There is an article I read recently from a reader writing for a blog, I think, more than a writer, in which she pointed out that she would never see herself in the literature she reads for a whole host of reasons that had to do with who she is, and even the books that qualify as diverse literature never seem to realise as much as they’re being diverse, they are still writing one type of diversity — one type of character.
It seems like such an immense thing to be truly diverse, to write something for the readers out there in the world and truly represent them. But, what Ambelin Kwaymullina’s quote makes me think of is how lonely it would be if publishers and authors didn’t try to be diverse instead of putting it in the too-hard, not-profitable enough pile or passing the buck and saying they’re not getting the diverse books to publish.
It’s not just the POCs, people of different cultures and religions that lose out — it’s all readers as Ambelin points out. Of any colour and any religion who look to fiction to take them away from their own worlds into something entirely different.
Everyone wins when it comes to diversity in fiction?
