A non-profit and a
grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates
essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote
literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people.
Call for submissions: LEE & LOW BOOKS invites unpublished writers of color to submit to their annual writing contests. The New Voices Award (picture books) and New Visions Award (middle grade/young adult books) support new authors or color and highlight voices that remain underrepresented in traditional publishing. The winner of each contest receives a cash prize and a publication contract with LEE & LOW BOOKS. For full submission information, visit https://www.leeandlow.com/writing-contests.
TTBF and WNDB invite teens from diverse backgrounds (people of color, Native voices, people with disabilities, people from the LGBTQIAP+ community or other underrepresented groups) to tell us why diverse books matter. We will select 25 respondents to attend an exclusive event at the festival on October 7th where authors, booksellers, and other front line members of the book industry will share advice and insight into the opportunities and possibilities that exist for book lovers of all backgrounds to forge a future in the world of books and publishing. Winners will also be invited to live blog their experience at the event and have their work published on the TTBF website. The book world needs all voices, and this is a great chance to find out how to get involved!
WNDB is proud to announce that Phoebe Yeh, VP/Publisher of Crown Books for Young Readers/Random House, has acquired publication rights to a Young Adult WNDB Anthology titled LIFT OFF. Lamar Giles, Senior Vice President of Communications for WNDB, will edit the anthology, which will have a Summer 2018 release date.
The anthology will be in memory of Walter Dean Myers and it will be inspired by his quote:“We need to bring our young people into the fullness of America’s promise and to do that we must rediscover who they are and who we are and be prepared to make the journey with them whatever it takes. My conceit is that literature can be a small path along that journey.”
The anthology will have one story reserved for a previously unpublished diverse author. WNDB will fill that slot via a short story contest. The winner will be included in the anthology and will receive a payment of $1,000.00 US.
(New York, NY – January 7, 2016) — Penguin Young Readers is pleased to announce a writing contest in partnership with We Need Diverse Books™ to honor the 40th anniversary of Mildred D. Taylor’s award winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Ms. Taylor’s writing, first discovered in 1974 through a contest sponsored by the Council of Interracial Books, will now inspire a new generation of authors from diverse backgrounds.
In 1974, the Council on Interracial Books sponsored a writing contest seeking out diverse voices. Mildred D. Taylor was the winner of the African-American segment for the manuscript that became Song of the Trees (Dial, 1975), her first book. It introduced the Logan family and was followed by Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976), which won the Newbery Medal. 2016 marks the 40th Anniversary of the Newbery Award winning novel.
Forty years later, in partnership with We Need Diverse Books™, Penguin Young Readers celebrates this momentous publication by launching a debut children’s fiction contest to find talented, ethnically diverse authors writing for readers ages 8-14. The submission period will begin in April 2016 with additional details to be posted on www.rollofthunderbook.com.
Ms. Taylor commented, “Without the Council on Interracial Books contest, my books about the Logan family might not have been published. The contest gave many aspiring writers the opportunity to be heard. Now the Roll of Thunder Publishing Contest is renewing that opportunity for new minority writers. It is amazing to me!”
The leeandlow New Visions Award for diverse Middle Grade/Young Adult manuscripts is open from now until October 31st! Get your work polished and do submit! Also the New Voices Award for picture books is open as well!
