Last week was pretty exciting, in large part because so many people were sharing and commenting on the list of lesser-known coming-of-age novels I wrote for Publishers Weekly:

While it felt good to notice that seven out of the ten novels on my list were written by women, I did NOT feel good about the lack of ethnic and cultural diversity. It feels kind of insane to have to admit how clueless I have been regarding the blinding whiteness of the publishing industry. Read this School Library Journal piece by Zetta Elliott and you’ll see what I mean.

What I do feel good about is that we are talking about this lack of diversity. (More on this subject when I have more time. Right now I have to get ready to head back to NYC for Nova’s book launch!)

For now, I will leave you with a photo of the beautiful irises my friend Keith gave me for my launch. I meant to blog this along with the rest of the photos.