TORONTO (2019)
Our pop-up Penguin Cart was on-site at the Toronto Pride Parade in 2019, where we partnered with local LGBTQIA+ store Glad Day Bookshop to sell books and host authors, including Gigi Gorgeous. We also raised funds on social media for The 519, a Toronto-based agency that provides services and support for LGBTQIA+ communities, and hosted an in-office drop-in for employees that featured a range of queer-authored and -themed books for staff to take home.
We have been partnering with the Story Factory since it opened in 2011. A not-for-profit creative writing center for marginalized young people aged 7 to 17, the Story Factory hosts a comprehensive program of workshops that helps build literacy, confidence, and creativity. We have helped publish various anthologies and collections over the years, and our employees volunteer to help edit, design, and typeset the novellas and poetry chapbooks that emerge from the Story Factory’s yearlong programs. In 2020, we were delighted to publish The Coconut Children by Vivian Pham, a graduate of the program. To learn more about the Story Factory, click here. To learn more about our partnership, click here and here.
AUSTRALIA (2019)
We launched our inaugural Write It Fellowship in Australia in 2019. The Write It Fellowship aims to find, nurture, and develop unpublished voices across all genres, focusing on writers from marginalized backgrounds. The four winners of the fellowship received mentorship from Penguin Random House editors with the hope of publication, as well as a trip to our offices in Sydney to participate in a Penguin Random House Open House. After a successful launch, this will be an annual program. To learn more, click here and here.
MIAMI, FL (2019)
Giving back is central to the Penguin Random House experience, and we have created a culture in which employees are encouraged to engage with their communities, both in and out of the office. In December of 2019, a time of joy for some but much need for others, a team of colleagues at Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial in Miami spent their lunchtime feeding those facing housing insecurity. They volunteered at the Miami Rescue Mission, making a donation to provide 250 meals.
NEW YORK, NY (2019)
In celebration of WorldPride in 2019, we hosted a live storytelling event, filled with ebbing moments of reflection and jubilance, and featuring some of our leading authors in the LGBTQIA+ community. Attendees were treated to cocktails, light snacks, and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, as well as a copy of We Are Everywhere by event hosts Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown. All proceeds from the event were donated to the Lambda Literary Foundation. Authors featured included Sarah McBride, Garrard Conley, Tara Clancy, and Blair Imani, as well as Karah Preiss, cofounder of Belletrist. To read more about the event, click here.
With the mission to empower aspiring authors from all backgrounds in underserved communities nationwide, we partnered with the Authors Guild Foundation to produce a series of Writing Business Boot Camps across the country. From the end of 2018 to spring 2019, these six boot camps were free to participants due in part to an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and we sent two employees per city to share their publishing and work experience with the writers. Local published authors helped lead each session, alongside representatives from the Authors Guild and Penguin Random House, bringing a variety of experience and knowledge to the program. To learn more, click here and here.
U.S. (2019)
In September 2019, Penguin Classics published The Penguin Book of Migration Literature, a global anthology that looks at our rapidly changing world. Every year, millions of people move to a new country, and these migrants constantly reshape their places of origin and arrival. We believe that, in today’s climate, it is more important than ever to advocate for migrants’ rights around the globe. Penguin Classics led a special social media campaign calling for audiences to share #MigrationStories that have shaped their lives, in order to spread the message that the story of global migration is one we are all part of. A custom section on our website featured five nonprofits, and, as part of our annual matching gifts program, we matched employee donations up to $10,000 in total. To learn more, click here.
We recognize that creating an environment of inclusivity at our company is as important as publishing a diverse list of authors. We believe that understanding and recognizing the unconscious biases that underlie our beliefs and inform our decision-making is a fundamental first step to achieving this goal. In 2018, we partnered with Steps Drama, a global consultancy that promotes learning and behavior change, to tailor workshops based on real-life scenarios at Penguin Random House that would create a unique learning experience for employees. In 2019, our colleagues trained by the Steps Drama team took over to deliver the workshops internally. Uncovering Bias Workshops are held throughout the year.
NEW YORK, NY (2019)
During Pride Month in 2019, our LGBTQ Network partnered with Drag Queen Story Hour to produce an exciting Literary Drag Show at the New York Public Library (NYPL) as part of the Library After Hours: Pride Edition. The show featured performances by six top drag queens, who put on exhilarating acts with a literary focus, including readings, lip-syncing, talks, and costume changes into beloved characters such as Little Red Riding Hood, Tinker Bell, and Gandalf. Attendees also had a chance to view the NYPL’s exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of Stonewall. To read more about the event, click here.
We want everyone who works at Penguin Random House to feel like they belong. To help do so, in 2018 we formed a Diversity & Inclusion Council comprising employees from all areas of our business. The Council is dedicated to facilitating a company culture that fosters inclusion and equity, supporting a broad, wide-ranging spectrum of perspectives. The Council proactively makes recommendations for ways to enrich our culture by amplifying underrepresented voices and providing welcoming and open spaces that empower our employees to publish books that truly reflect the diversity of our world. Diversity & Inclusion Council members have also established Diversity Committees in each of our divisions. With more than 200 employees actively involved, many of these divisional committees have organized special task forces that focus on an array of topics to create a positive, engaging, and inclusive working environment.
