MFA Writing Lesson: Diverse Voices (Patreon)

The Stars and the Blackness Between Us by Junauda Petrus is a lyrical YA romance with a dose of magical realism that explores both the Trinidadian and Black American lesbian experiences.

Hello everyone! This is the week we discuss diverse voices in fiction!

It's a subject that's close to my heart both as a queer writer and someone who likes to read about experiences outside my own. As I mentioned before, LGBTQ+ fiction is what helped me see myself reflected in stories I love and subsequently understand myself better. I know it's the same for many other people in fiction, whether they are people of color, disabled people, neurodivergent people, or any other of the wonderful varieties of human we can find on this earth. My own novel, in addition to being a queer romance, was important to me because it centered the struggle of mental illness, a subject that can difficult to tackle but is very important to me and makes for rich, complicated stories.

You may have noticed the spectrum of examples I've used for this course reflect my interests and can point you to some good books that represent all different walks of life.

Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin is a bold rom-com that gives insight into both the triumphs and struggles of a 24-year-old Muslim woman as she podcasts and works at a halal restaurant.

Romance writing in particular has a fraught history, as both our class resources and the recent controversy concerning the RWA- detailed in the article 'Bad Romance' by Constance Grady- show. But as authors, we're also in a great position to uplift our fellow authors with diverse voices and lessen the barriers they might face. Reading a range of romance literature and talking about your fellow authors on social media is a great way to do this- and a great way to make friends! I especially recommend talking about self-published books or books from indie presses. They're the underdogs in the publishing world.

LGBTQ Reads is a great resource that showcases a lot of LGBTQ+ indie authors and includes a lot of romance content. They even list the LGBTQ novels coming out each month and often have posts highlighting diversity.

WOC in Romance and Romance in Color are some great resources for romances with people of color.  And if you need further help looking for diverse books, there are lots of goodreads lists you can peruse if you like that site. Here's an example. There are some other ways to find authors to boost, but I'll leave that to you to ponder (hint: certain high profile websites).

Leaving's Not the Only Way to Go by Kay Acker is a contemporary queer romance from indie publisher Bella Books with an autistic protagonist that deals deftly with parenthood, grief and healing.

[Assignment stuff goes here]

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This is the last real MFA lesson I'll be posting as the next two weeks are mostly assignment exclusive info and goodbyes to students. Unlike to other lessons, I'll make this one public to all, partly just to bring some attention to these resources and partly so I can show my friend Kay Acker, since I mentioned to them that I used their book as an example. 

I also mentioned LGBTQ indie presses to check out. Here's a start: Bella Books, Bold Strokes Books, Bywater Books, and breaking from the "B" tradition, the publisher of my own first novel, Flashpoint Publications. Here's a resource that list of BIPOC owned small presses.

As I mentioned in this post, I used a variety of book examples in these lessons, so I'll list them all here with thanks to the authors: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers and Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee. I also utilized my experiences with my first book, In the Way of All Flesh and the current novel I'm writing. I used Beowulf for Cretins: A Love Story by Ann McMan as a citation example, too (maybe I'll post that). I kind of wanted to balance out the heteronormative norm of romance writing classes by throwing out a lot of LGBTQ literature, as well as stuff centers people of color, rather than restricting that to a 'diversity post'. Thus, we have Pride and Prejudice being the token straight, my private joke, no longer private.

If you like what you see here, you can get access to my other short lessons by becoming a $5 patron. As for those who are already patrons, I hope you've enjoyed these lessons and thanks for sticking with me.

 I hope I can offer future perks like this. I actually already had a course evaluation done, and got 'exceeds expectations' as a teacher in every area. But it likely won't change anything about the precarious position I'm in as an adjunct. I'd love to teach things like this as a steady, compensated job, but I don't know if it will ever happen for me.  Even though that makes me sad, I'm proud of these lessons, and I'm glad I could share them with all of you.