Students at a Gainesville high school listened attentively Tuesday as an award-winning author spoke about how she wants to inspire them to be heard.
Kekla Magoon, a biracial author of eight young-adult novels, spoke to about 500 students at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School. The event was hosted by the Friends of the Alachua County Library.
Magoon has won the NAACP Image Award, two Coretta Scott King Book Awards and has been nominated for the National Book Award.
“I would like to inspire young black and Latino authors to let them know their voices can be heard in the marketplace,” she said.
Most of her other novels explore identity and race relations in the U.S., she said.
Cody Miller, a ninth-grade language arts teacher, said the freshman class read Magoon’s book, “How it Went Down,” in October.
The book tells the story of a neighborhood’s response to a black teenager’s murder by a white man.
“Too often these issues are simplified in the news,” Miller said. “I think kids need the space to understand the nuances, complications and history of these issues.”
Magoon’s book offers that, he added.
Magoon’s presentation included a reading session, during which six students read portions of the novel aloud.
For Samyra Lee, a freshman who was selected to read, the talk was inspirational.
“Her being (an author of color) made me feel like I can actually be an author and succeed at it,” Lee said.
Kekla Magoon
