In August 2019, we launched a monthlong integrated campaign to celebrate iconic bestselling writer Sudha Murty’s 69th birthday, highlighting not only her writing but also Murty herself. A literary gem, Murty writes about a variety of topics that are contextual and relatable, and we wanted to pay tribute to her written work and humanitarian spirit. We created a complete collection of all her books for adults and children called the Sudha Murty Library, donating several sets to five public libraries as well as to the Community Library Project, which establishes free community libraries in underserved communities. We also created special, exclusive collectibles to be sold at bookstores across India that showcased her books and decorated their shops to highlight the writer all month long. To learn more, click here.
Years: 2019
Nationwide Reading Aloud Day
In Germany, the nationwide Reading Aloud Day emphasizes the importance of reading aloud and inspiring children and adults alike through stories. We have been actively involved in the campaign since its inception, making Reading Aloud Day an important part of our commitment to promote reading in our communities. In 2019, we donated nearly 2,000 audiobooks as part of Reading Aloud Day, and around 100 employees and authors went throughout Germany to give away packages filled with books.
World Book Day: “Ich schenk dir eine Geschichte!”
For many years, we have been committed to promoting reading with Stiftung Lesen, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making reading a part of every child’s life. Since 1997, every year on World Book Day, together with Stiftung Lesen, we have published a new title in the book series “Ich schenk dir eine Geschichte” (I Give You a Story) as part of a nationwide book voucher campaign to promote reading. More than 3,500 bookstores regularly take part in the campaign and give this special book as a gift to over one million schoolchildren, making it the largest reading promotion campaign in Germany. To learn more, click here.
Annual Write It Fellowship
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 The Write It Fellowship aims to find, nurture, and develop unpublished voices across all genres, focusing on writers from marginalized backgrounds.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.
Leading Support in Industry for PEN America
We are the publishing industry’s leading supporter of PEN America, the U.S. chapter of the world’s leading international literary–human rights organization. PEN’s mission is to defend free expression, elevate marginalized voices, and foster dialogue across boundaries, a mission that mirrors our own core values. As a global community of writers, editors, designers, and free thinkers, we are passionate about upholding and protecting our right to free expression, and, through our partnership with PEN, we celebrate the courage of individuals who constructively challenge censorship and taboo, no matter the odds.
Campaigns for World Environment Day
In 2018 for World Environment Day, we spearheaded the Blooming Diaries campaign, where each employee was given a notebook that, once filled, was to be planted in a pot of soil. As the special paper decomposes, it sprouts flower seeds. Another campaign was The Plant at Your Workplace, where employees would sponsor and care for a plant. This has led to green work desks, with people taking care of their plants, and inspired many to add to the collection.
More recently, in 2019, we organized a planting drive in collaboration with Give Me Trees Trust, a Delhi-based NGO working to plant trees with the help of community volunteers. We aim to give back to the environment by promising to plant one tree on behalf of each employee of ours every year from 2019 forward. Give Me Trees Trust looks after the well-being of these trees, and a government school gets a much-needed green cover. These campaigns were meant to raise awareness for sustainability, recycling, and water as a precious resource and to help start conversations among colleagues about how we can together make Penguin Random House more environmentally friendly.
Nurturing Skills to Achieve Aspirations
DK is passionate about helping young people to gain the skills they need to shape and achieve their aspirations. Working with a variety of organizations in the UK, including the National Literacy Trust, the Young Academies Group, and Speakers for Schools, DK has held interactive workshops to give school children aged between 5 and 18 years old who come from a variety of backgrounds an insight into a career in publishing and the joy of working with books. These workshops include tours around the DK office in London, talks by colleagues to students about how they got into publishing and what their jobs entail, and setting tasks whereby the children actively participate in the making of a book, giving them a fuller understanding of the publishing process.
Annual Employee Walk
Every year, hundreds of our colleagues volunteer their time and take to the streets of London or the countryside in Essex and Grantham for The Walk, a Penguin Random House tradition, to help raise money and awareness for different charities and nonprofit organizations. In 2019, 550 colleagues collectively walked 4,700 miles and raised more than £12,300 for the National Literacy Trust. To learn more about our 2019 event, click here.
Tourism Education and Understanding
The theme for World Tourism Day 2019 was “Tourism and Jobs: A Better Future for All,” and the United Nations held the event in New Delhi, India. The purpose of this day is to raise awareness on the role of tourism within the international community and to demonstrate how it affects social, cultural, political and economic values worldwide, and DK hosted an event focused on educating children on the importance of tourism.
In association with the National Rail Museum in New Delhi, DK India celebrated World Tourism Day at the museum’s indoor gallery. More than 60 schoolchildren were invited to test their geography skills through a fun quiz and pairing up activity, followed by a contest to draw a view through a train window. A range of DK books was also on display for the children to look at, covering topics such as exploration and local wildlife. As we believe in the power of discovery, it was an honor to help children explore ideas and discover new places.
A Special Reading Aloud Day
Every November in Germany, millions of people celebrate their love for reading and books by gathering in libraries, schools, and public institutions on Reading Aloud Day. For the 15th anniversary of Reading Aloud Day in 2019, DK welcomed 20 schoolchildren and their teachers into our Munich office, showing them the importance of nonfiction books and publishing. The students, aged 6 to 10 years old, took part in a book quiz, reading activities, and a special tour of the office with an exclusive visit to the Editorial department, where they learned all about how to create a book. The children were also able to vote on their favorite titles and book covers, and DK awarded each student a surprise certificate to mark their day of achievements. Participating in Reading Aloud Day is an important moment in DK Germany’s calendar, as it aligns with our ambition to develop a lifelong love of reading in children.