor.
I'm not incredibly
detail oriented that way.
And I teach writing too.
So I've always been on
kind of different sides.
I've been a writing student,
a writing teacher,
a writer, an editor.
So I sort of know how all
those different places feel.
So I think it gives me
a fluidity of, you know,
with drafts and having that
conversation with your editor,
I really never attach myself
to whatever draft it is.
And I know that it's
going to change.
I want it to change.
I want to hear that other input.
I'm actually really
linear writer,
so I can get a little
constrained.
Like, I almost wish I could
kind of jump around here
and jump around there.
So I often give myself some
kind of limit in my writing
like the diary format or a point
of view that I can kind of come
up against as a problem.
Like, how do I tell a
whole story in a diary?
And will people be okay
with me taking the leap?
The main character kind of maybe
filling out more of a narrative
in the diary that maybe a
12-year old would actually write
in their diary.
There were times where I knew
I was going to make that leap,
but then there were times
where I really had to--
And then, you know, just through
drafts, like, that's too much.
You're really writing
something else.
You're not writing a
diary entry anymore.
But I like to have those
walls to kind of hit against,
you know, and then make
choices about them.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah, yeah.
[Inaudible] Sorry.
>> Veera Hiranandani: Yeah.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: Like, you
can give me the linear parts,
and I'll give you my jumping
around parts [laughter].
>> Veera Hiranandani:
Sure, after the panel,
we'll do that [laughter].
>> David Bowles: [Inaudible].
The consciousness
transfer machine is
in back [laughter] [inaudible].
>> Meg Medina: I feel like I
go back into my teaching life.
For Merci I did that.
I feel like people
ask you, like,
what did you do before you were
a writer and things like that.
And I feel like everything
you've done
in your whole life
makes you a writer.
I don't know if you
feel that way.
>> Yeah.
>> Meg Medina: But I
feel like it all cooks
into the person who creates.
>> David Bowles: Yeah.
>> Meg Medina: All
right, because we're here,
certainly in honor of We Need
Diverse Books, I want to talk
about how we write the nuanced
stories of our communities.
In particular, I want to
talk about how we talk
about the difficulties for
kids in our communities
and also both the hardship,
the less flattering parts
of our communities, like,
how is it that you
approach that in your work?
And I'm going to give
you a break, Tiffany.
>> Tiffany Jackson: Phew.
>> Meg Medina: Because,
yeah, she's like [laughter],
"I could feel the terror
coming off [inaudible]."
It's coming right through.
>> David Bowles:
Let me [inaudible].
>> Meg Medina: So I'm
going to put Emily
on the spot this
time [laughter].
You see? They feel so
bad for you [laughs].
>> Emily X.R. Pan: I think it's
really a matter of being honest.
>> David Bowles: Yeah.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: I
think it's that, you know,
I feel like when I've
considered myself a storyteller
for pretty much most of
my life, and, you know,
when you first start out,
your early novels you try
to write these, like,
perfect characters who are
like the Disneyfied version
of [laughs], you know,
maybe yourself or some
imagining in your head of, like,
that perfect unicorn human who
does everything exactly right.
>> Yeah.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: And that's
not actually interesting
to read, and as you
develop as a writer, for me,
it was about challenging myself
to put the faults on the page,
to find those flaws,
to examine them
and see how they actually
make us more human
and more interesting and to
put mistakes on the page.
And then kind of like
I was saying earlier
about how it took me so
long to find the character
for The Astonishing Color of
After, I had to be willing
to delve into things that
were difficult to talk
about and think about.
And the ugly parts of my
experiences growing up,
not just the fun things,
but, you know, like,
dealing with microaggressions
and dealing with never feeling
like enough, never
feeling Asian enough,
never feeling American enough.
And I think it just really
became about capturing
that truth as respectfully
as possible
and also doing my due diligence,
because we inevitably
all hold our own biases.
And so I interviewed
a lot of people
to write The Astonishing
Color of After.
I generally interview a lot of
people for anything that I write
to try to understand things from
all sorts of different sides,
to try to understand where
my brain might be fixated
on something because of how
I was raised or whatever.
>> Meg Medina: I think
that's really wise.
And I know, incredibly,
The Astonishing Color
of After is a debut
novel, which is just.
>> Yeah.
>> Meg Medina: A glorious.
>> Gorgeous debut.
>> Meg Medina: It's just
glorious achievement.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: Thank you.
>> Meg Medina: But I very much
hear that notion of humility
when we approach our work
and that we can get
things wrong ourselves
about our own communities even.
So it's funny, because it's
such a struggle right now
in our community at large
in publishing, right?
Who gets to write what?
But, you know, we're all
being held to that standard.
Even we are holding
ourselves [inaudible].
>> David Bowles: You know,
I think it was Daniel Jose Older
whose comment I read a couple
years ago in talking
about diversity.
He was I look forward to
the day when we don't have
to use the word diversity
in the world,
when work just reflects reality.
And so when I set out to write
about a Mexican-American boy
and the Mexican-American
community in the valley,
it was really important
to me to be honest
and reflect the world
as it truly is.
I mean, obviously, it's a
fictionalized version of things.
And as the title suggests,
They Call Me Guero--
For those of you who are not
familiar with Mexican Spanish,
guero means a white coated,
light-skinned Mexican-American.
And at the core of the book
is Guero's coming to realize
that as the most light-skinned
person in his family,
he is the most privileged
of the family.
And, like, you know,
pushing back
against that the way any
12-year old kid would,
because he also feels
part of a community
that is a community of color.
And so even though
he is a white Latino,
he belongs to a community
of color.
And so he's in this
weird liminal space.
For example, when his sister
Teresa who's a basketball
player, her team gets to go
away as part of the champions
to a faraway town in another
part of Texas that is not
as brown as South Texas.
As you guys will undoubtedly
realize, Texas has many spots
that are redder and
whiter [laughter].
The fans of the opposing
team start with a chant
that was just basically
ripped from the headlines of,
you know, go back to Mexico.
Build that wall.
And so suddenly Guero
who is often singled
out for being light-skinned and
red-haired and with colored eyes
and freckles and stuff like
that suddenly is definitely part
of this solidarity
that comes, you know,
from being attacked
as a community.
And at that moment, he,
even though he isn't,
strictly speaking, a child of
color, he is a child of color,
because he's a part
of community of color.
And it's just that
weird, you know,
nepantla as Gloria Anzaldua
called it, that liminal space
in between where your identity
is neither one nor the other.
You, you know, when it's
convenient for certain people,
you can be seen as white.
But the minute your Latina
identity comes to the forefront,
you're no longer white.
And I wanted to grapple with
that and to show the colorism
within his own community, the
way he's both treated better
and sometimes, you know, hated
upon for being light-skinned
and also, like, the way his
community's have to grapple
with what's being
pushed on them in 2019.
>> Veera Hiranandani: Yeah,
I really understand that idea
of being in between and not
really knowing what community
you belong in.
And that's something I try
to bring to all my work,
and my mother who was born
here, and she's Jewish,
and my father is born in
India, and he's Hindu.
And so I really struggled
with The Night Diary,
because I was writing a
girl who first of all went
through the Partition in 1947,
and I did not go through that.
So, of course, I talked to a
lot of people, and I talked
to my father, which was
an incredible opportunity
to be able to talk
to him about--
You know, I would sit down
and say, "Okay, dad, you know,
everything you remember,
all the little details
that you think aren't
important, tell me."
But then I talked to a lot of
family members, and I listened
to a lot of oral testimonies
collected in books and online.
But I did ask myself the
question, am I supposed
to write-- Can I write this?
Is this too much of a leap?
And I come from an
interfaith family,
but my main character is Hindu
and Muslim, because I wanted her
to ask a lot of questions
about why those groups were
in conflict during that time.
So I wanted her to really, when
her country's being torn apart
and her community
is being torn apart,
and she has these
multiple identities,
where does she belong?
And I certainly could
relate to it
in a very deeply personal level,
because my whole life I feel
like I've been managing
multiple identities
and asking the question,
"Where do I belong?"
And I found that it
really has become my muse.
It's really interesting, rich,
complicated place to live.
It's kind of in between.
So I put that sort of in between
in all of my characters and all
of my work, but it's going
to manifest itself different.
But I do look for that place.
Where can I truly, personally,
deeply connect to this story?
And then it's going to blossom
and have a life of its own.
And then when I am going more
outside of myself, I sort of,
okay, I'm writing more
outside of myself now.
What do I need?
What kind of help do I need?
What kind of research
do I need to do?
How do I sort of
respect this decision
in this moment in the book?
So.
>> Meg Medina: Hi [laughter].
>> Tiffany Jackson:
So the book--
if some of you don't know-- the
book takes place here in DC,
in Southeast DC, specifically.
And the character Monday lives
in a community called
Ed Borough.
Now, Ed Borough actually if you
read context clues and you're
from here, Ed Borough is
actually a community called
Barry Farms.
Barry Farms is or was a
notorious housing project
that was at some point
saturated with crime
and has been recently sold off
to developers to basically wipe
out entire community
and rebuild.
So it's gentrification, like,
you know, on speed dial--
on speed, I mean [laughter].
Can't really call
gentrification,
but you kind of can.
