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| Alicia D. Williams (Jasiatic Photography) |
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Alicia D. Williams received three awards and honors from ALA's Youth Media Awards: in December her debut, Genesis Begins Again (Atheneum), was named one of five William C. Morris Book Award finalists and, last week, she received both a Newbery Honor and the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Author Award for New Talent.
Congratulations! And thank you so much for chatting with Shelf Awareness. This is a lot. How are you feeling?
That should be an easy question to answer. But every word seems generic: thrilled, excited, honored, grateful (well, honored and grateful are good ones). While all of these are true, they don't seem to capture what's swirling inside me right now. I had to fight myself from feeling guilty about winning and even hoping to win because so many brilliant stories and authors deserve it, too. Conversations with a few wonderful people who reminded me how hard and how long I've worked and all I've endured to finish this story confirmed that I'm worthy to embrace my feelings, generic and all.
When you first started growing Genesis Begins Again as a little baby idea, did you think it had the ability to be as impactful as it is turning out to be? Or was it never a baby idea? Did it appear fully formed in your mind?
It wasn't a baby idea. I wish I could say that I knew what I was writing and even spin a fantastic story about dreaming the plot, but it would be untrue. At one point, however, it was about a heavy-set girl who was bullied who happened to be dark-skinned. But through the years, the story grew, shortened, evolved to be about colorism--discrimination within the same ethnic group based on skin tone and facial features.
I didn't even think people would read my book. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true. I assumed some people would buy it and I would have a few photos to share on social media. But this?! No. Couldn't even imagine it if a psychic told me. That's probably why when people said, "I read your book," I'd cock my head to the side and parrot, "You read my book?" Even so, I did hope that it would be impactful.
Why did you want to tell this story? And why to this age group?
"Why" wasn't a question when I initially began Genesis. That wasn't revealed until much later, after the book deal. Then, I witnessed little kindergartners not choosing a crayon that matched their skin tone or little girls crying because their hair was big and bushy. How did they know to feel ashamed? At age five? The subject matter of colorism is one that certain communities would rather not discuss in mainstream platforms, so secretly I feared that the story wasn't going to be accepted. Yet, I continued to see children of color--every colonized country has a colorism issue--struggle with self-acceptance and self-love based on skin color and hair texture. The need to speak to them was the driving force of completing this story.
What actually came first was character and voice. You can say that my writing mind was kidnapped by a feisty flawed middle grader.
What is your hope for this book? Do you hope readers find it or appreciate it in certain ways?
Thankfully, the awards have added validation that this book should be recognized. It is my hope that it is used in classrooms and read across the globe to continue the conversation of colorism. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness