#WeNeedDiverseBooks

This year, when the BookCon released its list of featured authors, the online book world exploded with fury. White authors. Male authors. Straight authors. Cisgender authors. In some cases, all of those things in one. #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaigns kicked off on Twitter, on blogs, and throughout the book and writing communities. Even before that, though, readers and writers knew that there was a problem with diversity in the book scene.

As you may know, I facilitate a local book club and our book choices are democratically voted on by members. After looking at the books that we've read over the past two years since our inception, I realized that we read almost primarily white authors and mostly male authors.

Not only that, but looking at my own personal reading, I realized that I also read mostly white male authors! This was quite a surprising discovery, as I am an activist and advocate for LGBTQ folks, people of color, and women's rights. And now, I find that my consumption of reading material did not reflect that.

For 2014, I vowed to read only authors who fit into one or more of the following categories: non-male identified, non-cis identified, people of color, and/or queer folks. As you can see (above), the books that I have read in 2014 are fairly diverse. Not all of them fall into these categories. John Green is a cis, white, straight, male-identified author. As is Kurt Vonnegut and Ernest Cline. However, as an avid reader, I have become much more aware of who I choose to read, which books I choose to buy, and how my intake as a consumer affects the marketplace, the authors that get published, and who speaks at BookCon.

I was surprised how easy it was to read books by diverse authors. It's not that only white men can write great novels, poetry, and memoirs. People of various backgrounds have many stories to tell and their stories are being written and published. Here are some tips to help you find the great wealth that is diverse books:

• VIDA is a great resource for figuring out which publishers to support (they conduct a yearly count to determine the rate of which publishing houses and presses are publishing men versus women). 
• Find an author that you like, and check out their influences. It is likely that if they are a diverse author, their influences are diverse as well.
• Ask your local bookstore or library for recommendations.
• Check out the variety of blog posts and websites posted under the #WeNeedDiverseBooks hashtag.

Once you have found some amazing new authors to read, start reading! Ask your book club to join you. Ask your professor if they can work to assign readings written by diverse authors. Volunteer at local book events and promote diversity. Figure out your individual way to affect change.

So, with that, I challenge you to choose to read mostly (if not all) diverse books. Enjoy getting a different perspective, or gain validation on your perspective as a cultural being. Consciously choose to read diverse authors until the choices become second-nature. You, and the book community as a whole, will be better for it.