Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond (Call for Submissions)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Forthcoming anthology gathers “tales from Afrofuturism and beyond”

Co-editors Bill Campbell and Edward Austin Hall are pleased to announce that their forthcoming anthology, Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond, has already attracted a diverse array of story submissions. Nonetheless, with the May 1 deadline looming for the end of the collection’s submissions phase, the editors hope to see yet more genre fiction by, for, and/or about persons of color.

Washington, D.C.-based Campbell, who initiated the project, describes its genesis and goals this way: “When we look up at the night sky, space is black as far as the eye can see. Yet when we read novels about it or watch something on TV or in the movie theater, it is white beyond all comprehension. With this collection, we hope to give space some much needed … color, shall we say (and other genres, of course).”

Hall, a longtime Atlantan, said of the acquisition process for Mothership, “We’ve been extraordinarily lucky. In just the last few days we accepted several stories, including ones from Nisi Shawl, Eden Robinson, and Junot Diaz. I can’t wait to see the stories yet to come, though, whether from practiced hands or exciting new talents.” 

More information about the project (including guidelines for submission) and the anthologists appears online: http://mothershipconnect.com/index.html

 

Hall and Campbell are available for interview via edwardahall@gmail.com and 404.755.7575 or muthaship1@gmail.com and 301.456.6439, respectively.

2013 SLBAM Winners and Honorees

The Street Lit Book Award Medal (SLBAM) Committee is proud to announce the award winners for 2012 publications. The following winners and honorees were nominated based on popularity of books as read by the public in school, academic, and public library settings. In other words, the SLBAM honors what street lit readers are reading and deeming as the best authors and titles for the 2012 publication year.

ADULT NON-FICTION WINNER: THE NEW JIM CROW BY MICHELLE ALEXANDER (reprint, 2012)

Honorees: 
1) A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball by Dwayne Wade
2) Empire State of Mind:  How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office by Zack O'Malley Greenburg
3) Purpose: An Immigrant's Story by Wyclef Jean

SLBAM Feedback:
-- “The New Jim Crow has seen an amazing resurgence in its reprint edition, becoming an important read for many.”
-- "People won't stop asking for The New Jim Crow."
-- "My students enjoy A Father First … learning how Wade, a homeboy from Chicago, juggles fatherhood and the NBA."

ADULT FICTION WINNER: ANIMAL BY K'WAN
Honorees:
1) Get It Girls by Treasure Blue
2) Murder Was the Case by Kiki Swinson
3) Coca Kola by Nisa Santiago

SLBAM Feedback:
-- "For a second year in a row, K'wan keeps readers flocking to the library looking for his latest release."
-- "It always boils down to K'wan and Treasure Blue. This year, the battle between K'wan and Treasure Blue can be compared to Holyfield and Tyson."  

YOUNG ADULT FICTION WINNER: ON THE FLIP SIDE: A FAB LIFE NOVEL by NIKKI CARTER
Honorees:
1) How to Get Out of Your Own Way by Tyrese Gibson
2) Shattered by Kia Dupree
3) Back to Me by Earl Sewell

SLBAM Feedback:
-- "Many of my students began their pre-teen years reading Nikki Carter’s So For Real series and now have graduated to her Fab Life series. It's great to see Nikki Carter honored."
-- "My young library patrons love Nikki Carter."
-- "Tyrese Gibson's book is the talk among teens at my school."
-- "DuPree does it again and takes her readers on an emotional rollercoaster ride."
-- "My teens can't get enough of books written by Sewell."

EMERGING CLASSIC: ANIMAL BY K'WAN

SLBAM Committee Feedback:

-- "Readers are voraciously enjoying Animal!"

-- "The character Animal is one of the most ruthless yet misunderstood characters in modern day Street Literature."

-- "Animal is a masterpiece... a continuation of setting the high standard for Street Lit..."

AUTHOR OF THE YEAR: K'WAN

For 2013, the SLBAM Committee honors Essence (magazine) bestselling author K'wan, for his continuous commitment to raising the bar for the literary quality of Street Lit. K'wan approaches his stories with a Dickens-esque quality, paying deep attention to social ills that motivate his characters to live the lives they live in his stories. K'wan is also cited for his prolific writing career with having authored 20 very popular novels, plus two novellas, and has been featured in three anthologies, all within the past decade, offering a solid foundation upon which contemporary Street Lit continues to evolve. Readers love K'wan. Case in point, one SLBAM Committee member shared: "After an intense debate, my book discussion group picked K'wan."

