Miscellany 3-31-2011

* Check out my feature on middle grade author Wendy Wan-Long Shang over at Color Online. =D

* Another link of interest (in case you missed it): "Children's Publishing in Asia" by Teri Tan.

* CONGRATULATIONS to children's book writer and illustrator Shaun Tan for winning this year's Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world's largest prize for children's and young adult literature.

* Speaking of awards for children's and young adult literature, there is a fantastic new one. The South Asia Book Award will be given annually in recognition of a published work of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or folklore, from early childhood to secondary reading levels, published in the U.S., Canada, or U.K., in English, which accurately and skillfully portrays South Asia or South Asians in the diasporas. Very exciting!

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Why I Started This Blog: The Danger of A Single Story

Shweta Ganesh Kumar shared with me this TED Talk from novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about how "a single story" about another person or country can cause critical misunderstanding, and I felt that the talk really reflected why I started this blog. Please watch it below, if you haven't already: I sometimes teach creative writing to children and teens and have been very shocked to see that the first impulse of my students - all Filipinos or Chinese Filipinos ages 11-15 - is to write stories featuring characters with blond hair and blue eyes. It seems that, like the seven-year-old Adichie, my students have "a single story" about what literature is and do not think that people like them can exist in literature. (Needless to say, I am now trying to expose my students to more Filipino literature and literature from other Asian countries.) I blog because our students, nieces and nephews, children, grandchildren, and godchildren NEED AND DESERVE more than "a ...

Ang INK Open for Applications

Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang INK), an association of Filipino artists committed to the creation and promotion of illustrations for children, is open for applications! Application requirements: 1. Accomplished application form . 2. One illustration based on the story "Anong Gupit Natin Ngayon?" 3. Five sample illustrations from your portfolio. Deadline is February 29, 2012, 5 p.m. Email hello@ang-ink.org.

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