Results
A conversation about the whitewashed lineup of BookCon guests sparked 22 writers, publishers and bloggers to begin the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign on May 1st. Since then, they’ve reached out to a community of readers, teachers, librarians, authors, booksellers and publishers who want to see more diversity within the publishing industry. Their message has been received: As of May 6th, 2014, the #WeNeedDiverseBooks hashtag on Twitter has garnered 87,520 posts from 23,275 unique users, with over 162 million timeline deliveries.
#WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign took the Internet by storm with more than 160 million impressions in a week’s time, but soon its reach will spread even further—into the conference halls of BookCon on May 31, 2014 in New York City.
New Panels
The Blockbuster Kids Panel has been enlarged.
A new Blockbuster Kids Panel includes Rachel Renee Russell author of the Dork Diaries
Here is a picture of the old panel
Publishers Weekly has announced that the campaign members, in conjunction with Lee & Low Books, have secured a diverse panel of acclaimed children’s authors, including Grace Lin, Matt de la Peña and Jacqueline Woodson for
The World Agrees: #WeNeedDiverseBooks panel featuringAisha Saeed, Ellen Oh, Grace Lin, I.W. Gregorio, Jacqueline Woodson, Lamar Giles, Marieke Nijkamp, Matt de la Peña, Mike Jung.
After taking the Internet by storm, the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign is moving forward with brand new initiatives to continue the call for diversity in children's literature. Join the WNDB team as they share highlights of their campaign, discuss the success of grassroots activism, highlight diverse books and how everyone can diversify their shelves and talk next steps for the campaign. Ellen Oh (PROPHECY Series), Aisha Saeed (Written in the Stars, 2015), Marieke Nijkamp, founder of DiversifYA, Lamar Giles (Fake ID) and Mike Jung (Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities). Special Guests include acclaimed Authors Grace Lin (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon), Matt de la Peña (The Living) and Jacqueline Woodson (Beneath a Meth Moon). Moderated by I.W. Gregorio (None of the Above, 2015).More to Come
The #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign will reveal further news and action plans at 10:00 a.m. during the BookCon diversity panel in room 1E02 at the Javits Center, 655 West 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan.
View the Campaign Archive
To see the submissions for the we need diverse books campaign, Check out the archive
http://weneeddiversebooks.tumblr.com/archive
and some of the submissions below
#WeNeedDiverseBooks because everyone should be able to find a book and say look that’s me!
http://tmblr.co/ZWNYhn1Eg5SmX
#WeNeedDiverseBooks because we have to tell our stories and hear the stories of others!
http://tmblr.co/ZWNYhn1Eg55oc
#WeNeedDiverseBooks because we need to share our collective truth!
http://tmblr.co/ZWNYhn1Eg4sU-
We are all in this together! We > Me
http://tmblr.co/ZWNYhn1EiaYrp
#Weneeddiversebooks because people from all parts of the world need a story or character to relate to!
http://tmblr.co/ZWNYhn1FUOFoy
#WeNeedDiverseBooks because we are not one color!!!
#WeNeedDiverseBooks because they speak to us!!
