2017: YEAR IN REVIEW

Inkluded was founded in 2017 and, with your help, we were able to accomplish some pretty amazing things in our inaugural year:

  • Raised $10,000 for We Need Diverse Books – Intern Grant Program

  • Donated over 1,ooo titles to Barbershop Books

  • Facilitated publishing presentations for inner city students participating in both The “I Have a Dream Foundation” and NJ LEEP

  • Hosted literary event fundraisers and free literary event friend-raisers

  • Donated over 1,000 titles to schools and libraries in Puerto Rico

  • Participated in Kweli Journal’s 2017 The Color of Children's Literature Conference

Not only do we take great pride in how we practice our mission, we’re quite proud of the friends and partners we’ve made along the way. With your continued support, we look forward to being of even greater service in 2018!

 

January/February 2017:   Barbershop Books

Inkluded spearheaded a book drive for Barbershop Books, a community-based literacy program that creates child-friendly reading spaces in barbershops for boys ages 4-8.  

 

February 2017:  "I Have A Dream" Foundation

Inkluded partnered with the “I Have a Dream” Foundation, an organization that provides individualized social, emotional, and academic support to young people from low-income communities from kindergarten all the way through college, along with guaranteed tuition support. For this fun filled day, Andrea Morrison, Michael Mejias, Joanna Cardenas, Booki Vivat, and Alexandra Hightower shared various parts of the publishing process with elementary school aged children—covering everything from agent work to editing to illustrating. The day was especially rounded out by Booki Vivat’s discussion about her experience as an author-illustrator and the personalized drawings she completed for the children. Additionally, each child went home with a couple books.

 

March 2017 : We Need Diverse Books

In support of the We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) Internship Grant Program, Inkluded partnered with authors Cristina Moracho, Jazmine Hughes, Leigh Stein, and Mia Alvar for a night of food, drink, and creativity. WNDB’s grant program provides economic relief to diverse background applicants interested in pursuing highly valued, but low-paying children’s publishing internships—internships these students couldn’t afford to otherwise take. Thanks to fantastic fundraising from attendees and Leigh Feldman Literary’s commitment to matching up to $5,000, we were able to assist future WNDB grant recipients!

 

June 2017 : We Need Diverse Books

The Center for Fiction generously hosted our second We Need Diverse Books event of the year, featuring readings by Imbolo Mbue, Sheela Chari, and Sarah McCarry.

 

July 2017 : NJ Leap

Inkluded hosted a publishing event for the students of NJ LEEP, an academic enrichment program for inner city teens. The aim was to teach these high schoolers about the industry and how a query to an agent can set off a big chain of events, resulting in a published book that’s sold all over the world. After Michael Mejias (of Writers House) greeted the guests and made the opening remarks, Andrea Morrison (of Writers House) discussed the role of an agent and the agenting process. Andrea explained how she receives query and manuscript submissions, what her selection process is like, and how she, in turn, prepares a manuscript for submission to publishers. At this point, Andrea handed it off to Jenny Chen (of Crooked Lane Books), who discussed the role of the editor and the editorial process. She broke down how she readies a manuscript for publication. Jenny also discussed how she interacts with production, marketing, and publicity.  The baton was then passed to Natalie Guerrero (of HarperCollins), who spoke to the role marketing and publicity play in the world of book publishing. Wrapping it all up, Natalie Medina (of Writers House) and Ivan Mateo (of Penguin Random House) discussed how subsidiary rights and contracts fit into the publishing process. We moved quickly through each of our presentations because we knew the kids would have a ton of questions. They didn’t disappoint. After the lively Q&A, Michael stuck around and discussed internships and how to break into publishing. 

 

September 2017 : Inkluded's First Free Community Reading

Our first free reading was in celebration of the LGBTQ community, held at Writers House, and featuring readings by Kate Scelsa, Meredith Talusan, and Courtney Gillette.