South Asian American Literature and Immigration: How Geographical shifts, Politics, and Migration Today Shape the Literary World for the Children of Tomorrow
Title and/or Affiliation
Pooja Makhijani, Author
Presenter Bio
Pooja Makhijani is the author of Mama’s Saris (2007) and Bread is Love (forthcoming). She is also the editor of Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America (2004). Her bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Real Simple, The Atlantic, WSJ.com, The Cut, Teen Vogue, Epicurious, Publishers Weekly, ELLE, Bon Appétit, The Kitchn, BuzzFeed, and Catapult among others. She holds degrees from Johns Hopkins University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Rutgers University.
Session
Panel: South Asian Literature for Young Readers
Location
Zoom
Start Date
30-6-2024 11:00 AM
End Date
30-6-2024 12:15 PM
Abstract
In recent years, there has been more activism in the children's literature community centered on representation, but diversity advocates can sometimes have a limited view of the genre's history. In 1927, the author Dhan Gopal Mukerji published a slim novel, Gay Neck: The Story of a Pigeon, which follows the adventures of the titular Calcutta carrier bird, and the bird's young owner, Ghond; in 1928, Mukerji won the John Newbery Medal, awarded every year for the best work of American literature for children — the first person of color to do so. Gay Neck and Mukerji found unlikely success nearly a century ago thanks to the collision of a number of forces, both personal and historical--including Mukerji's prodigious talent, U.S. immigration policy, and seismic events such as world war and decolonization on the Indian subcontinent.
This presentation will elucidate the ways the history of South Asian literature intersects with the history of the South Asian diaspora in the U.S. to help writers and illustrators and educators better understand how geographical shifts, politics, and migration today shape the literary world for the children of tomorrow. It will include recommended reads across all age categories, with an emphasis on books that have been published in the last decade, and identify existing gaps in representation, especially in geography, class, and caste.
South Asian American Literature and Immigration: How Geographical shifts, Politics, and Migration Today Shape the Literary World for the Children of Tomorrow
Zoom
In recent years, there has been more activism in the children's literature community centered on representation, but diversity advocates can sometimes have a limited view of the genre's history. In 1927, the author Dhan Gopal Mukerji published a slim novel, Gay Neck: The Story of a Pigeon, which follows the adventures of the titular Calcutta carrier bird, and the bird's young owner, Ghond; in 1928, Mukerji won the John Newbery Medal, awarded every year for the best work of American literature for children — the first person of color to do so. Gay Neck and Mukerji found unlikely success nearly a century ago thanks to the collision of a number of forces, both personal and historical--including Mukerji's prodigious talent, U.S. immigration policy, and seismic events such as world war and decolonization on the Indian subcontinent.
This presentation will elucidate the ways the history of South Asian literature intersects with the history of the South Asian diaspora in the U.S. to help writers and illustrators and educators better understand how geographical shifts, politics, and migration today shape the literary world for the children of tomorrow. It will include recommended reads across all age categories, with an emphasis on books that have been published in the last decade, and identify existing gaps in representation, especially in geography, class, and caste.