Perspectives S33/Ep53: Paula Chase is a Literary Warrior

Paula Chase has been wielding inclusion like a light saber against inequality in literature for more than 13 years. She has often been referred to as a Literary Warrior saving readers through her books that are making the transition from picture book to tween and middle grade literature. With nine children’s book to her credit, Chase is a long-time advocate for both readers’ choice and diversifying the type of fiction featuring Black characters to go beyond the Black pain narrative that publishing continues to prop up as “the” average depiction of the Black experience - which is typically an urban story often marked by violence. Determined to stop the erasure of Black middle class life, in children’s literature, Chase’s goal is to create novels that showcases the cultural dynamics within the wider Black community of middle and working class.