We Need Diverse Books

Last month, Penguin Random House awarded six public high school seniors with PRH Creative Writing Awards in recognition of their outstanding written submissions. Here’s a glimpse at the scholarship recipients reading from their winning pieces, which can be found in full at the blog post below, as well as interviews with the winning writers! (🔗 also in bio) 💻 bit.ly/2024CWAs In addition to winning $10,000 each in scholarship funds, this past week, the winners attended an exciting week of virtual professional development. Events included a roundtable discussion with publishing professionals, one-on-one meetings with editors, and a fireside chat with #1 New York Times bestselling author Tara Westover! Penguin Random House and We Need Diverse Books once again extend our warmest congratulations to the winning students for their incredible accomplishments in creative writing! 🏆 Allison Curletto, Freedom of Expression Award 🏆 Sofia Hernandez, Michelle Obama Award for Memoir 🏆 Anika Bukkapatnam, Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry 🏆 Kellen Hunnicutt, Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word 🏆 Ella Ferrell, Fiction and Drama Award 🏆 Amber Shen, NYC Entrant Award Tags: #Scholarships #WritingScholarships #WritingAwards #WritingContest #PRH #PenguinRandomHouse #CWAs #CreativeWritingAwards #CreativeWritingAwards2024 #CWAs2024 #CollegeScholarships #ScholarshipPrograms #WNDB #WeNeedDiverseBooks

The Walter Dean Myers Grant program was established to provide grants of $2,000 each to promising diverse writers and illustrators, including Indigenous book creators, who are currently unpublished. Since 2015, We Need Diverse Books has awarded over 55 grants, and the grant recipients have now published over 50 books. The submission window will close on July 31, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST. In 2024, WNDB is offering up to 15 Walter Grants. Black, Native/First Nations/Indigenous, and Palestinian creators are especially encouraged to apply: https://lnkd.in/gGGxv3bh #indigenous #nativeamerican #native #firstnations #metis #inuit #nativepride #indigenousart #indigenouspeople #navajo #cherokee #choctaw #ojibwe #blackfeet #apache #mvskoke #Haudenosaunee #writersofinstagram

WNDB is immensely proud to have been selected as a 2024 Carle Honors Honoree by The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art! 📚🐛❤️ The Carle Honors Honorees are selected each year by a committee chaired by Leonard S. Marcus. The committee recognizes four distinct awards: ARTIST, for lifelong innovation in the field; ANGEL, whose generous resources are crucial to making illustrated children’s book art exhibitions, education programs, and related projects a reality; BRIDGE, individuals or organizations who have found inspired ways to bring the art of the picture book to larger audiences through work in other fields; and MENTOR, editors, designers, and educators who champion the art form. Tremendous thanks to the Carle Honors Committee for recognizing We Need Diverse Books as the 2024 Angel honoree! We’re proud to be honored alongside fellow honorees Uri Shulevitz (Artist honoree), KidLit TV (Bridge honoree), and The Horn Book (Mentor honoree)! ❤️ Carle Honors Honorees will be awarded at the Benefit Gala at the New-York Historical Society, in New York City, on Thursday, September 26, 2024. Founding Member and Honorary Trustee, Ellen Oh, will accept the award on WNDB’s behalf. Learn more about the Carle Honors Honorees and the upcoming gala! ⬇️ 🐛 bit.ly/CarleHonors2024 Tags: #News #BookAwards #ArtAwards #EricCarle #EricCarleMuseum #CarleMuseum #TheEricCarleMuseumOfPictureBookArt #CarleHonors #CarleHonorsHonoree #Award #AwardNews #PublishingNew #Publishing #KidLit #ChildrensBooks #KidsBooks #WNDB #WeNeedDiverseBooks

Last call! Pre-order the paperback edition of WE STILL BELONG by Christine Day, cover art by Madeline Goodnight (Heartdrum, July 9, 2024). ABOUT A thoughtful and heartfelt middle grade novel by American Indian Youth Literature Honor–winning author Christine Day (Upper Skagit), about a girl whose hopeful plans for Indigenous Peoples’ Day (and plans to ask her crush to the school dance) go all wrong—until she finds herself surrounded by the love of her Indigenous family and community at an intertribal powwow. -Kirkus Reviews Best Books -Chicago Public Library Best of the Best -Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choice -School Library Journal Best Book -American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book Heartdrum is an imprint of HarperChildren’s with We Need Diverse Books. #paperback #books #booklover #bookworm #bookish #paperbackbooks #middlegradebooks #weneeddiversebooks #diversekidsbooks #mglit #nativeamerican #indigenous Madie Goodnight HarperCollins Publishers We Need Diverse Books