And so when I was first
writing Monday's Not Coming,
there was a lot of
protest, a lot of activists,
a lot of people trying to, you
know, stop this development
from happening, stopping people
from evicting an entire
community that has been there
since the land was first
bought for free slaves.
So that was literally
the only thing
in this book that I had changed.
I only changed that.
I only changed the name of
Barry Farms to Ed Borough
to basically kind of not
put anymore spotlight
and any negatives sort of
spotlight onto the community.
And I didn't want
to taint, you know,
what they were trying
to do as well, too.
And that's sort of, like, you
know, one of the harder parts
about writing about--
quote, unquote--
"rough areas" like
project houses.
Because when people
hear the projects,
they immediately
think, like, the hood.
And that's never been my,
you know, initial thought
when I think of, you know,
housing projects that.
I think of communities.
I think of families.
Like, some of my favorite
memories have been
at my aunt's house.
So there is a delicate balance
between perpetuating stereotypes
and telling the truth
and actually diving
through that truth and seeing
kind of, like, the color
and the beauty of a
community like that.
Like, right now, this day, there
are only three families left
in Barry Farms out of 444--
almost, like, 500
families, which is insane.
And that was something
that I also had to grapple
with in terms of while writing
this book as well too is, like,
knowing that, you
know, someone's going
to read this book next year
and not know what the hell
Barry Farms [laughs] was.
>> Meg Medina: Right.
>> Tiffany Jackson: So there was
really much a delicate balance
of that and also the
balance of, like, you know,
we weren't loud enough when
all this was happening.
Like, we didn't have people,
like, say, "No, this is wrong.
You cannot evict all these
families and displace them.
Like, this is wrong."
And that's one of the
things that, you know,
we as a black community, we tend
to be very private about things.
You know, we don't like to
talk about, like, the ugly.
We like to deal with it
in our ways in a lot ways.
And so I think that that was
something that I also wanted
to bring to the forefront
as well too is, like,
talk about the fact that, you
know, when things are going bad,
like, we're dealing with a
lot of mental health issues.
And we can't just erase it by,
you know, praying about it.
We should talk to
people about it.
We should raise our
voices about it.
So I think that that
was something that I--
And I knew that I was probably
going to get a lot of slack
for it in a way,
because I was, you know,
sort of exposing a little bit of
dirty laundry at the same time.
But I thought it was
important, and so, you know,
I'll take the hits if
I know that it's going
to help our community heal.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah.
>> Tiffany Jackson: And sort of
erase sort of the stereotypes
of what housing projects
could be like as well too.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah.
I feel the weight of the
dirty laundry thing too
when I'm writing about
sometimes machismo or.
>> Tiffany Jackson: Yeah.
>> Meg Medina: Family
violence, like,
those kinds of things
I feel like.
But I'm with Emily
and with all of you.
Just, like, the push
of the truth feels
like more urgent to me.
>> Tiffany Jackson: Yeah.
>> Meg Medina: So let's talk
about writing really hard
emotional truths for children,
because that takes a
lot of thinking, right?
>> David Bowles: Yeah.
>> Meg Medina: It takes a lot
of thinking, and it takes a lot
of consideration of
who the children are,
how old they are,
like, all of that.
What do you think?
How do you approach that?
Because, I mean,
think of the subjects
that we have here, right?
>> David Bowles: Yeah.
>> Meg Medina: We have
adults murdering each other.
We have a mom's suicide.
We have the loss of a friend.
We have grappling with,
like, deep identity.
Who am I if I don't
look like my family?
Who am I? So how do we
write these painful things?
What are the kinds of
questions you ask yourself
when you're going to write
something that's violent,
that's hard, that's true?
>> Tiffany Jackson:
So I'm kind of known
for [laughs] gut-punching
people with my stories,
to put it very lightly.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah [laughter].
Yes.
>> Tiffany Jackson: I feel
that we grossly underestimate
what kids can handle as far
as pain, as far as, like,
what they are able
to, you know, absorb.
But at the end of
the day, you know,
I feel like it's more
urgent for us to do that.
When I think of writing stories,
I want to write raw stories.
I want to write stories
that really, like,
you know, stick with you.
Like, you always remember
the first time you got hit.
I mean, I do.
So I feel like that's something
that you remember that story.
You don't want that
story to really
like leave the person's head.
I want my stories to be raw.
I want the plot twist to be
forever in all of my books
so that kids remember
those lessons.
So then in a couple years,
when kids are in voting booths,
I want them to be thinking,
and they have to vote on, like,
a proposition that's going
to erase an entire community.
I want them to remember Monday
and Barry Farms and everything
that happened in
Monday's Not Coming.
So I personally feel
like I don't--
Not that I don't care [laughter]
about how emotionally
triggering the book could be,
but I also feel like there's
an urgency to fix other things
that matter more
than anything else.
