Male Monday: Frederick McKissack

The Male Monday feature began with Ari at Reading in Color.

The world of children’s literature suffered a great loss on Sunday 28 April with the passing of Fred McKissack. In the books that he wrote, the stories he told and the life he lived, he paved the way!

Fred McKissack first worked as a civil engineer for the city of St. Louis and then with U.S. Army. He also owned his own general contracting company in St. Louis. In the early 1980s, he began writing children’s books with his wife, Patricia. Even when his name was not in the title, he was there in the research in the books his wife would write.

What was it that made their writing special? In reading through inteviews with the McKissacks, I find so many examples, both those stated directed and those implied through tone and sentiment that explain why this couple managed to create over 100 books for children. Perhaps the most obvious explanation of what made them special is that they were always there, together  even for each interview. Once, an interviewer asked Frederick if only one could attend an award ceremony, who would go?

Neither one. Why? Because Pat wouldn’t dream of going without Fred and Fred wouldn’t go without Pat. We are a team, and a team is just that — we come as a package, and those who give awards know that. Now, Pat has won awards for her work, and Fred has won awards that have honored his work. That’s different. We go and cheer the other one’s success. But when we share an award we share it 50-50. Think of it this way. If we get a bad review or don’t win an award, that is certainly shared, then so should the rewards of our combined efforts.

If one can care that much for those inside their world, they can care almost as much for those of us on the outside as well.

What did they write about?

And our niche was that time period between 1800 and 1900 — that’s pre-Civil War, Civil War, post-Civil War, up through and until the Harlem Renaissance. And we just carved that out as our niche and we worked very, very hard to try to tell that story. And I hope that what we’ve done is to make our history a little bit clearer — something that doesn’t make the children feel ashamed or hurt.

It is not designed to point a finger or to make some child in a classroom feel responsible for all that happened back then, but we can’t shovel it under the rug and say that those things did not happen — they did. But let’s tell it by telling an even-handed, well-researched, well-documented story and that’s what we tried to do in Days of Jubilee, Rebels Against Slavery, and Goin’ Someplace Special. And even the whale men, White Hands, Black…I mean, Black Hands, White Sails.

“We could write 100 books a year for the next 100 years and still not scratch the surface of stories that have fallen through the cracks, ” says Pat McKissack.

Complete biographies can be found at Publishers Weekly or the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Male Monday: Jimmy Santiago Baca

I’m quilting it all together today with Jimmy Santiago Baca. He’s here on Male Monday this first Monday in April: Poetry month. From his biography:

   Baca has devoted his post-prison life to writing and teaching others who are overcoming hardship. His themes include American Southwest barrios, addiction, injustice, education, community, love and beyond. He has conducted hundreds of writing workshops in prisons, community centers, libraries, and universities throughout the country.

Welcome April, month of poetry!

Ten
from Healing Earthquakes (1989)

If it does not feed the fire
of your creativity, then leave it.
If people and things do not
inspire your heart to dream,
then leave them.
If you are not crazily in love
and making a stupid fool of yourself,
then stop closer to the edge
of your heart and climb
where you’ve been forbidden to go.
Debts, accusations, assaults by enemies
mean nothing,
go where the fire feeds you.
Turn your attention to the magic of whores,
grief, addicts and drunks, until you stumble upon
that shining halo surrounding your heart
that will allow you to violate every fear happily,
be where you’re not supposed to be,
the love of an angel who’s caught your blood on fire
again, who’s gulped all of you in one breath
to mix in her soul, to explode your brooding
and again, your words rush from the stones
like a river coursing down
from some motherly mountain source,
and if your life doesn’t spill forth
unabashedly, recklessly, randomly
pushing in wonder at life,
then change, leave, quit, silence the idle chatter
and do away with useless acquaintances
who have forgotten how to dream,
bitch rudely in your dark mood at the mediocrity
of scholars who meddle in whimsy for academic trifles–
let you be their object of scorn,
let you be their object of mockery,
let you be their chilling symbol
of what they never had the courage to do, to complete, to follow,
let you be the flaming faith that makes them shield their eyes
as you burn from all sides,
taking a harmless topic and making of it a burning galaxy
or shooting stars in the dark of their souls,
illuminating your sadness, your aching joy for life,
your famished insistence for God and all that is creative
to attend you as a witness to your struggle,
let the useless banter and quick pleasures
belong to others, the merchants, computer analysts
and government workers;
you haven’t been afraid
of rapture among thieves
bloody duels in drunken brawls,
denying yourself
the essence of your soul work
as poems rusted while you scratched
at your heart to see if it was a diamond
and not cheap pane of glass,
now, then, after returning form one more poet’s journey
in the heart of the bear, the teeth of the wolf,
the legs of the wild horse,
sense what your experience tells you,
your ears ringing with deception and lies and foul tastes,
now that your memory is riddled with blank loss,
tyrants who wielded their boastful threats
to the sleeping dogs and old trees in the yards,
now that you’ve returned form men and women
who’ve abandoned their dreams and sit around
like corpses in the grave moldering with regret,
steady your heart now, my friend, with fortitude
long-lasting enduring hope, and hail the early dawn
like a ship off coast that’s come for you,
spent and ragged and beggared,
if what you do and how you live does not feed the fire
in your heart and blossom into poems,
leave, quit, do not turn back,
move fast away from that which would mold your gift,
break it, disrespect it, kill it.
Guard it, nurture it, take your full-flung honorable
heart and plunge it into the fire
into the stars, into the trees, into the hearts of others
sorrow and love and restore the dream
by writing of its again-discovered wild beauty.

source

Male Monday: Laurence Yep

Laurence Yep was born 14 June 1948 in Sacramento, CA.

Ari, of Reading in Color began this meme!

