Listen • 3:53
As soon as the pandemic hit last year, I did what any sensible person would do and dove right into my favorite coping mechanism: escapism via fantasy novel. I've always loved fantasy for the way it transports you to new worlds full of adventure, magic, and morally ambiguous love interests. I figure if you'd rather be somewhere (really anywhere) else, where better to go than a place where magic is real?
But for all the wonderful escapism that fantasy provides, the genre historically has not been as wonderful at reflecting the diversity of stories and experiences that exist within our own world. For a long time, protagonists of color in fantasy novels were few and far between.