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Methodology: The SLBAM Committee conducted three nomination rounds where they reported on field research of patron readership and reader response to street lit in libraries. The committee discussed all nominated titles. The "Emerging Classic" category recognizes a street lit-plotted or -themed book that was published during or before the year of nomination but continues to be in popular demand by the reading public. Another special category, "Author(s) of the Year", recognizes an author or writing team whose publications were particularly well-received by the reading public during the nomination year. Aside from the "Emerging Classic" category, books eligible for SLBAM nomination were required to be published between January 1, 2012 - December 31, 2012.

For more information about the Street Lit Book Award Medal (SLBAM) or if you are interested in participating on the committee, contact: vanirvimorris@gmail.com. For a historical listing of SLBAM Awards, visit: http://www.streetliterature.com/p/slbam.html.

2013 SLBAM Committee Members:

K.C. Boyd, M.Ed., M.L.S., is the Library Media Specialist at the acclaimed Wendell Phillips Academy High School in Chicago, IL. Boyd is a nationally sought-out lecturer on street lit, and she blogs about young adult street lit/urban fiction at http://theaudaciouslibrarian.blogspot.com/.

Marvin DeBose, Sr., M.L.S., is an Adult/Teen Librarian with the Free Library of Philadelphia (PA). An often sought-out panelist for discussing street lit in libraries, Marvin manages the largest street lit public library collection in Philadelphia, and also runs a teen street lit book club where they discuss their readings at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/277733218945733/.

Connie Farley is Reference Technician for St. Louis (MO) Public Library where she runs an Urban Lit Discussion Group that boasts a diverse membership coming from several African and Caribbean nations.

D.L. Grant, Jr., M.L.S., is an Assistant Branch Manager with the San Antonio Public Library System. Grant is studying for his doctorate's degree in English studies.

Patrice Grimball-Smith is a Librarian Assistant in Young Adult Services for the Charleston County Public Library System in Charleston, South Carolina.  She is also President of the Readers in Motion Bookclub, http://facebook.com/ReadersInMotion.

Takiyah Jemison, M.L.S., is currently Head of the Cataloging Department at Fayetteville State University. She has a B.A in History and she received her Master in Library Science from North Carolina Central University. She is an avid reader of different genres such as psychological thrillers, urban literature, and true crimes.

Vanessa Irvin Morris, M.L.S., Ed.D., is the convener of the Street Lit Book Award Medal (SLBAM) Committee. She is the author of the Street Literature blog at http://www.streetliterature.com, and the award-winning publication, The Readers Advisory Guide to Street Literature (2011). Vanessa teaches library and information science at a private research university in Northeast USA.

Street / Urban / Multicultural Literature: Breakin' it down

Educators are still having a hard time making the distinction between Street Lit and Urban Literature, Street Lit and African American Literature, and Street Lit and Multicultural Literature. I want to state that just because there are people of color in a story, that doesn't automatically make the book a Street Lit book and it doesn't automatically classify the book as a contribution to a certain ethnically identified literary genre. I believe that there are significant differences between Street Lit, Urban Literature, and Multicultural Literature.

In my book, The Readers Advisory Guide to Street Literature, I make the case that Street Lit is a sub-genre of Urban Literature. Urban Literature is a genre that features stories about city experiences (as opposed to rural experiences), regardless of ethnic identity or socio-economic status. In essence, urban literature are stories about city living (fiction and non-fiction).

Street Lit is a sub-genre of Urban Literature because the stories depict a certain flavor/aspect of city life and reality based on socio-economic status. Many people mistakenly think that Street Lit is an African American / Latino genre and it is not. In yesteryear in America, street lit stories were about European immigrants and their survival stories as low-income city dwellers. Today it’s about the current groups that live in those low income areas and those people just happen to be African American and Latino, for the most part, but by no means, exclusively.

Multicultural Literature doesn't directly factor into Street Lit or Urban Literature, in my humble opinion; unless we’re talking about the fact that the current outcome of Street Lit depicts a diverse group of city dwellers which would include everyone: European Americans, African Americans, Latin Americans, Asian Americans, and characters of varying sexual orientations, mobility levels, languages, and literacies.

