Author Neesha Meminger's Feminist Touch

This month, YA author Neesha Meminger released Into the Wise Dark , it's her third novel and the second one to be self published. I really enjoyed it and absolutely loved the second half which was very intense and visually amazing. I will review it later but right now I simply wanted to talk about the female characters. Part of what I love about Meminger's writing is her desire to create realistic female characters of color, that have an inner strength that shines through. If someone asked me to define feminism I couldn't formulate a concise answer. However, I could easily point to one of Meminger's novels and say " This book was written by an author concerned about feminist ideas and how her female characters are perceived." This applies even more so to Into the Wise Dark.

"When I look closely at the little cards underneath each image I see that they are all of different goddesses. Under one, an image of a large rotund woman with full breasts and the entire world in her lap." Another small carved statue of a woman with rounded hips and big thighs. I walk around to look at the third, a colossal image of a golden woman in profile. She holds a baby out in her hands and rays radiate from them both." - (from advanced readers copy*)

I loved that the author equates size and curves with beauty. Meminger's newest novel is also filled with beautifully crafted moments that are not meant to stand and for that reason do just that; thanks to the authors continuous commitent to well rounded female protagonist.

*edited, I left out the names of the goddesses.

She's Not The Only One (Female Authors of Color Support One Another)

I am always amazed and impressed by female authors of color willingness to support one another.

At her blog, illustrator Yuyi Morales recommends five great book and other gift pairings. None of the titles are illustrated by Morales. When I saw that, I was like wow, how unselfish is that. I don't think anyone would fault Morales for suggesting one of her own titles, since she has a great body of work and bilingual titles were greatly impacted by the drop in overall book sales.

Yet here is a female artist of color who is giving space to others and she's not the only one.

Author Neesha Meminger second young adult novel, Jazz in Love which was recently released was self published. In a recent blog entry Meminger mentions author L.A. Banks new YA novel Shadow Walker which is also self published.

If there was ever a time for an author to be selfish its when self publishing. Yet, Meminger still made space for another female author of color.

She's not the only one.

Author Carleen Brice, debut novel Orange Mint and Honey (loved it) was published in 2008. She published her second Children of the Waters in 2009. With just two novels, Brice is still relatively new. So no one would blame Brice for promoting her own books. Yet, she still found the time to start White Readers Meet Black Authors, a blog dedicated to promoting African American authors.

Authors Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo started Diversity in YA when they realized they both had Asian inspired YA novels coming out around the same time in 2011

Earlier this year, Malinda Lo and I discovered that we’ll both have Asian-inspired young adult fantasies releasing around the same time in April 2011 (Malinda’s Huntress and my Fury of the Phoenix). We decided this was a wonderful excuse to have a celebration!
After lots of brainstorming, we decided that we would join forces to do a four-city tour in May 2011.

"Lo vs Pon, who will sell more?" Could've easily happened, since for some unknown reason there are never too many similar themed novels with White protagonists but let a story feature characters of color and sometimes two is one too many.

When authors recommend titles other then their own, they run the risk of making readers decide - "Who should I read next?" This is especially true for female authors of color, whose stories don't get the respect or recognition they deserve.

Even though the publishing industry is set up in such a way that female authors could easily being fighting for the little space that is garnered for their stories, there's more of a lets work together attitude.

I know there are more stories of Female authors of Color supporting one another. Please share any you know of and lets see how big

She's not the only one, can get.