Highlighting a few Indigenous children’s-YA book releases of July 2024! July 2 TWELVE DAYS OF SUMMER: A WILDLIFE CELEBRATION by Sherri Maret (Choctaw) and Thomas Hilley (Muddy Boots) 9 WINGS OF AN EAGLE: THE GOLD MEDAL DREAMS OF BILLY MILLS by Billy Mills (Oglala Lakota), Donna Janell Bowman and S.D. Nelson (Standing Rock Lakota)(Little, Brown) 9 FISH FARTS AND OTHER AMAZING WAYS ANIMALS ADAPT by Joanne Settel and Natasha Donovan (Métis)(Atheneum) 9 KINDRED SPIRITS: SHILOMBISH ITTIBACHVFFA by Leslie Stall Widener (Choctaw) and Johnson Yazzie (Diné)(Charlesbridge) Paperbacks 2 HARVEST HOUSE by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee), cover art by Britt Newton (Muscogee)(Candlewick) 9 WE STILL BELONG by Christine Day (Upper Skagit), cover art by Madeline Goodnight (Chickasaw)(Heartdrum) List compiled by author Traci Sorell (Cherokee). Traci Sorell Donna J. Bowman Bratton Leslie Widener Johnson Yazzie Charlesbridge Publishing HarperCollins Publishers We Need Diverse Books Candlewick Press Little, Brown and Company #picturebooks #childrensbooks #summerreading #kidlit #weneeddiversebooks #diversebooksforkids #indigenous #firstnations #metis #nativeamerican #youngadultbooks

🔔 Walter Grant applications are officially OPEN! 🔔 If you’re an emerging writer or illustrator with a diverse background, you can apply for one of our Walter Grants starting TODAY! Follow the 🔗 below (also in our bio) to apply and see our full eligibility guidelines ⬇️ 💻 bit.ly/WalterGrants2024 📅 Accepting applications between July 1st - July 31st, 2024* *Our submission window will close on July 31, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST ABOUT THE WALTER DEAN MYERS GRANT PROGRAM: The Walter Dean Myers Grant program was established to provide grants of $2,000 each to promising diverse writers and illustrators who are currently unpublished. Since 2015, we have awarded over 55 grants, and our grant recipients have now published over 50 books. For the 2024 cycle, we will be awarding up to 15 Walter Grants! Applicants must be: ✅ Diverse, as per WNDB’s definition of diversity (see our website) ✅ Unpublished as authors and/or illustrators (including self-publishing and books currently on submission to publishing houses) ✅ Working towards a career as a children’s author and/or illustrator ✅ U.S. residents or refugees living in the United States ✅ At least 18 years of age 🌟 Palestinian, Black, and Native creatives are especially encouraged to apply! Good luck to all prospective applicants! We look forward to learning more about you and your work! 📚📝

A special THANK YOU to We Need Diverse Books for donating to our swag bags for the Community Screening of The Right to Read Film on July 13th at the Austin Central Library! 🎉 We appreciate you! United Way for Greater Austin ✨ Michelle Hutson -Crawford M.S Patrice Hernandez Angela Brown #communitypartnerships #literacyadvocacy

As we head into July, we want to once again extend our deepest gratitude to WNDB Founding Member, CEO, and President Ellen Oh, who has fearlessly and graciously led our organization for the past ten years! 🎉🎉🎉 Starting next month, Ellen will officially transition to the role of Honorary Trustee at WNDB, with our longtime COO Dhonielle Clayton stepping in to lead our board of directors in her new position as Board Chair. As our volunteer CEO, Ellen has worked tirelessly and given countless hours to uplift diverse creators, support students and educators, fight against book bans, and ultimately change the publishing landscape for the better. From all of us here at WNDB: Thank you, Ellen, for all your incredible work and for being a fierce champion of diverse books! 📚❤️❤️❤️ Feel free to leave your thanks and well wishes for Ellen in the comments below! ⬇️

Are you interested in learning more about racial equity in literature and literacy education? You'll want to join us for this special author panel presented by The Institute for Racial Equity in Literature (IREL) on July 10th! Held during IREL's upcoming Summer DC Institute, we are proud to offer attendees from the Institute and the wider DC community the opportunity to hear from these amazing panelists - * Ellen Oh, award-winning author and a founding member of We Need Diverse Books (WNDB), a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing diversity in children’s literature. * Ibi Zoboi, New York Times bestselling author and editor of the anthology Black Enough. * Glory Edim, award-winning author, community activist, and the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, a nationwide book club turned literary arts non-profit that celebrates the life-changing power of literature. Register to attend the author panel here: https://lnkd.in/gwATvMPv Learn more about IREL and its DC Institute here: https://theirel.org/ #literacy #literacyeducation #racialequity

Author KA Cobell is recognized among Publishers Weekly's Spring 2024 Flying Starts! Read more: https://lnkd.in/gDCHGXjt HarperCollins Publishers We Need Diverse Books