African Voices Summer 2017 AV Summer 2017 Digital Issue | Page 30

AUTHOR INTERVIEW
African Voices Interview with Children’s
Book Author Zetta Elliott
A poet, playwright, novelist, children’s book illustrator, essayist,
and activist for diversity and equality in publishing, Zetta Elliott
pens stories about the lives of children and young adults. A
Canadian native and Brooklyn resident, her work has appeared
in many anthologies, including the “The Ringing Ear: Black
Poets Lean South” and “Coloring Book: An Eclectic Anthology
of Fiction and Poetry by Multicultural Writers.” Her essays have
been published in The Huffington Post, Publishers Weekly, and
the School Library Journal. Her plays have been performed in
Chicago, New York, and Cleveland. Her picture book, “Bird,”
won the Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers. She has
nabbed a Children’s Literature Association’s Article Award for
her essay “The Trouble with Magic: Conjuring the Past in New
York City Parks.” Recently, African Voices had a chance to speak
with Elliott about her motivations and work in children’s literature.
AV: When did the writing bug bite you?
ZE: I’ve been telling stories since before I knew how to write, but I always enjoyed opportunities to write in school.
I don’t think I started writing outside of school until my high school English teacher, Nancy Vichert, took me aside
at the end of Grade 9 and said, “If you want to be a writer, you will be one.” I had no idea how to become a writer but
I definitely thought I needed someone else’s permission or some kind of training, and my teacher relieved me of that
delusion. I started writing more after that and two years later started my first novel. I read a lot of Dickens (and other
British literature) as a teen in Canada so my writing voice sounded British and formal…it wasn’t until I moved to the
US in my 20s that I learned how to decolonize my imagination and find my true voice.
AV: Why do you focus on children’s literature?
ZE: I didn’t start out writing for kids, but I’ve worked with youth for almost 30 years and I often couldn’t find the
materials I needed to teach effectively. Every kid deserves to see their life reflected in the pages of a book, but so many
of us never had that mirror. I had a girl in one of my classes who was being bullied because her mother was in prison
and I couldn’t find a single mirror book for her, so I wrote one myself (“An Angel for Mariqua”). I wrote about my
parents’ divorce and how it feels when your father starts dating someone new (“Room in My Heart”). I realized that
writing for kids was a great way to heal some of the wounds I’d been living with since my own childhood. I could also
take a book I loved as a child and rework it so that a Black child was at the center. I looked at what was available here
and in Canada and just became furious that so little had changed since I was a child desperately seeking mirror books.
My father used to say, “If you see something that needs to be done, don’t wait to be asked—just do it.” That can be a
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