Episode #121: Restorative Justice with Donna Freitas!
Grace and Alvina welcome special guest author Donna Freitas to discuss what restorative justice is, and how it might play a role in publishing.
Donna Frietas is a Brooklyn-based author of fiction and nonfiction, as well as memoir and novels for young adults and middle grade readers. Her first novel for adults, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano was released in April 2021. She is also a professor and researcher on topics related to sex on campus, Title IX, and sexual assault, as well as social media and young adults. She has appeared on NPR, The Today Show, and many other radio and news programs to talk about her work, and her writing has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the LA Times, among other places. She has been a professor at Boston University and in Hofstra University's Honors College, and is currently on faculty at Fairleigh Dickinson University's MFA in Creative Writing.
Welcome Donna!
Before the book friends dive into the fascinating but complicated topic of restorative justice, they catch up on each other’s lives after a two week break. Alvina talks about the death of her cat and had a wonderful vacation/wedding celebration with her family in California. Grace has been working on her other podcast, Kids Ask Authors! She’s also working on a Maya Lin biography, her newsletter, and another WTMMTM trilogy calendar. Donna just got back from Barcelona!
Defining Restorative Justice
Donna helps define what exactly restorative justice is. In short, it is “an alternative process to use to respond to conflict”. It puts power of the process back into the hands of the victim. Restorative justice aims to heal everyone in the process. It depends on the needs of the victim but it can be used in conjunction with more traditional forms of punishment like Title IX. Some other forms can re-traumatize victims in the process and the goal of restorative justice is to avoid that and try to heal the victim in a long-term way. It is more about REFORM than punishment.
Grace and Alvina ask Donna a few questions:
“How did you get involved in this, what is your connection?”
“What are the pros and cons?”
“What is the history of restorative justice?”
“How could restorative justice be applied to the publishing industry?”
They talk about sexual harassment, the #metoo movement, Title IX, and restorative justice on college campuses. This led to a discussion about cancel culture and how it pertains to children’s book publishing. Hear more about Donna’s opinion of why cancel culture and public shaming aren’t compatible with restorative justice and reform.
Fortune Cookie Segment: “What are we reading right now?”
Grace is reading Maya Lin’s book called Boundaries!
Donna is reading, The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women and the Consequences of having-or being denied- an abortion by Diana Greene Foster.
She is also reading a murder mystery book by Karen Slaughter!
Gratefuls!
Grace is grateful for her chicken who is laying green eggs! Alvina is grateful for family and her recent trip to California. Donna is grateful for the book friends and this opportunity to talk about a really complicated thing, she is grateful for her friendship with Alvina and also all of the cheese from Spain!
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Thank you for tuning in! Thank you to Hachette Audio, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, and Alex at Pacyworks Studio for producing and editing this podcast. Be sure to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and tell a friend about us. (Use the hashtag #bookfriendsforever.)
You can find Alvina @Planetalvina on Twitter and TikTok and @Alvinaling on Instagram
You can find Grace @Pacylin on Twitter and Instagram and @gracelinauthor on TikTok and @authorgracelin on Facebook
You can find Donna on Instagram @donnafreitas.writer and at donnafreitas.com
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