We Need Diverse Booksâ„¢ (WNDB), a grassroots organization that is dedicated to changing the publishing industry by producing and promoting literature that depicts, and honors the lives of young diverse people, has just announced their 2 upcoming anthologies, published with Random House Children’s Books, Flying Lessons & Other Stories and Lift Off.
On a mission to expose children to diverse stories and characters, Flying Lessons & Other Stories features original stories by authors Kwame Alexander, Soman Chainani, Matt de la Peña, Tim Federle, Grace Lin, Meg Medina, Walter Dean Myers, Tim Tingle, and Jacqueline Woodson.
This collection also includes a story by a We Need Diverse Books short story contest winner. The short story contest winner is a previously unpublished diverse author who will receive a payment of $1,000 for their work. The winner will be announced on October 1, 2016.
Flying Lessons & Other Stories is set to be released January 3, 2017.
According to a recent Random House announcement, Phoebe Yeh, VP/publisher of Crown Books for Young Readers, acquired world rights to a middle-grade and a young adult anthology from Barry Goldblatt of BG Literary; the collections will be edited by Ellen Oh, co-founder and president of We Need Diverse Booksâ„¢, and Lamar Giles, co founder and SVP of communications.
“We are so pleased to be collaborating with the We Need Diverse Books team to bring these important stories by extraordinary author talents to readers everywhere, and to support our collective goals of promoting diversity in children’s literature,†said Yeh in a prepared statement.
Lift Off is scheduled for release Summer 2018 and will feature original young adult short stories and contributions by authors Melissa de la Cruz, Sara Farizan, Sharon Flake, Eric Gansworth, Malinda Lo, Walter Dean Myers, Daniel José Older, Thien Pham, Jason Reynolds, Gene Luen Yang, Nicola Yoon, and others.
“The stories in this anthology will be the kind I longed for but never found in my formative years,†says Lamar Giles, editor of the collection, in a released statement.
These anthologies actively help to drive the mission of WNDB to uplift diversity in voice and experience through writing.
For more information on the upcoming anthologies and other WNDB programs, contests, and resources visit WeNeedDiverseBooks.org.