BEA Learns From Its Mistakes On Diversity

At long last — it seems like the We Need Diverse Books campaign has finally hit home, because the Book Expo America Children’s Book and Author Breakfast line-up has made a few important changes. This year, the for that event, the Book Expo America panel participants were disappointingly white (and male), especially for an event that claims to showcase the “best in children’s publishing" and after being called on its BookCon line-up for 2014, for which all 30 writers were white. But they’ve checked themselves, and I was thrilled to see a more balanced line-up for next year. The master of ceremonies will be Jamie Lee Curtis, and she will be joined by bestselling authors Sabaa Tahir, Gene Luen Yang, and Dav Pilkey.

At the Author Breakfast on May 13, the authors will talk about their upcoming books and the inspiration behind their works — so it’s fantastic that this year, there will be a richer variety of perspectives to hear from. “It’s this type of programming that makes BEA the can’t-miss publishing event of the year,” said Steven Rosato, the Event Director, and this year, I think it really may be worthy of that statement. Let’s have a look at the authors who will be sharing their insights at the Author Breakfast.

Jamie Lee Curtis

When she’s not simultaneously terrifying us and making us laugh on Scream Queens, Curtis somehow finds the time to sit down and write whole books — bestselling ones, in fact. Next on her agenda is the upcoming picture book This Is Me: A Story of Who We Are and Where We Came from.

Sabaa Tahir

Sabaa Tahir is the author of the epic fantasy novel An Ember in the Ashes , set in an ancient and tyrannical world. The book was an international bestseller (and even our pick for best YA of the year), which should come as no surprise looking at Tahir’s impressive credentials; before becoming an author, she was an editor at The Washington Post.

Gene Luen Yang

Yang is one of those incredibly multi-talented people who are scientifically minded and super-creative all at once. No, you’re jealous. Yang used to teach computer science, and now travels around the world speaking about graphic novels. Pretty cool. American Born Chinese is one of his most famous works for young people.

Dav Pilkey

And of course, the author of Captain Underpants, the series which has captured our hearts since 1997. Dav Pilkey is every bit as imaginative today as he was when Captain Underpants first burst onto the scene, and in 2016 we can look forward to even more — starting with Dog Man: World’s Greatest Cop. Move over children, I need to get my hands on this one.

Image: Pixabay