This Is How You Do It: On the Streets

Renowned Street Lit author, Treasure Blue, is poundin' the pavement TODAY - Valentine's Day, doin' his hustle to sell his latest book, Fly Betty. This is how and why street lit/urban fiction readers and authors have such an amazing relationship that has kept this genre thriving for over 15 years now. Readers support street lit authors because street lit authors support their readers!

Photo credit: DC BookDiva, 02/14/2013.

In the Margins Committee Looking for Members

In the Margins Committee 

What is it? A group of Librarians under the umbrella of Library Services for Youth in Custody seeking out and highlighting books: preschool through adult fiction and non-fiction titles of high-interest appeal to boys or girls, ages 9-18 who may fit into one or all of the following categories:

• multicultural (primarily African American and Latino)
• from a street culture
• in restrictive custody
• reluctant readers

What does it do? The committee will select and review the best books of the year, specifically for the population listed above. Titles of interest may be unusual, possibly unreviewed, have multicultural characters, dealing with difficult situations including (but not limited to) street life, marginalized populations, crime, justice, war, violence, abuse, addiction, etc.

Blog featuring highlighted titles: YA Underground, a School Library Journal (SLJ) column will run reviews every other month or so through-out the year. Please see: http://www.slj.com/2013/01/books-media/collection-development/ya-underground-books-for-teens-you-might-have-missed/ for an example. 

The final list will be decided upon by this committee and also run in SLJ. Books will be put on the Library Services for Youth in Custody website. 

We have openings for a few positions. If interested,  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDZqR1RIQ0FQOGJkVTRJcmZoVWVfN1E6MQ#gid=0

Committee membership and requirements:

• research and nominate titles that are self, independently and small press published,
• research and nominate titles of interest from all publishers 
• provide written review of books, and read for special content for detention facilities
• read all nominated titles
• work with or do outreach to teens in custody and/or from street culture.
• get feedback from at least 3-10 teens on each title
• actively participate in email discussions
• meet 4-6 times a year via video conferencing and/or in person

For more information, contact Amy Cheney at ajcheney@mac.com

Must-Have NEW READS: Souljah, Antoinette, Blue

      

Sister Souljah's long-awaited sequel to the classic Coldest Winter Ever is now on sale and has just hit the NYT Bestsellers List. So you are going to want to stock this title for your patrons and students.

Ashley Antoinette's 3rd installment in her new Prada Plan series has also just hit the markets and has also, just hit the NYT Bestsellers List. Urban/Street Lit readers are going to be requesting this title, also, so be sure to stock up!

Treasure Blue is an intensely popular author with a solid fan base. Fly Betty is enjoying a 5-star rating on Amazon.com and is climbing the book sales charts rapidly. Be prepared to have extra copies on hand of this title because you will definitely be getting requests.

StreetLiterature.com will be posting reviews of these titles in the near future!

SLBAM Committee Reconvenes to determine 3rd Street Lit Book Award Medal

Greetings!

StreetLiterature.com is happy to announce that the Street Lit Book Award Medal (SLBAM) Committee has reconvened for the 3rd year in a row, and is busy reading, researching and going through the nomination process to bestow the 2013 Street Lit Book Award Medal for street lit books published in 2012.

We also need YOUR help! If you have a title(s) that have been popular at your library, post a comment below and we will add the title for nomination.

The categories this year are:

-- Non-Fiction / Biography (Adult)

-- Fiction (Adult)

-- Young adult fiction (YA)

-- Emerging Classic (to acknowledge previously published works that continue to be in popular
    demand by the reading public)

-- Author(s) of the year

The awards for these categories are scheduled to be announced by March 18, 2013.

For last year's awards, see: http://www.streetliterature.com/2012/03/2012-street-lit-book-award-medal.html

SLBAM Committee Mission:

The Street Lit Book Award Medal Committee comprises of a group of professional librarians and library staffers who volunteer to serve on the committee for a 2-year period, from across the U.S. and beyond, if possible. These professionals invariably work on the front lines of librarianship and work with Street Lit and its readers in public, school, and academic libraries. The Committee collects, researches, discusses, and nominates titles based on library patron popularity, book club interest, and overall reception of the story as a valuable addition to the Street Literature genre. Three rounds of nominations results in winners for the previous year's publications.