Kate Gavino’s graphic novel, A Career in Books: A Novel about Friends, Money and the Occasional Duck Bun follows three women who just started their careers in publishing and the challenges they face in the industry. This book is for those who wanted a literary career even in the face of systemic racism. It is also a stylish, heartfelt and intimate look into the lives of three friends supporting one another.
In the book, Shirin’s boss just assumes she knows Cantonese. No matter what she does, Nina cannot get her promotion. Silvia has to deal with daily microaggressions. Then they meet a neighbor, Veronica Vo, a Booker Prize winner nicknamed “Tampax Tolstoy” by the press. They each find motivation in Veronica’s life story to continue their own journeys.
Cold Tea Reads interviewed Kate Gavino about her book and her reflections on the publishing industry.
Inclusive representation vs marketing in the publishing industry
Representation in the publishing industry is crucial to ensure diverse experiences and perspectives are shared and heard. Representation provides opportunities for underrepresented voices to have a chance to tell their stories. But we must also address the diversity in stories shared about a community: we are more than our suffering, our work does not simply exist to educate, and we can lean into joy and many other experiences.
“In terms of telling Asian-American stories, once it becomes a trending topic, sometimes there’s only one type of story being told,” Gavino says, “If you want to buck against that trend, one thing you have in your arsenal is to think: Why am I the one telling the story? Am I the only one who can tell it? We have to question what’s expected of us as Asian-Americans.”
Gavino also offers another perspective. In one chapter, we see the characters go to a women of colour publishing mixer. It turns out to be a room full of Asian women, with zero representation of other racial…
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