Sunday, March 13, 2011

Multicultural Book Awards- bookhenge

I have to be honest. Book awards? I understand them, appreciate them, but nothing could be further from my mind. I rarely notice stickers of achievement on books or put much store in anything other than the opinions of well-read friends. Now, would I appreciate an award for a piece of my writing? Yes, the more the merrier. For right now, though, as my writing career falls behind for a more dramatic victory, I feel very distanced from the world of book awards. I feel like there are certain circles and audiences that will view the novels that win certain prestigious awards in a new light and base their reading schedules on those same awards, but that is not that case for this guy.
                Thus, Aronson’s initial essay struck me as more of a social commentary than a commentary on the state of book awards within the ALA. However, I chose to put myself in the shoes of someone who had worked incredibly hard on an African American character. Maybe I poured over library books about the deep south and did my best to extract quotes and voice and tension from old articles, pictures, and newspapers. I really did my homework and the character I created really jumps off the page. I love the way he moves through the plot, the way he grows as a person, and how authentic he feels. Let’s go crazy and say I capture this perspective better than any other writer in a given time frame (a year, a decade, whatever). I’d be very upset that my character, who reflects a certain people from a certain time in a particularly genuine way, cannot be up for an award like the Coretta Scott King. Aronson’s point about their being multiple awards that require someone to be a specific race for eligibility being similar to two dot’s forming a line (a line that can include an infinite number of points) seems sensible. I agree that awards, no matter how distanced I feel from their significance, cannot exclude author’s based on their race. If you are excluding characters or genres in the hopes of honoring specific features of literary quality, than by all means. But, as a writer, I would be incredibly disparaged by the idea of exclusion through skin color. Aronson honors the origination of such awards and the necessity for facilitating literature within and for races that had not previously been recognized, but we are at a new place in literature. These “racially based awards” seem like a step backwards instead of a pathway to honoring authors who deserve it. While the awards may really seek out spectacular literature, it seems tainted by the lack of availability to others who wish to create stories and characters deserving of consideration.


bookhenge

1 comment:

  1. Scott, I feel that Aronson was trying to point out that awards like CSK are a step backward. They seem to create bias rather than inclusion. I think you are right on the money with your response.

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