One of our signature programs to identify and celebrate emerging writers since 1993, the Creative Writing Awards is part of our ongoing commitment to promote diverse voices and stories. Creative Writing Award winners have gone on to become professional and award-winning writers. In 2019, we partnered with We Need Diverse Books to expand the scholarship program nationally and award high school seniors with $10,000 college scholarships for their winning entries. The winners met with author Natasha Díaz, editors, and other publishing professionals before reading their work at an awards ceremony at our headquarters in New York City. To learn more about the program and our recent winners, click here.
Years: 2020
Sponsorship of the Spare Room Project
The Spare Room Project aims to address the lack of regional diversity in the industry by providing housing to interns and people working who come from outside London. In 2018 we started sponsoring the project, which matches interns with hosts working in publishing who can offer a spare room or a bed for free for one week. A practical way to help open doors to a more diverse range of people, the Spare Room Project looks for hosts from across the publishing industry, from those in Editorial and Sales to agents and authors. To learn more about the Spare Room Project, click here. To learn more our sponsorship, click here.
Nurturing Writers From Underrepresented Backgrounds
We launched our WriteNow program in 2016, and we’re proud to say that, to date, 450 writers have attended 9 regional events, 33 writers have joined our yearlong mentorship program, and 12 books have, thus far, been acquired through the program. Through WriteNow, we host free workshops offering information about how to get published to unpublished writers based in the U.K. and Ireland who identify as coming from an underrepresented background or community. Participants are able to hear from published authors and literary agents and receive personalized feedback on their work from an editor. The most promising writers are accepted into our yearlong mentoring program, where they are paired with one of our editors to help develop their manuscript with the ultimate aim of publishing their work. To learn more, click here.
Reading Sessions with Children’s Hospital Patients
An essential part of our social impact work is strengthening the relationships we have with our communities, and we know that reading is an essential part of a happy, full, and healthy life. For more than four years, Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Mexico has maintained a partnership with the Juan N. Navarro Children’s Psychiatric Hospital of Mexico City–the only psychiatric hospital for children in all of Latin America—to collaborate in the recovery of the patients. A team of approximately 50 colleagues participates in weekly sessions with the hospital’s patients to help exercise the children’s imagination, understanding, and empathy through reading.
Support for Festival of Literary Diversity
CANADA (2020)
The Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD) was founded by writer Jael Richardson to celebrate diversity in literature by promoting underrepresented authors and stories. Based out of Brampton, Ontario, one of Canada’s most culturally diverse cities, the festival marked its fifth anniversary in 2020 with its first-ever all-virtual festival, in light of the circumstances around COVID-19. We were once again a lead partner for its main event in May, providing support through author appearances, sponsorship, and staff involvement. This year, two of our editors held a Process of Publishing workshop via Zoom, informing more than 400 participants about the publishing industry and taking time to answer specific questions during a Q&A segment. And as in past years, select Penguin Random House Canada employees took part in Pitch Perfect, an opportunity for writers to submit sample pages to a publishing professional for one-on-one feedback. To learn more about FOLD, click here.
Encouraging Mental Health and Wellness
CANADA (2020)
We partnered with Bell Let’s Talk in Canada, a program that promotes mental health awareness, to host a free public panel about writing, reading, and mental health. The panel was moderated by Dr. David Goldbloom, director of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Foundation Board, and featured writers Don Gillmor, Jael Richardson, and Yasuko Thanh. A display in our Penguin Shop allowed employees, authors, and guests to share their own messages about wellness and mental health and discover related books. In 2020, our second Mental Health Awareness Month focused on in-house sessions promoting employee well-being, including a Drop Everything and Read event that encouraged everyone to take a break from their computers and enjoy a good book, with free health and wellness titles on offer to staff. To learn more, click here and here.
Expanded Support for Indigenous Voices
One of our priorities is to support Indigenous voices in Canada. In 2019, for the second year, we were a major supporter of the Indigenous Voices Awards, broadening our support to help establish full-day mentorship-based activities that would cultivate relationships among emerging and established Indigenous writers and provide practical tools for navigating the publishing industry. Additionally, for National Indigenous History Month in June, we focused on sharing the work of our published Indigenous writers with a Celebrate Indigenous Voices audiobook campaign across social media and podcast advertising. We are proud once again to support the third annual Indigenous Voices Awards in 2020. To learn more, click here and here.
Employee-Led Salon Series for Women
Women Talking is a unique salon-style series run by an employee-led team that aims to empower female-identifying colleagues through access to peer support and advice, learning and growth opportunities, and guest speakers. Since launching in 2018, we have hosted quarterly events, including author conversations (highlights include appearances by Dionne Brand and Carmen Maria Machado), goal-setting workshops, and book discussions. To celebrate International Women’s Day 2019, Women Talking highlighted women employees’ favorite books by and for women and led employee fundraising efforts in support of Sistering, a multiservice agency for at-risk women in Toronto who are facing housing insecurity.
For International Women’s Day 2020, Women Talking presented an in-house author panel on the global IWD 2020 campaign theme, #EachforEqual, which included Celina Caesar-Chavannes, Tara Henley, and Anna Mehler Paperny. In addition, our Social and Charitable Committee led a book sale and donation drive of clothing and menstrual products for Sistering, as well as put together a Women’s Library consisting of donated titles nominated by employees. To learn more about Sistering, click here.