>> Meg Medina: What
do you guys think?
>> David Bowles: Yeah.
[ Applause ]
I think it's really dangerous
to start off going, "Oh,
I need to protect the kids,"
because the kids are
grappling with stuff.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: Yeah.
>> David Bowles: I mean, I
remember when I was that age
and the kinds of stuff
that I had to grapple with,
and I remember what it was like
for my dad to abandon us and,
like, the devastation
you feel after that.
And so, like, I deliberately
try to tap into the things--
I just feel, especially when
writing for, you know, like,
upper middle grade and
YA, if writing the book,
if I do not break down weeping
several times writing the book,
then I'm not doing my
job, because I need to tap
into something that's
so raw and vibrant
that I can put it across.
And then, you know, then you
layer a little bit of protection
for the kid so that
they're not being, you know,
slammed with it, like,
so brutally, but you want
that emotion to be there,
because they can
tell the difference.
They know when you're just
writing something superficially
to get a paycheck and get
on the bestseller list
or when you're writing
something that is meaningful
and you're trying to transmit
your own deeply felt trauma,
emotion or joy or whatever
the emotion happens
to be, right, to them.
I remember Ana Mediano
[phonetic] adding me on Twitter,
because she was wrapping up
the book, and she loved it,
loved it, loved it, and she read
the book about the boy's dog.
And she was like, "Why
would you do this to me?"
>> Right.
>> David Bowles: But because
every child experience's the
death of a pet, and it's--
a lot of times for kids--
it's the very first time that
they have to grapple with that.
And I remember my dog dying
when I was seven and how I was
so hurt and so, like, you know--
You're being faced with this
darkness that exists all
around you, and you're
not ready for it,
but the world thrusts it on you.
And I think it's kind of,
like, you know, incumbent on us
to be the person that holds
the kid's hand and says,
"Look, there's darkness.
You need to see it, but
I'm going to walk with you,
and we're going to look at
it together so that you know
that you're not alone in this."
And if we can put that across,
I think it's really important.
>> Meg Medina: How
about with yours, Emily?
Because, you know, it deals
with a parental suicide,
and I'm thinking about
the word triggers.
I'm thinking of all
of those things.
What were you thinking
about when you were writing
those scenes and that reality?
Like, were you thinking
about the reader?
Were you completely
immersed in story?
How did you do that?
>> Emily X.R. Pan: It's tricky,
because when I sat down in front
of the, yet again,
blank screen January 2,
2015 [laughter] literally
rewriting the book
from scratch again, I didn't
know what I was setting
out to write.
And the opening pages of
the book poured out of me.
I always talk about how it was
kind of like a fugue state,
and I think I've, like,
hammered home the point now
that I rewrite things over
and over and over again.
Those opening pages are, like,
the only pages in the book
that have been so preserved
since that first draft.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: And in the
opening, it starts with Lee,
you know, seeing that her
mother has died by suicide.
And I honestly did not set out
to write a book about suicide
or a book about depression,
but I had lost my aunt
to suicide the year before,
and I couldn't stop
thinking about it.
And kind of going back to what
you were saying with, like,
kids dealing with grief,
the first time I lost
someone, I was 8 years old.
My paternal grandfather
passed away, like,
eight days before my birthday,
and my parents didn't
tell me for a whole month.
>> David Bowles: Oh my God.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: Because they
didn't want to ruin my birthday.
And then they also said, "But
you don't need to be upset,"
when they finally told me.
This is a pattern in
my family [laughter].
>> Meg Medina: Why?
>> Emily X.R. Pan: They
just deal with death
in this really weird way.
When my childhood dog passed
away, which was just a handful
of years ago, my parents also,
like, didn't tell me until our,
like, nightly phone call,
because I'm one of those people
who calls my parents every day.
So, like, at night, I call
them and they're like.
>> Tiffany Jackson: You're
about to make me look bad.
>> Emily X.R. Pan:
[Laughs] I'm, like,
one of those codependent
only children [laughter] who,
like, anyway.
That's another story [laughter].
And so, like, they didn't tell
me until nighttime that, like,
they had taken my dog to
be put down that morning.
And when I found out that my
aunt died, it was again, like,
at midnight, I called--
I was like, "Oh, crap.
I got to call my parents.
They're going to be
going to bed soon."
And my dad let me go
through my whole ramble
of all the mundane
things happening
in my life before he was
like, "There is some sad news.
Your aunt passed this morning."
And I was like, WTF.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah [laughter].
>> Emily X.R. Pan:
Like, how is this family
so unhealthy about grief?
And then they did the whole
song and dance of, like,
you don't need to
burden yourself with--
I was like, "What's
wrong with you?"
Like, of all my extended
family members.
