My Rice is Best: Interviewing Selina Brown
I had the pleasure of speaking to Selina Brown, founder of the internationally renowned Black British Book Festival about her new children’s novel My Rice is Best. This is a gorgeously illustrated book and a joyful celebration of food, cultural heritage and friendship. We talked about her inspiration for the story and the importance of representation in children’s literature.
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My Rice is Best, speaks to the immense pride many of us hold for our cultural dishes, and the light-hearted culture wars we engage in. What inspired this story, and how did you decide to use rice to engage young readers in conversations about identity?
Yeah, beautiful question! I wrote My Rice is Best because, one, I love food. I'm a foodie. It's something that connects us all, and two, it was a way to express my love and my admiration for my grandmother, who was the first person to introduce me to rice and peas. And I love it to this day; I ate rice and peas yesterday!
For my grandmother, when she made rice and peas, it was a very serious act. It was a meditation. It was to honour those that came before her. She prepared it every single Sunday, so we ate it every single Sunday of my childhood. Even when she was sick, she would still be cooking it. Every Saturday evening, she would soak Gunga peas, the traditional peas that we use for rice and peas, overnight to make them really soft. She'd wake up before church around six o'clock in the morning, and put it on the pot with some coconut milk and some thyme and some herbs and some salt and everything, and then slowly boil it, and they should leave for church. When she came back from church around two o'clock, she'd add the basmati rice to it. So, it was just the most delicious, tastiest rice and peas ever. And I've never tasted anything as good since.There’s a cultural method that was passed down from her grandmother to her mother, and from her mother to her.
And so, the intergenerational part of the story was very deliberate. And obviously Yinka came along with the jollof rice, and then it's like the idea just flowed with the other children that came in with all their cultural rice dishes. It was a real pleasure to write. It was a joy to write. It came from the whole heart, so, it's important that we honour these traditional foods.
How does the book reflect on the relationship between the Caribbean and African communities? Because I loved the title when I first saw it and immediately thought about how we playfight ‘who has the best rice’.
Yeah, I wanted to really showcase African culture and Caribbean culture! Like you said, there’s an ongoing debate on what team are you repping? Is it jollof, or is it rice and peas? I knew that wherever you came from in the diaspora, you would connect to it. Everybody has their dish, and they always think their rice is the best, because they think their culture is the best. It was just a celebration of African culture and Caribbean culture, to bring them together to show how similar we actually are.
How did you balance the different cultures in the book to make them feel authentic?
It was just really thinking about the world and asking: What other cultures are out there? And how can we also celebrate them as well? It was about giving visibility and celebrating different cultures and making every child and every culture feel seen. (The rice) reminds us of how similar we all are as well. Even Tim, at the end with his rice pudding, it was very important that he had a voice as well. I remember eating rice pudding as a kid, and I used to have a dollop of jam on mine and called it pink rice pudding. That was delicious!
Maxwell Oginni’s illustrations are gorgeous! Do you have a favourite spread, or are there any details in the artwork that brought Shane and Yinka to life?
I don't know if it's known, but when you're actually producing the book, they keep the illustrator, and the author separate. However, me and Max defied the law! He’s from a Nigerian background, I'm from Jamaican background, and so we both equally brought the passion and energy and magic together. We were having conversations about how we can make sure that we're being really authentic and honouring the cultures that we’re speaking about. For example, originally the (page 4) fridge top was empty, and I was like, there's no black person's house where there ain't something on the top of the fridge… the fridge is a shelf! And then we have the ginger beer, the Jamaican flag, the Hardo bread, and the mum with the short hair and the wrap. Nothing was done by accident. We spoke about every little detail and tried to make it as real as possible. I was like, put some dishes in the sink, you know?
And so, my favourite spread? The whole book speaks to me, to be honest. I think this (page 25) was probably one of my favourites because it's just showing their attitude. When Yinka gave Shane a taste of her jollof rice, it was important to me that Shane was really cheeky, and was like, ‘actually my rice is STILL the best’, because they're real kids! Max did an incredible job. He put his heart and soul into it, and it can be felt in his work.
What has been your experience moving through the publishing industry, from self-publishing your first series Nena, to now traditional publishing?
There's pros and cons to both. When you're self-published, you wear all the hats. You're the author, you’re the editor, you're the cover designer, you're the PR manager, you're absolutely everything. And because you don't have to water anything down, you can be authentically and unapologetically yourself and showcase the story in your way.
Whereas now with the traditionally published book, there's a whole team of people! From the Rights team to the Cover team to the editors, to the PR and the marketing. It's like a whole massive machine, and they're not just working on your book. I'm learning so much. I work with authors all the time because of the Black British Book Festival, but being an author now, within Penguin Random House, it's been a beautiful journey. It's been really insightful and I'm just happy to be here. So, yeah, I think they're both great! I still am a self-published author, and I wear that hat with pride. I am also a traditionally published author, and I equally wear that hat with pride as well.
Publishing is notoriously homogenous, but there is a growing awareness for inclusive stories in, especially as the Black British Book Festival is going into its 5th year. What does authentic representation look like for authors such as yourself, and how would you like to see the industry evolve?
I think the industry needs to evolve in so many ways. I think more black, diverse books need to be acquired. Marketing teams need to be more expansive in their thinking when they're targeting diverse communities. From the boardroom to the bookshelf, there needs to be more diverse people in the industry. The industry needs to understand the economic value of diverse books and stop seeing the books as a risk and should instead be seen as an untapped opportunity to make more money. Publishers need to speak to the next generation that want and are craving for these stories, and not the same old stories that we're always hearing.
Authentic representation looks like being unapologetically yourself. Speaking your truth and speaking it the way that you want to speak it. Showcasing characters that speak to your culture and not holding back or backing down. Knowing that you're the prize, knowing the value that you bring to the industry, and knowing that your story matters.
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Selina Brown is an Author, Marketing Consultant and Event Producer. At 16 she became the Youth MP for Nottingham, her love for words gained her two Degrees and a Masters at 21 years old. After living and working in New York, Jamaica, Kenya and Gambia Selina founded Little Miss Creative, an award-winning Female Development Agency that empowers girls in schools across the UK. During the pandemic she wrote the picture book series Nena that became popular in 2020. The same year Selina is the founder and CEO of the internationally renowned Black British Book Festival, which aims to celebrate new and emerging Black British authors across all genres of literature. She has been a judge for the Nibbies, appeared on Woman's Hour, and is a well-regarded spokesperson for representation and diversity in publishing.
Selina Brown interviewed by Ehi Orokpo.
Purchase your copy of My Rice is Best now: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/455784/my-rice-is-best-by-brown-selina/9780241635537