A publisher just sent me a Fall 2020 catalogue FULL of stories where all of the books with Black people on the cover (there were about six in a catalogue of more than a hundred books) were written by white women. And I’m a “little” annoyed. Do better, Can Lit. I’m tired of this.

Slave narrative, girl in hijab, and stories of helping refugees and immigrants find their way. Some of them finalists for awards many of them receiving lovely Kirkus reviews.

To be fair, although I’m not really interested in being fair to this publisher, many of the most concerning titles are from a while back, but I have legitimate concerns about the covers and the way these stories are still being sold and presented as valuable accounts.

If you have no/few poc stories, do you continue pushing appropriated stories? No, because if a school buys that book aren’t they less likely to buy the #ownvoices tale, especially if they have a limited budget? Aren’t they more likely to think their library is well-represented?

Some of you publishers need to take a long hard look at your front list (current titles) and your backlist. You need to stop promoting this stuff that’s deeply problematic AND you need to re-think your acquisitions. MAKE SOME CHANGES. Stop making Black folks your literary muse.

And they have the audacity to use diversity in their tag line.