Jacqueline Woodson on Bushwick, her new novel and having her books banned
Jacqueline Woodson, author of more than 20 books including “Brown Girl Dreaming” and “Another Brooklyn,” has won dozens of literary prizes, including multiple Newbery Awards. In 2020, she was named a MacArthur Fellow.
Gothamist’s Precious Fondren caught up with Woodson to discuss topics including her new novel, Bushwick, and what it’s like to have her books banned. Their conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.When we moved into the neighborhood, it was at the edge of white flight. There were about three or four white families living on the block. And by the time I was around 11 or 12, they had moved away. Then the neighborhood was predominantly Black and Latino.
They're getting pushed out of neighborhoods. And so it's interesting to see the juxtaposition of what was happening then and what's happening now and with the same ending, right? People losing their homes and losing their neighborhoods. The difference between then and now, is back then they challenged books, by taking books out of classrooms, parents wrote letters. Now, it's legislative. People are losing their jobs for sharing books.In terms of how it makes me feel, I'm not going to stop writing. I just feel like this is what I was put on this earth to do. And I'm going to keep doing it. And someone's going to find the book.
What does the future of books for people from marginalized communities look like if these bans continue?
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