#OwnVoices Representation: Native American Authors

If you’ve been keeping up with the young adult world recently, you may have heard the rumble caused by J.K. Rowling’s newest addition to the Harry Potter universe, History of Magic in North America. Many have decried it as trivializing and appropriative. Debbie Reese, a founding member of the Native American House and publisher of American Indians in Children’s Literature has put together a phenomenal list of Native writers and their reactions to Rowling.

For years, marginalized young adult readers have demanded their identities be represented in the fiction they consume. The call has gain a spectacular amount of momentum recently. Trending hashtags such as #WeNeedDiverseBooks (started by author Aisha Saeed) and #1000BlackGirlBooks (founded by 11-year-old Marley Dias) took off with active campaigns. Articles circulated about the overwhelming whiteness of the publishing industry. Publishing houses and literary agents are asking specifically for books with diverse characters and authors who themselves identify under the spectrum of diversity.

However, the sort of representation found in Rowling’s “History of Magic in North America” falls in line with another controversy: the question of who can represent marginalized people.

We talk #ownvoices and showcase Native American YA authors on YA Interrobang.