>> Yeah.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: She's the one
that I actually felt
the closest to.
And so it was this, for
me, when I was writing--
Sorry, this is a
longwinded answer--
[laughter] when I was writing,
it was like I was trying
to grapple with a lot of things.
I was trying to grapple
with all these things
that I sort of shelved.
It took me until I got
to college to understand
that the way I had
grown up was abnormal,
that the way depression takes
up so much space in a house,
that the things that were
my concerns as I was growing
up were not the concerns of
many other kids around me.
And so when I was
writing the book,
the first draft was really
me writing purely for myself,
and it was, as I delved into--
It took me until Draft 3 to
be like, "Oh, I got to, like,
look depression head on.
I got to talk about suicide.
I got to talk about how it
affects not just one person
but the whole family."
And then it became
this thing where I had
to carefully carve away and say,
"What things do I want
to show on the page?
What things to I want to protect
readers from, especially readers
who are fellow suicide-loss
survivors?"
You know, I'm fully aware
that for some people,
it's going to be too
triggering of a book to read.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah.
>> Emily X.R. Pan:
Many suicide-loss survivors
have reached out to me to say
that they really
needed a book like that.
And so I think it is a really
tricky thing to navigate,
to figure out, like, what kind
of language might be poetic
but is actually damaging?
And what kind of things are
actually important to explore
to allow for that safe space?
Like, when I wasn't given
the chance to grieve
for my grandfather when I
was eight, I found my solace
in books where-- You know, like,
I read Where the Red Fern Grows
and then sobbed my eyes out,
because it was a safe space
to grieve over the death
of these wonderful dogs,
and I needed to have that space.
So I hope that I can offer
a safe space to somebody
who needs something fictional
to cry about in order to work
out their real-life feelings.
[ Applause ]
>> Meg Medina: I'm
thinking also, Veera,
that you peel back a window
into adults, the violence
that adults perpetrate
on each other.
>> Veera Hiranandani: Yeah.
>> Meg Medina: In the
full sight of children.
>> Veera Hiranandani: Right.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah.
>> Veera Hiranandani: Yeah,
that was very difficult, and,
you know, I would hear
stories and look at, you know,
pictures taken of the time.
I mean, there were, you know,
trains that were intercepted
going in both directions where,
you know, trains would
be stopped by riders,
and everybody would
get out or get in.
And there would be
this horrible fight,
and then trains would
pull up in stations filled
with corpses during
the Partition.
So if you talked to anybody
who's been through this time
and you mention the trains,
everybody knows what
the trains mean.
You just have to
say, "the trains."
My father's family got on
a train and made it safely
over the border, but
so many people did not.
So I had to figure out how I
write something for young people
to see the truth
of this history.
I mean, it's a living history.
Still, my father's in his 80s,
and he was nine when he went
through this, so most people who
went through the Partition are
in their 80s and 90s and
older and then were not going
to have these people alive to
tell their stories anymore.
So I think people
of my generation
from Partition survivors
really feel this urgency.
I mean, I definitely felt an
urgency to capture this history
in the way that I could.
And people are doing it in
different ways just to make sure
to capture it, but the truth
of the history is so bloody
and so unimaginable that, you
know, I wanted to have some
of that truth in the story.
But, you know, I'm also a
parent, and I felt like,
you know, what can kids handle?
And I think that they can handle
a lot, but I also didn't want
to sort of interrupt the
experience of learning
about this history,
making it too traumatic,
because the raw history is--
You can't even process it.
And I would sit with tears
streaming down my face looking
at pictures or feel
sick sometimes,
but then I would just take
that feeling and see, you know,
how can I kind of
match all those things?
The truth of the character,
the truth of their story,
pulling in a number of different
stories that I researched.
And there was some protection.
I mean, I was protecting the
young reader at certain times.
>> Meg Medina: And I think that
yours is a middle-grade novel?
>> Veera Hiranandani:
Yeah, yeah.
>> Meg Medina: Right?
As opposed to YA.
I write across those
age groups too,
and there are slightly
different considerations.
>> Veera Hiranandani: Yeah.
>> Meg Medina: I think someone
at 17 isn't someone at 11.
>> Tiffany Jackson: Right.
>> Meg Medina: Right?
So we modulate.
We have to modulate that.
So because I have consideration
for your folks, I'm not going
to leave you on this
sad place [laughter].
This is a joyous
day, friends, right?
So I think now we
talk fun things.
So I am just interested in--
I don't know about you--
but what a career
this is, right?
What a journey.
I had no idea when I decided
that I wanted to be a writer
or try, I really,
really had no idea.
So I'm curious.
Like, what has surprised
you about being an author?
What has delighted you, and
what has been maybe shocking
in not such a good way?
[Laughs] What do you think?
