Diane Patrick

Publishers Weekly — Though she started her career working on staff for New York trade publishers, Rakia Clark worked as a freelancer for six years beginning in 2009. In fact, she saidthat even after she joined Boston's Beacon Press in 2015 as a senior editor, she "still got freelance requests, because a lot of people only thought of me as a freelance editor, not as an acquisitions person working in-house."

Publishers Weekly — In an effort to understand how the public outcry over systemic racism has impacted publishing programs, PW contacted a wide range of publishers, soliciting commentary from editors at big New York trade houses, independent presses, university presses, and self-help, religion, and lifestyle publishers.

Publishers Weekly — In 1995, the internet was still in its infancy and many in the publishing industry were trying to ignore it. Fauzia Burke, a tech-savvy publicity and marketing professional, did not. She had such a strong vision of how the internet could help authors, which led her to quit her publishing job and launched FSB Associates, a book publicity firm that she initially operated out of her home in New Jersey.

Publishers Weekly — For those seeking to support and amplify the Black presence in the YA literature category, Los Angeles-based writer Melody Simpson has created the website Melanin in YA - which, as the name suggests, is a database of "all things Black in traditional young adult publishing."

Publishers Weekly — This year marks the 20th anniversary of Brooklyn-based Serendipity Literary Agency, one of the largest Black-owned literary agencies in the country. Serendipity president and founder Regina Brooks has remained committed to making the publishing industry more diverse while building a roster of authors and illustrators who have won numerous awards, including the Caldecott Honor, Newbery Honor, and Printz Honor.

Publishers Weekly — As readers look to understand America's current social crisis, Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper, What Truth Sounds Like by Michael Eric Dyson, and They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers have become increasingly popular.

Publishers Weekly — Although the book industry remains overwhelmingly white-87% of respondents to PW 's most recent annual salary survey identify as Caucasian-there is undeniably a new and passionate generation of young black professionals working inside publishing houses.

Publishers Weekly — Four Tor authors-Charlie Jane Anders, Seth Dickinson, S.L. Huang, and V.E. Schwab-discuss identity, characters, and worldbuilding in science fiction and fantasy. Charlie Jane Anders ( The City in the Middle of the Night, Jan. 2019) Charlie Jane Anders is the author of the Nebula Award-winning All the Birds in the Sky and was a founding editor of io9, a website about science fiction, science, and futurism.

Publishers Weekly — When Deirdre Bair called Nan Talese, her editor, to say she wanted to write a biography of Al Capone, the response was not encouraging: "You're a literary biographer, and he's a gangster!" Talese's reaction was understandable: Bair has cranked out five award-winning biographies- Samuel Beckett (1978), for which she won the 1981 National Book Award for Paperback Biography; Simone de Beauvoir (1991); (1995); (2003); and Saul Steinberg (2012).

Publishers Weekly — Even in tense times, there is far more that unites publishers and libraries than divides them. And if one needs proof that librarians and publishers share common goals and can work together to mutual benefit, they need look no further than the career of Marcia Purcell, Random House's v-p of library and academic marketing.

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Publishers Weekly — 'Black Archives: A Photographic Celebration of Black Life' by Renata Cherlise is a vivid celebration of the informal snapshot and the Black family photo album. The book is published by Ten Speed Press.