The CBC Diversity Committee is one of five committees established by the Children's Book Council, the national nonprofit trade association for children's trade book publishers. We are dedicated to increasing the diversity of voices and experiences contributing to children’s and young adult literature. To create this change, we strive to build awareness that the nature of our society must be represented within the children’s publishing industry.
We endeavor to encourage diversity of race, gender, geographical origin, sexual orientation, and class among both the creators of and the topics addressed by kid lit. We strive for a more diverse range of employees working within the industry, of authors and illustrators creating inspiring content, and of characters depicted in children’s and young adult books.
We plan to achieve these goals by taking the following actions:
Recruitment
Recruitment
- Participate in high school and college career fairs.
- Visit high school senior level English classes to discuss careers in publishing.
Resources
- Maintain an up-to-date blog consisting of industry news, book spotlights, CBC Diversity event information, the personal stories of Committee members, and other ready resources for publishing individuals.
- Provide a CBC Diversity Bookshelf through Goodreads that curates front and backlist books by CBC member publishers in order to raise awareness of the diversity-friendly content already in existence.
Keeping the Conversation Going
- Hold safe space meetings at which industry employees can discuss the obstacles to diversity that they have encountered within the children’s publishing world.
- Host panel discussions at which different industry arms can communicate the challenges they face in selling and promoting diverse books, and can work together to develop solutions to these problems.
We can't do this alone, however. Please visit our Become a Partner page to learn more about how you can get involved.
Committee Members
Alvina Ling (Chair), Executive Editorial Director, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Daniel Ehrenhaft, Editorial Director, Soho Teen/Soho Press
Antonio Gonzalez, Assoc Marketing Manager, Author Visits, Scholastic
Connie Hsu, Editor, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Wendy Lamb, VP and Publishing Director, Wendy Lamb Books/Random House Children's Books
Daniel Nayeri, Digital Editorial Director, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Books
Andrea Davis Pinkney, VP and Executive Director of Trade, Scholastic
Yolanda Scott, Editorial Director, Charlesbridge
Caroline Sun, Assistant Director of Publicity, Integrated Marketing, HarperCollins Children's Books
Namrata Tripathi, Executive Editor, Atheneum/Simon & Schuster
Liz Waniewski, Executive Editor, Dial/Penguin Books for Young Readers
Committee Members
Alvina Ling (Chair), Executive Editorial Director, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Daniel Ehrenhaft, Editorial Director, Soho Teen/Soho Press
Antonio Gonzalez, Assoc Marketing Manager, Author Visits, Scholastic
Connie Hsu, Editor, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Wendy Lamb, VP and Publishing Director, Wendy Lamb Books/Random House Children's Books
Daniel Nayeri, Digital Editorial Director, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Books
Andrea Davis Pinkney, VP and Executive Director of Trade, Scholastic
Yolanda Scott, Editorial Director, Charlesbridge
Caroline Sun, Assistant Director of Publicity, Integrated Marketing, HarperCollins Children's Books
Namrata Tripathi, Executive Editor, Atheneum/Simon & Schuster
Liz Waniewski, Executive Editor, Dial/Penguin Books for Young Readers
