12 Blogs of 2014: DiversifYA

Choosing just three blogs to feature for our 12 Blogs of 2014 was hard. I may have sent Karen, Robin, and Heather about 15 emails constantly changing which blogs I was calling dibs on. I hope you’re adding all of the blogs we’re featuring to whatever blog reader you use and following the blogs and their creators on Twitter. I’m always looking for more blogs to read, so make sure you share your favorites with us, too! You can find me on Twitter @CiteSomething. 

Today’s featured blog

DiversifYA

The focus of DiversifYA is on being inclusive in every possible way.

From the blog:

DiversifYA is a collection of interviews that allows us to share our stories, all of us. All sorts of diversity and all marginalized experiences. We are not Other.

DiversifYA is a tool, an introduction. Allow us to convince you that the world is so much richer than the world we often read about, and that every reader deserves to find themselves in books.

DiversifYA is our way to show you: diversity is all of us. Diversity is reality. We all have shared experiences, no matter how different we may be, and the countless combinations of sameness and difference is what makes this world amazing. It’s about time more stories reflected that.

Follow the blog on Twitter  @_DiversifYA

(Note: this blog is on a hiatus until January rolls around.)

Who runs DiversifYA

The DiversifYA team currently consists of Marieke and Sarah, with former co-moderator Alex as honorary team member!

Marieke is VP of We Need Diverse Books™. You can follow Marieke on Twitter @mariekeyn and visit her website.

Sarah’s debut, THE LAST LEAVES FALLING, releases from Random House UK and Simon and Schuster US in Spring 2015. On Twitter she’s @SWritesBooks.

Why I like this blog

DiversifYA features interviews, guest posts, cover reveals, in-depth looks at books, issues, and themes. With their DiversiTheme category, they examine various issues with writing diversity. From their blog: “For example, over the next couple of months we’ll have topics as writing/publishing diverse lit and living in different cultures. We’re talking about body imagine and fat culture, which is an integral part of diversity as well.” The blog also features roundtable discussions. The discussion they had last year was a 6-part series about diversity and sexuality. I hope they do more, because that one was great! When you hop on over to their blog, check out the bevvy of tags they have for their posts (in the column on the right). Some examples: Neurodiversity, asexual, hearing loss, QUILTBAG, Eskimo, OCD, bulimia, and so lots more topics. The posts are smart and touch on so many topics that more people need to be thinking about and writing about. As they say on the blog, “[DivesifYA is not] an alternative to research. DiversifYA is an introduction to diversity, it’s not a collection of premade character bios you can use. It is not a substitute for research. But don’t mind us if we want to nudge you in the right direction.”

Some posts to check out

Interview with Sabaa Tahir

 Ami Allen-Vath’s guest post about bulimia

 Julie Sondra Decker’s post about asexuality

DivYAQnA: disability edition

 Interview with Sumayyah Daud

Filed under: Blogs