This could be a free-for-all.
We have access to grind
[assumed spelling] right here,
people [laughter].
What do you think?
What has delighted you?
What has surprised you?
>> Tiffany Jackson: So
when I was growing up,
I honestly thought that,
you know, writers were just,
like, very solo careers.
Like, you know, you're
by yourself.
So I have actually
been so surprised
by how many people I've actually
had to talk to [laughter].
>> Meg Medina: Like this.
>> Tiffany Jackson: I mean, for
those who, like, really know me,
like, I'm actually, like, still,
like, quite shy, so this is,
like, my worst nightmare,
but [laughter], like, yeah.
I'm actually really surprised
but also delighted by the fact
that I do get to go and,
you know, tour around
and go do school
visits and talk to kids.
And, you know, kids,
they'll keep you humble.
Like.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah.
>> Tiffany Jackson: You know,
bless their hearts [laughter].
But, yeah, I've always
been, like, I'm so surprised
by how many people I got to
talk to and how many kids I got
to talk to, how many
prisons I've gotten a chance
to visit and, like, the
young men in there and, like,
talking to them and
hearing their stories.
Because I honestly, by now,
I really thought I was going
to be, like, the old
woman by the sea.
Like, I really just was, like,
I had my shack ready [laughter].
I didn't think I had
to talk to anyone.
I, definitely, didn't think I
had to be on Twitter and, like,
have to, like, interact
and, you know?
I don't really do
people [laughter].
So that has been, like, you
know, a joyous surprise.
>> Meg Medina: What
surprised you Miss Debut?
Tell me. What has
surprised you about it?
>> Emily X.R. Pan: I'm
perpetually surprised all
over again when I'm
signing books
and an Asian-American reader
comes up to me and says,
"I didn't realize we could
do this" and says that, like,
you're the first Asian
author I've ever met.
And every single
time, I'm, like,
bowled over by that [laughs].
>> Meg Medina: Yeah.
>> Emily X.R. Pan:
I did a school visit
at my own middle
school a few months ago,
and there was this one
Asian-American girl who came
up to me and was,
like, in tears.
And I was like, "What,
are you okay?"
[laughter].
"Like, what's going on?"
And she was like,
"You're, like, our writer.
You're, like, the real deal."
And I was like, "Whoa,
this is, like, a lot."
>> Meg Medina: It can happen.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: Yeah.
And that's been,
like, really amazing
and also really depressing
[laughter], you know?
>> Meg Medina: Yeah,
and that's true.
That's an interesting thing.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: Yeah.
>> Meg Medina: That
there are surprises
that are both really
joyous and really sad.
>> David Bowles: Yeah.
>> Tiffany Jackson: [Inaudible].
Yeah.
>> Meg Medina: I was sad to find
out how few books were written
by or about people of color.
>> Tiffany Jackson: Right.
>> Meg Medina: And, I mean,
we're improving every year,
but that's a really sad reality
when you look out at our country
and see who's here and the
vibrancy of the country.
What do you think, David?
>> David Bowles: And
I cosign everything
that Tiffany and
Emily just said.
The other thing that
really surprises me though
that I guess I wasn't
really prepared
for was how incredibly rewarding
and edifying it would be
to be part of a community
of writers.
>> Tiffany Jackson: Yeah.
>> David Bowles: The Latinx
Caucus [laughs] [inaudible] the
larger community of
writers of color.
They welcome you with open arms.
They make you feel like just
another sibling and part
of this really, really
big family.
And [laughs] they're people
that you can commiserate
about [laughs], commiserate
with about these very
things, right [laughs]?
>> David Bowles: So it's really
nice to have that network
and to have each other's backs
and to go into, you know,
to be on a panel whatever
and see one of your friends
in the audience and know
that there's that solidarity,
and that's something
really special.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah,
it is [inaudible].
>> Veera Hiranandani: I found
that just being welcomed
in so many writing communities
and particularly with this book
in the South-Asian
writing community,
I think that that has been
incredibly joyous for me
and in some ways healing,
because I wasn't sure if I was,
like, allowed being half Indian.
You know, and so that
halfness has been hard for me
to figure out, and then
I've just been so welcomed
and validated, and I just
feel like it's okay to be me.
And so that has been [inaudible]
really surprising and wonderful.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah, I've
enjoyed the honor of just being
with people who live
in their imagination.
>> Tiffany Jackson: Yeah.
>> Meg Medina: There's a
beautiful gift in that.
>> David Bowles: Yeah.
>> Meg Medina: And working
with adults who still live
in the world of a
pretend and what if
and who can still remember
so clearly what it
is to be a child.
I love that.
And I'm getting ready to wrap
up, and what I want to say
to all of you is this, that it
has been such an honor to be
on this stage with you.
And I'm so excited to be writing
books in the time of Tiffany
and Emily and David and
Veera, and I just can't wait
to see what else you
have inside of you.
I think we're ready.
Oh, if we have questions
we can ask them now.
I see one over here.
Would you be willing to stand
up and give us your question?
[Laughs] Go ahead.
>> How did you feel
when writing books?
>> Meg Medina: How did you feel
when you were writing the books?
>> Yeah.
>> Meg Medina: Anyone
want to field that one?
>> Emily X.R. Pan: My book is a
sad book, so [laughter], I mean,
I cried on every
draft [laughter].
I'm also just, like, prone
to crying [laughter].
>> Yeah.
>> Tiffany Jackson: I
was a little excited,
because this was, you know,
other than, like, you know,
messing with people's
heads, which, you know,
that's exciting [laughter].
I think I was really excited
because this book takes place,
like, here in DC, which is
very much my second home.
And so I was excited
to bring a lot
of DC subculture to the page.
Like, I was talking
about go-go music,
which a lot of people
don't know.
And I got a chance to,
like, use DC slang.
So I was calling people bamas.
That's, like, a career
high [laughter].
And, you know, I
was telling people
about chicken mumbo sauce.
So it was, like, [laughs]
really, like, that was a high
for me to-- Actually,
how many people are here
from Southeast DC?
[Inaudible] Oh.
Oh, hey, guys [laughs].
So at the end of the day,
like, I was writing for them.
I was writing for kids to see
themselves on the page too.
And, you know, even
though I'm not from here,
I love it here as well too.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah.
>> Tiffany Jackson: So
that was actually one
of the best things how I felt.
It was amazing.
>> Meg Medina: But you
went to school here.
You went to [inaudible].
>> Tiffany Jackson: Yes, yes.
So, you know, I technically
am sort of from here, sort of.
>> Meg Medina: Where are
you from before here?
>> Tiffany Jackson: Brooklyn.
[ Cheering ]
>> Meg Medina: Everybody
wants to own Brooklyn.
>> Tiffany Jackson:
We're so much [laughs].
>> Meg Medina: I'm
a Queens girl,
and we don't get
enough love [laughter].
I'm just saying [inaudible].
You see? Nobody cares
[laughter].
>> Tiffany Jackson: I
tried to, like, reel it in,
but it was too late [laughter].
>> Meg Medina: Other
questions, other questions.
Anyone else?
Yes. Stand up and give it.
>> Tiffany Jackson: Oh,
this group is lively.
[ Inaudible Speaker ]
Oh God [laughter].
[ Inaudible Speaker ]
>> It's like an eye-opener,
and how did you come
up with the ending
of your books?
>> Meg Medina: How
do we end books?
That's a toughie [laughter].
And notice she picked you.
>> David Bowles: I just
stopped [laughter].
Like, that's enough
of this [laughter].
Quick epigraph, real short poem.
Boom, let's go [laughter]
[inaudible].
>> Meg Medina: Well,
let me ask you this.
I'm going to piggyback on yours.
Is the ending that we
read in the actual book,
was that your first ending?
Is that how you originally
ended it?
No?
>> Veera Hiranandani: No, no.
>> Meg Medina: Right.
>> Veera Hiranandani:
Endings are so hard.
I mean, the first one
tends to be that sort
of wrap it up and stop.
I just have to stop [laughter].
And then you kind of go
back again and again.
It's so hard to get right.
I really struggle with endings.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah.
>> Emily X.R. Pan:
Meanwhile, Tiffany's like,
knife, wrench [laughter].
>> Tiffany Jackson: I
look terrible up here.
>> Meg Medina: Gee, you
should put her in your novel.
You need a character
named Emily.
>> David Bowles: That's
Tiffany [inaudible].
>> Tiffany Jackson: So both
of my books are loosely
inspired by real cases.
So Monday's Not Coming was
inspired by two real cases
of happenings that happened.
And, particularly,
if you're from DC,
you remember the
Banita Jacks case.
That was very much something
that happened here
only a decade ago.
So the endings are sort of
already-- I already have them.
Like, when people are, like,
you know, how do you come
up with these crazy books?
I'm like, "Actually, here's
the article" [laughter].
I'm not making up anything.
So I guess that's where I sort
of come to the conclusions of,
like, the endings of books
is, like, using the real cases
and trying to find a way
to make sense of the trauma
and make sense of the tragedy
by laying out as much causes
and effects of how
things happened.
Because I want you guys
particularly to realize, like,
everything, you know--
No one is born bad.
Everyone has grown and
developed out of something.
And I want you to see
all those elements.
I want you to see
how gentrification,
how the crack epidemic,
how poverty,
how everything actually
affects how someone grows
and their choices that
they eventually make.
