Wednesday News: new Harper Lee novel, SFWA accepts self-pub & small press members, ALA Youth Media Awards, and double standards for female authors

JanetPublishing NewsCaldecott Medal / children's lit / gender / Harper Collins / Harper Lee / literature / Newbery Medal / Self-publishing / sexism / SFWA / small press publishing9 Comments

Harper Lee, Author of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ Is to Publish a Second Novel – News of the upcoming Harper Lee release burned through the internet yesterday, announced as it was via Lee’s lawyer and literary agent, complete with prepared quote about how happy Lee was to have this book released to the public, despite her previous insistence that she had no interest in writing any more books. Technically, of course, Go Set a Watchman was written before To Kill A Mockingbird, but what is particularly interesting about this announcement is that it comes very soon after the death of Lee’s sister, Alice, who looked after Harper’s interests (she was an attorney), as the 88-year-old author has been in an assisted care facility, barely able to see or hear. There is, in fact, some concern about the level of Lee’s direct involvement in the book’s publication, according to the NYT article. Apparently the publisher has never even spoken to Lee directly about the book. Things that make you go ‘hmmm.’

On Tuesday, Ms. Lee’s publisher announced its plans to release that novel, recently rediscovered, which Ms. Lee completed in the mid-1950s, before she wrote “To Kill A Mockingbird.” The 304-page book, “Go Set a Watchman,” takes place 20 years later in the same fictional town, Maycomb, Ala., and unfolds as Jean Louise Finch, or Scout, the feisty child heroine of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” returns to visit her father. The novel, which is scheduled for release this July, tackles the racial tensions brewing in the South in the 1950s and delves into the complex relationship between father and daughter.

Although written first, “Go Set a Watchman” is a continuation of the same story, with overlapping themes and characters. But Ms. Lee abandoned the manuscript after her editor, who was captivated by the flashbacks to Scout’s childhood, told her to write a new book from the young heroine’s perspective and to set it during her childhood. –New York Times

SFWA Welcomes Self-Published and Small Press Authors! – So SFWA has finally recognized the importance of self-published and small press books to genre fiction, and has opened both Active and Associate memberships to authors of these types of works. With a vote of 6 to 1, support for this move seems pretty solid, so it will be interesting to see if and how this changes public perception of SFF or internal dynamics.

Specific details will be posted at sfwa.org by the first of March, but the basic standards are $3,000 for novel, or a total of 10,000 words of short fiction paid at 6 cents a word for Active membership. A single story of at least 1,000 words paid at 6 cents a word will be required for Associate membership. Affiliate, Estate, and Institutional membership requirements remain unchanged.

Self-published and small-press works were already eligible for the Nebula and Norton Awards, SFWA’s member-voted genre award, and will remain so.

SFWA will open to applications from small press and independent publishing qualifying members on March 1, 2015. Further information will be available at that time here: http://www.sfwa.org/about/join-us/sfwa-membership-requirements/ –SFWA

‘Adventures Of Beekle’ Wins Caldecott; Newbery Goes To ‘The Crossover’ – Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover, winner of the Newbery, is a book about brothers and sports, and it’s written in verse. Dan Santat’s The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, which won the Caldecott, is a story written from the perspective of an imaginary friend who is looking for his real person friend. Both books are about relationships, and I think the idea of a book about basketball written as poetry is especially cool.

Other winners announced on Monday include:

• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (Coretta Scott King Author Book Award)
• Firebird by Misty Copeland and illustrated by Christopher Myers (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Book Award)
• Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales (Pura Belpré Illustrator Award)
• I Lived on Butterfly Hill by Marjorie Agosín and illustrated by Lee White (Pura Belpré Author Award)
• I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (Michael L. Printz Award)
• The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant and illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award) –NPR

McCullough and Catton: a tale of two sexisms – For anyone interested in the horrific obituary of Colleen McCullough last week, you might want to read this piece on the treatment of Eleanor Catton, the New Zealand author of Booker Prize winning novel, The Luminaries, who generated controversy back home when she spoke at the Jaipur Literature Festival, criticizing neo-liberal politicians for caring only about money and popularity, and not culture and long-term global welfare. The responses from said politicians was, of course, pretty much exemplary of her point, with accusations of disrespect and lack of gratitude for her position working in a public university, and therefore partially supported by public dollars. A subtler but no less destructive form of sexism and anti-intellectualism.

As I read the piece, I recalled the controversy yesterday over the recent Book Riot post on Romance books for readers who “hate Romance,” because while that post seemed to make excuses for Romance, a previous post on SFF for readers unfamiliar with the genre was pretty much judgment free. Coincidence, considering that Romance is generally considered a female-dominated genre?

Interestingly, that’s a position entirely at odds with traditional ideas about women’s role. Catton’s critics imply that novelists, whether male or female, should be assessed solely on the basis of whether they make or cost money. The market, in that sense, offers a kind of equality: irrespective of your race or gender, all that matters is whether or not your particular product sells.

In return for a relatively small amount of funding, Catton generated a huge interest in New Zealand culture. Insofar as she politely promoted her home country, the taxpayer could be said to have achieved a profit.

Her crime was to step outside that framework, to suggest that literature (and culture and politics) has a value fundamentally incommensurate with the cash register. Once she did that, all bets were off – rather than an ambassador for national achievements, she became an enemy to be destroyed. –The Drum

Janet

isn't sure if she's an average Romance reader, or even an average reader, but a reader she is, enjoying everything from literary fiction to philosophy to history to poetry. Historical Romance was her first love within the genre, but she's fickle and easily seduced by the promise of a good read. She approaches every book with the same hope: that she will be filled from the inside out with something awesome that she didnʼt know, didnʼt think about, or didnʼt feel until that moment. And she's always looking for the next mind-blowing read, so feel free to share any suggestions!

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