Every once in awhile, an author, blogger, book marketer, or other person I happen to meet tells me a story about what inspires them to write for the children’s and young adult audience. These stories inspire me. They make me look at the books I read in a whole new way, and occasionally, they inspire me to do something that I never would’ve expected. Today, I’m really pleased to share with you Michaela MacColl‘s How Does YA Lit Inspire You? post, and I think that if you’re anything like me, her words – and those of Beryl Markham – will inspire you.
Thanks Melissa for this chance to muse out loud at YA Book Shelf. I thought I’d talk about feminism in my new middle grade novel, Promise The Night.
Promise The Night is about Beryl Markham, a pioneering aviatrix in the 1930s. She was the first person to cross the Atlantic from East to West solo. Beryl grew up in colonial East Africa, raised by the Nandi tribe who worked for her father. She trained race horses, hunted lions and learned to jump higher than her head. She’s a great female character, tough but ultimately lovable.
A few months ago Promise The Night, was nominated to the Amelia Bloomer booklist, an ALA list for books with significant feminist content. I didn’t make the final list (bummer!) but just the nomination gave me some food for thought, and incidentally for a guest blog post for YA Book Shelf.
Feminist. Really? I’m a feminist, sure, but I take it for granted. It was my mother’s generation that (literally) burned their bras. I was raised by my single mom, who was and still is extraordinarily competent. When I was fifteen, she even applied to be an astronaut. She had to settle for her pilot’s license and the rank of Lt. Colonel in the Civil Air Patrol. By example, she taught me that there are no barriers for me because I’m a woman. Hopefully, I’m teaching my daughters the same lesson.
It never occurred to me that I was teaching the same lesson in my writing. When I chose to write about Beryl, it was because I thought she was fascinating. Whenever there was a choice between safety and danger, she always chose danger. Not surprisingly, she became a pilot, when flying was perhaps the riskiest profession on the planet. Not only did she fly, but she flew in Africa, a continent with no maps of the interior, no runways or radio towers. A pilot in Africa flew with a pistol and a vial of morphine, because if their plane went down, help would not arrive.
So is Beryl a feminist heroine? Possibly. But when Beryl was asked about flying the Atlantic, she wrote:
I am going to fly the Atlantic to New York. Not as a society girl. Not as a woman even. But as a pilot with 2000 flying hours, mostly in uncharted Africa, to my credit. The only thing that really counts… is whether one can fly. I have a license. I can take an engine apart and put it back. I can navigate. I am fit, and given ordinary luck I am sure I can fly to New York.
This is to be no stunt flight. No woman’s superiority over man affair. I don’t want to be superior to men. If I can be a good pilot, I’ll be the happiest creature alive.
Beryl isn’t interested in being the first woman… she wants to be the first one. Period. She’s willing to use the publicity she gets for being a woman flyer, but ultimately the most important thing to her was that she was a good pilot. Now this is the kind of feminism that inspires me to write.
Thanks so much for your contribution to my on-again-off-again series, Michaela. I think more people need to read your message of feminism and that of Beryl of course, because some people actually think the movement has been and is about showing a woman’s superiority over men, which is completely inaccurate. And it’s not the type of feminism that I ascribe to either.
Do you feel inspired to do something because of YA literature? If you do, then I’d love to hear from you! Please pitch me the idea you’d like to discuss via the contact form on the About YABookShelf page, and I’ll get back to you if I think our visions line up.
Melissa has always been a voracious reader of fiction and has an M.A. in English Literature to prove it. Like many other adults, she got caught up in the young adult crossover fiction phenomenon. Now, one of her great joys comes from sharing her love of YA lit on this popular review site. Come with expectations of intellect, magic, and honest reviews, and you won’t be disappointed.