How many of Laurence Yep’s books have you read?

Laurence Yep has published over 30 children’s and young adult books. His most recent book, Dragon child: A story of Angel Island is based on an actual conversation between Yep and his father and on his niece’s research on the family’s immigration history. He has authored several book series, stories set in historical and modern times, and has been awarded the Newbery Honor twice. The first time in 1976 for Dragonwings and again in 1994  for Dragon’s Gate. Yep also received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal in 2005. This Medal is adminstered by the Association for  Library Services to Children and is awarded to writers and illustrators who have, over several years, made lasting and meaningful contributions to children’s literature.

Click to read an excerpt.

I have no doubt that Yep’s works will be lasting because they are meaningful.

Laurence Yep’s Reading Rockets interview.

“I love writing. I think of writing as a special way of seeing, because good writing brings out the specialness of ordinary things.”

Laurence Yep’s papertigers blog interview in which when he is asked “How has being of Chinese heritage been important to you?” And he responds:
“The answer to that question has changed dramatically more than once. As a child I hated Chinese school. I wanted to be as American as possible. Then, in my early twenties, I became very interested in my Chinese roots. For years after that, I thought that my function as a Chinese-American writer was to act as a bridge between two cultures. Now, though, I am not so sure that it is possible to blend two cultures together. Asian cultures are family- and cooperation-oriented. American culture on the other hand emphasizes the individual and competition. The two cultures pull in opposite directions. So I see myself now as someone who will always be on the borer between two cultures. That works to my benefit as a writer because not quite fitting in helps me be a better observer.”

“I only knew that there was a certain rightness in life–the feeling you got when you did something the way you knew you should.”
― Laurence Yep, Dragonwings

click for an excerpt

click for an excerpt

Male Monday: Craig Laurance Gidney

Craig Laurance Gidney is the author of Sea Swallow Me and Other Stories and the soon to be released Bereft (publication pushed back to February.)
This short bio from his Amazon page describes his talents.
Craig Laurance Gidney writes both contemporary, young adult and genre fiction. Recipient of the 1996 Susan C. Petrey Scholarship to the Clarion West writer’s workshop, Gidney has published works in the fantasy/science fiction, gay and young adult categories.

These works include “A Bird of Ice,” (from the anthology So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction (Lethe Press)) which was on the short list for the 2008 Gaylactic Spectrum Award; “The Safety of Thorns,” which received special notice by editor Ellen Datlow in her 2006 Year’s Best Fantasy Horror summary; “Mauve’s Quilt” (from the anthology the young adult fantasy anthology Magic in the Mirrorstone (Wizards of the Coast)); and “Bereft,” included in the anthology From Where We Sit: Black Writers Write Black Youth (Tiny Satchel Press).

Gidney’s first collection, Sea, Swallow Me and Other Stories was nominated for the 2009 Lambda Literary Award in the Science. Fiction/Fantasy and Horror category.

And, here’s a chance to begin to know him personally!

 

Where did you grow up?

I am a native of Washington, DC.

Do you have any pets?

One tuxedo kitty, Cassie. She watched me write the book from her various perches.
What do you enjoy watching on television?

I do. I watch American Horror Story, some trash TV, and cartoons—particularly Simpsons, and Bob’s Burgers.

Meat or vegetables?

Both. I can’t quit meat!
Are there any books that stand out in your memory from your childhood?

The Secret Garden, A Wrinkle In Time, Bridge to Terabithia, the novels of Virginia Hamilton. Each of them opened my mind in a new way, and kindled my imagination.

What book(s) are you in the middle of reading right now?

The Devil In Silver, by Victor LaValle–a thriller about the mental health industry.

It seems that you are a short story/short fiction writer. What challenges you most in writing these?

The most challenging thing about being a short fiction writer is to make every word and image count. You have to create a world, an atmosphere and character in a limited amount of time. I love short fiction that has the density of a novel, but is brief. I often find that many of ‘failed’ short fiction is often the first chapter of a novel.

What drew you to write young adult fiction?

I’ve always read YA—they are kind of like my ‘popcorn’ books. I also think that YA books deal with pretty heavy and topical subjects. It’s an interesting audience to write for, as well.

Could you speak to the need for queer young adult literature written by authors of color?

I think that young adults—ages 13-18—need to see representations of themselves in fiction. I know that reading queer literature when I was young was a life altering event. And reading books by authors of color was the same. I was a very lonely teenager, with a deep dark secret. Reading Samuel Delany or James Baldwin helped me; they made me realize that I wasn’t alone.

In one of your interviews, you mentioned that your stories all begin with an image. What image inspired Bereft?

The image of a white mask over a black face inspired me. It’s the cover of a book by Franz Fanon—Black Skin, White Masks. My older brother had the book and I remember being spooked by it. When I sat down to write about Rafael Fannen, that image came to mind. A motif of masks runs throughout the book.

What is Bereft about?

 It’s the story of a boy who wins a scholarship to a prestigious religious school. He must deal with the culture shock—he’s from a different class and neighborhood than the other kids, He’s also learning about himself and his sexuality. In addition, his life at home is less than stable. The book is written in a third person limited style—you get to see and hear and feel everything Rafe feels.

Is there a teacher, coach or librarian you’d love to have read Bereft? Why?

I would love my writing teachers to read Bereft—it would show them how much I’ve learned from them. I had to use various techniques to write the book, and I have them to thank for showing me how to construct a sustained work.

When did you know you were meant to be a writer?

Frankly, I was good at nothing else. I was always creating characters and stories in my head, and writing them down just seemed like a natural extension of that.

Did you make a resolution for 2013?

To finish at least one of the novels that are brewing in my brain!

Craig, thanks so much for the interview and I wish you much success!