Grace Gipson in Conversation on YA BIPOC Speculative Fiction
BCNM alum Grace Gipson moderated a conversation on BIPOC voices in young adult speculative fiction as part of the 2021 Virginia Festival of the Book. She talked with two authors, Catherine Hernandez and Jordan Ifueko. The conversation is particularly relevant to those interested in works at the forefront of diverse and innovative speculative novels.
From the chat:
JORDAN IFUEKO: It’s interesting because I’ve always loved speculative fiction and fantasy, but that’s a genre that’s never loved me back, as a dark-skinned Black girl. I had to find mirrors of representation in terms of what I related to, but only pieces of me. I’d read a book that made me feel seen as a Black girl. It’s funny but the Addy books from American Girl were some of my earliest representations, and even that’s about an escaped slave in the United States, but that’s only the beginning. So much of the book is about her building her life, which was really rare in the ’90s as a kid, as a Black girl trying to find adventure books. I also tended to read a lot of British fiction. Nigeria is a British colony. That’s how my parents were educated and we just had those in the house. Charlotte Bronte was a big deal to me. I loved just all of her woman going against the patriarch and demanding to have her own agency stories. They all had a little bit of a supernatural tint to them.
Watch the event and read more about it here!