Feb 24

Feb 24 Podcast #19: Diversifying the Shelves (Part 1) with Guests Author Sarah Ockler & Blogger Racquel of the Book Barbies

In episode 19 of the Clear Eyes, Full Shelves we are joined by author Sarah Ockler and welcome back blogger Racquel of The Book Barbies. This is the first in a two-part conversation about diversifying our bookshelves, how writers can work to authentically represent people of color in their fiction and recommendations for books and authors that do this successfully.

It's important to emphasize that this is most definitely not a comprehensive conversation--if anything, it's framing questions and talking about our personal experiences. We have a second part of this podcast coming soon and hope to continue to explore this topic in future episodes.

We invited Sarah Ockler on because she wrote this great post on her blog on this very subject some time ago, and then walked the walk in her next book, The Book of Broken Hearts (2013, Simon Pulse), which we discussed extensively in one of the first podcast episodes of season one. Her next book, #scandal, is due out this summer and Laura and I have both already read and very much enjoyed it. Learn more about Sarah on her website and be sure to follow her on Twitter, too.

Racquel, along with her co-blogger Sharon, runs one of our favorite blogs, The Book Barbies. She's still an actual teen, and is in her first year in college. Racquel is originally from Saudi Arabia and still spends her summers back home, and brought a unique perspective to our conversation. You can find the season one episode about fictional families in which she and Sharon joined us here.

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