— Last checked March-April 2024 by Monty Young & Setav Kamal, Langara College Library & Information Technology practicum students.
On This Page:
- Focus on CanLit
- Focus on Race
- Focus on Strategies
- More Essays on Diversity in General
- Ongoing Resources
Focus On CanLit
- Dundas, Deborah. “The Year in Review: CanLit Is Dead, Long Live CanLit.” The Star, Dec. 30, 2018. Read Article
- Elliott, Alicia. “CanLit Is a Raging Dumpster Fire.” Open Book, Sep. 7, 2017. Read Article
- Granholm, Kirsti. “Where We Started and Where We’re Heading: An Introduction to the Evolution of CanLit.” The Canadian Children’s Book Centre, Jul. 2, 2019. Read Article
- McGregor, Hannah, Julia Rak & Erin Wunker, eds. “Refuse: CanLit in Ruins.” Book*hug Press, Nov. 15, 2018. More Info | Find in a Library
- Miller, Monica. “Diversity in CanLit.” 49th Shelf. Recommended reading for diverse Canadian books. Read Article
- Raymundo, Bridget. “10 Canadian Books to Read During Asian Heritage Month.” CBC, May 5, 2023. Read Article
- Sookfong Lee, Jen. “Open Letters and Closed Doors: How the Steven Galloway Open Letter Dumpster Fire Forced Me to Acknowledge the Racism and Entitlement at the Heart of CanLit.” The Humber Literary Review. Read Article
- Thorkelson, Erika. “Setting the CanLit canon on fire.” University Affairs, March 6, 2020. Read Article
- Wang, Yilin. “Racism in #CanLit: Barriers in Publishing & the Need for Safe Spaces.” Oct. 18, 2019. Read Article
Focus on Race
- Alter, Alexandra and Elizabeth A. Harris. “Publishing Pledged to Diversify. Change Has Been Slow.” The New York Times, Feb. 28, 2024. Read Article
- Baxter, Amy Mae. “What Will It Take To Eliminate Racism In The Publishing World?” Vogue, August 13, 2021. Read Article
- Canas, Tania. “Diversity Is a White Word.” ArtsHub, Jan. 9, 2017. Read Article
- Deahl, Rachel. “Why Publishing Is So White.” PublishersWeekly.Com, Mar. 11, 2016. Read Article
- DiAngelo, Robin. “White people are still raised to be racially illiterate. If we don’t recognize the system, our inaction will uphold it.” NBC News, Sept. 16, 2018. Read Article
- DiAngelo, Robin. “Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism.” HuffPost, Dec. 6, 2017. Read Article
- Isen, Tajja.“How the Book Industry Turns Its Own Racism into a Marketable Product.” Literary Hub, Apr. 20, 2022. Read Article
- Kantor, Emma. “’People of Color in Publishing’: Striving for More Industry Diversity.” Publishers Weekly, Dec. 12, 2017. Read Article
- Kim, Sandra. “Why Healing from Internalized Whiteness Is A Missing Link in White People’s Anti-Racism Work.” Everyday Feminism. More Info
- Rajesh, Monisha. “Pointing out racism in books is not an ‘attack’ – it’s a call for industry reform” The Guardian, August 13, 2021. Read Article
- Oluo, Ijeoma. So You Want To Talk About Race. Seal Press, Jan. 16, 2018. More Info
- Vallianatos, Mary Anne. “Best Approaches for Anti-Racism Education: A Literature Review.” University of Victoria, Aug. 2018. Read Report
- McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” Wellesley College Center for Research on Women. Essay excerpted from Working Paper 189. “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies”, 1988.
“I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group.” Read
Focus on Strategies
- “Best Practices for Equity-Driven Acquisitions – Tech Forum 2019.” BookNet Canada. Watch Video
- Chertock, Marlena. “How to Make Your Literary Magazine More Inclusive.” Association of Writers & Writing Programs, Oct. 2017. Read Article
- Chen, Joyce. “The Politics of Gatekeeping: On Reconsidering the Ethics of Blind Submissions.” Poets & Writers, Oct. 7, 2020. Read Article
- “Diversity in Publishing From A to Z: A List of Book Publishers Who Specialize in Diversity and Inclusion.” Feb. 19, 2019. Visit Site
- “Diversity in Publishing: What Can You Do as an Editor?” Reedsy Blog, Apr. 27, 2021. Read Article
- “Overcoming Bias and Diversity Issues in Publishing.” Bias and diversity issues are still prevalent in the magazine industry. The blog post talks about how the industry needs to address issues of inequality in the workplace. Read Article
- Sparkes, Ainsley. “Building in-house momentum for diverse books.” BookNet Canada, Nov. 27, 2017. Listen to Podcast
- Reimer, Nikki. “Hold Your Fucking Communities Accountable: Defining and creating safer spaces for women, trans, non-binary individuals, and people of colour in literary writing communities.” The Insurgent Architects’ House for Creative Writing. Read Article
- Thomson, Stephanie. “How to Make Your Writing More Inclusive.” Medium, May 30, 2019. Read Article
More Essays on Diversity in General
- Ansari, Sadiya. “Diverse from What?’: Dionne Brand on Art for All People.” The Globe and Mail, Sep. 27, 2018. Read Article
- Baker, Jennifer. “When It Comes to Inclusivity in Publishing, Editors Also Play a Role.” Electric Literature, Oct. 25, 2017. Read Article
- Crispin, Jessa. “Publishing’s Diversity Problems, or The Paris Review Was Started by the CIA” (w/ Alexis Aceves Garcia). Listen Notes, Feb. 21, 2019. Listen to Podcast
- “Diversity: Issues Facing Underrepresented Writers.” National Writers Union. Read Article
- Ho, Jean. “Diversity In Book Publishing Isn’t Just About Writers — Marketing Matters, Too.” National Public Radio, Aug. 9, 2018. Read Article
- Mani, Hamidreza “Foot print of a paper: accountability in academic publishing.” The Lancet, August 06, 2016. Read
- Neary, Lynn. “To Achieve Diversity in Publishing, A Difficult Dialogue Beats Silence.” NPR, Aug. 20, 2014. Read Article
- “Responsibility and Accountability of Authors and Co-authors.” Reproductive BioMedicine Online, Vol 16. No 6. 2008 p. 763-764. April 21, 2008. Read Report
- Rodan, Galit. “Reflected on the Page.” The Globe & Mail, Jul. 28, 2017. Read Article
- Teixeira da Silva, Jamie A. & Judit Bobranski. “How Authorship is Defined by Multiple Publishing Organizations and STM Publishers.” Taylor & Frances Online, November 23, 2015. Read
- Zachary, A. Light. “For New Gatekeepers.” Arc Poetry Magazine, June 20, 2018. Read Article
Ongoing Resources
- Baker, Jenn. “Minorities in Publishing.” This podcast discusses diversity among authors, people in the book publishing industry, people in literary fields, and other professionals working in-house. Listen to Podcast
- PublisHer: An organization that provides diversity and inclusion guidelines targeting the inclusion of more women in publishing. Visit Site
- Rethinking Diversity in CanLit: Originally started as a high school project, this blog challenges current curriculum standards to change to more, contemporary, diverse Canadian content. Visit Site