Panel: Culture, Identity, and Writing: Where do They Meet? Dashka Slater
Dashka Slater is the award-winning author of books for kids and teens. Her 2017 young adult true crime narrative, The 57 Bus , was a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist, an LA Times Book Award Finalist and the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Young Adult Book of the Year. Panel moderated by Arthur Levine. Was there a time during the writing that you felt the joyful intersection of culture, identity, and the work at hand? The 57 Bus is about two people outside of Dashka's identity and it's not a joyful story, but it was connected to her identity as an Oaklander, a place that has been her long-time home. She felt deeply tied to the story because it was about her community which gave her a deep sense of connection. She knew it so well because it was part of her life. Dashka comments on the feeling of looking in from the outside. Dashka had an oddball schooling without formal instruction so she had a feeling of not being a "real kid" beca...