Hello readers! Welcome back to Book Beat, on this busiest week for the industry: Book Expo America. While I am sadly not checking out fall books at McCormick Place today, I fully expect lots of great news coming from the expo. But while we wait for those exciting announcements, we’ve got some pretty interesting tidbits to talk about!
Orange is the New Black‘s Diane Guerrero released a memoir last month that’s had people talking about the experience of undocumented immigrants and the fear they live with every day. Bitch Media featured In the Country We Love this week, and it’s a harrowing and poignant book that, in my opinion, isn’t being talked about enough for the timely subject matter it handles.
In other book announcement news, Ta-Nehisi Coates will be publishing another two books with One World! One will be a novel, and the other nonfiction. I’m sure that I’m not the only one eager to see what Coates will be taking on next, after his powerfully stirring Between the World and Me. While details are still being kept under wraps, both books are likely to be talked up until their release.
More rumours are starting to emerge regarding Ilvermorny, Hogwarts’ equivalent in J.K. Rowling’s North American wizard universe. A software engineer allegedly found the names of Ilvermorny’s houses on Pottermore, as will be seen in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them this November.
Horned Serpent, Wampus, Thunderbird and Pukwudgie are rumoured to be the names of these houses, and careful readers will note that each of these creatures come from Native American folklore. Indeed, they seem to be mixtures of sacred creatures from several tribes’ beliefs, according to Dr. Deb Reese:
From what I've read, she's using sacred aspects of several of our nations. Course, she's stripped the specific names.
— Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo) (@debreese) May 11, 2016
Reese brings up very valid concerns, reminding us that Rowling has yet to address the cultural appropriation in her History of Magic in North America entries on Pottermore:
And it makes me very uneasy. What will we start to see next, at the theme park store?
— Debbie Reese (tribally enrolled, Nambé Pueblo) (@debreese) May 11, 2016
If these rumours are true, then yes, Rowling’s silence thus far is not surprising–she would have already built an entire country’s magical history on the backs of Native Americans, playing into the same stereotypes that still follow and traumatize Native American people today. But I do hope that she does take the time to talk about these issues and apologize for the appropriation that has been committed.