Children’s fiction has been the pleasure of writers and readers for time out of mind I remember reading for the first time each of the Harry Potter books as they came out, the garish and artistic covers displayed everywhere as they were announced and the countdowns to their release went down and down. Then, I read an excellent historical Stone Age coming-of-age series, The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver.

As I grew up, watching new voices and new stories come to life, I realised something startling: all new voices being published were overwhelmingly white. For every voice of colour being published at least two hundred white voices would drown it out.

Writing is a universal activity but there are still very few writers of colour receiving the attention as their white counterparts. Publishing itself suffers from a of diversity. “Concentrated at the lower ranks are white, middle-class women from liberal backgrounds, most of whom can afford to take a relatively low-paid entry-level job in a location where the cost of living is high. Further up the pay scale, things become more male-dominated, not that this helps matters much.” (Smith, 2023) Hardly enticing for writers of colour to approach publishers when it remains largely a white man’s world.

Toni Morrison, author of Song of Solomon, Beloved, and The Bluest Eye, worked as a senior editor at Doubleday as she wrote her first novels, helping writers like her achieve their dream of being published writers. “I was more interesting than they were, and I wasn’t afraid to show it,” says Morrison in the film Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, filmed months before her death. (Morrison, 2019) This bravery, though, comes from a woman unafraid to be herself, who had the strength and tenacity to stand in a white man’s world and be unapologetically black. However, this doesn’t help writers of colour as they approach publishers, eager to tell the stories of people like themselves.

The risk being that publishers won’t understand and might try to make the writer explain what it is they mean. James Baldwin, the author of Another Country and Giovanni’s Room, said that there was a little white man that lived inside him, as he lived inside everyone, correcting him as he wrote. He said he needed to flick that little white man off his shoulder so he would be free. (Holby, 2015) Other writers might not have that privilege, afraid of the censure of being “too black”. In a world where the blank whiteness of a page rules, there needs to be some colour.

“The Publishers Association works with our members to improve inclusivity within the industry,” says the Publishers Association website. “We hope that through industry-led action we can create a workforce that represents the rich diversity of the UK’s population, opening up opportunities for aspiring publishers and ensuring the long-term health of publishing.” (Publishers Association, 2024) We hope so too, because the sameness is wearing a little thin right now.

Bibliography

Holby, Hermione, “Toni Morrison – ‘I’m writing for black people…I don’t have to apologise.’” The Guardian, 25th April, 2015 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/25/toni-morrison-books-interview-god-help-the-child

Morrison, Toni, Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (dir. Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, 2019)

Smith, Victoria, “Publishing Needs to Be More Diverse, But How?”, The Critic, 23th Sept 2023 https://thecritic.co.uk/publishing-needs-to-be-more-diverse-but-how/

Diversity & Inclusion