>> Meg Medina: Yeah, yeah.
>> David Bowles: Very good.
[ Applause ]
>> Meg Medina: Any
other questions?
>> Tiffany Jackson:
There's one really far
in the back by the camera.
>> Meg Medina: There was
one somewhere in the middle.
Where?
>> Tiffany Jackson: You
see it by the camera?
>> Meg Medina: Oh, yes.
>> My question is [inaudible].
>> Meg Medina: Put the mic up.
Thank you.
>> My question is
directed toward Tiffany.
Is there a specific reason why
[laughter] you chose to talk
about Monday being a child who
was being abused by her family?
>> Tiffany Jackson: Because that
actually happened to the girls
in the inspired stories.
So that was the real
reason why I chose to talk
about that trauma
and talk about where
that trauma was rooted
from as well too.
>> Okay.
>> Meg Medina: One more?
>> Tiffany Jackson:
There's some girls way
in the back by the camera.
>> Meg Medina: Way in
the back in the white?
>> Tiffany Jackson: Yeah.
I actually eventually
will need glasses.
>> Meg Medina: Whoever
stood up first gets to ask.
[Laughs] That's the
way it works.
[Inaudible].
>> Oh my God [laughs].
Hi, I was wondering
for Miss Emily.
How did your family react to
you talking about the trauma
that you went through when
you were younger in the book?
How did they react to
your books in general?
>> That's a good one.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: [Laughs] My
parents haven't finished reading
it [laughter].
>> David Bowles:
That is hilarious.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: [Laughs]
I did sit down with them
when we sold the book to be
like, "This is coming out.
You can't do anything about it."
[Inaudible].
I sort of feel like my
family is maybe a little--
I'm like, "Are they
watching this?"
[laughter].
>> Meg Medina: Yeah,
we are livestreaming.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: [Laughs] I
think my family is probably a
little unprepared for how
honest I like to be in my work.
You know, like, one time I wrote
a short story about someone
with bad breath, and my mom
was like, "People are going
to think you have bad breath."
>> Meg Medina: If she only knew
that that's the smallest
problem [laughter].
>> Emily X.R. Pan: I did feel
I wanted to be respectful,
so I did reach out to my
cousins, and I did reach
out to my parents and say, "This
is something I'm writing about,
and I know that you feel
very trapped by the stigma,
and you don't want
people to know
that there's depression
in our family.
You don't want people
to see us in that light
that you cast upon
this entire topic,
and I want to be able
to talk about it."
And so it started with this--
You know, like, growing up,
my parents were always
like, "Don't let people know
that there's depression
in your family,
because they'll look
at you differently."
And I always really
pushed against that.
I always felt like it was
something that we needed to--
You know, like, depression,
any mental illness,
it's a health problem.
You know, like, somebody who
has diabetes needs insulin.
Maybe someone who has
depression needs more serotonin.
And so we need to talk
about these things the
same way we can talk
about other health issues
so that the stigma doesn't
cause people to do more damage
to themselves, to feel
like they have to hide,
and they can't live
out there freely.
And so I've always been more
vocal than my family wanted me
to be about it, and then when I
wrote this book, I had to sort
of sit my parents
down and be, like,
how much are you willing
to let me talk about?
And that's been one of the
amazing gifts of this journey is
that my parents have started
to open up more about it.
>> Meg Medina: Oh, that's nice.
>> Emily X.R. Pan:
[Inaudible] Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: And my mom
has said to me too that, like,
one day I also want to write
about our family,
like, it is a goal.
>> Meg Medina: Oh.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: My
mom is also a writer.
[ Applause ]
>> Tiffany Jackson:
Oh, that's wonderful.
>> Emily X.R. Pan: My mom is
a creative non-fiction writer,
so I feel like through her
lens, it would be, like,
really, especially important.
And so, yeah, I mean,
it's a great question.
It's complicated.
We'll see.
I'll report back to you
when they actually finish
the book [laughter].
>> Meg Medina: We want the
transcripts of the calls
with your parents [laughter].
All right, if we can give
these wonderful authors.
[ Cheering ]
[ Applause ]
>> Kathie Weinberg: When we
selected the topic, Read,
Discover, Grow, we had no
idea how much we would grow
in such a short time.
Thank you, again, all of you.
[ Applause ]
I took so many notes.
The nuanced stories of our
communities, the challenges
of perpetuating stereotypes
or telling the truth.
I just could go on forever.
I mean, I think this has just
been such a wonderful symposium,
and I really want to thank
the Library of Congress
for partnering with us and
bringing your wonderful voices
and also bringing in adults,
students, educators, librarians
and you guys, especially
the students,
ask such wonderful questions.
Yeah.
[ Applause ]