Flying Lessons & Other Stories middle-grade anthology to be published January 2017 with original stories by such authors as Kwame Alexander, Soman Chainani, Matt de la Peña, Tim Federle, Grace Lin, Meg Medina, Walter Dean Myers, Tim Tingle, Jacqueline Woodson, and our short story contest winner

Lift Off YA anthology to be published Summer 2018 with contributions by such authors as Melissa de la Cruz, Sara Farizan, Sharon Flake, Eric Gansworth, Malinda Lo, Daniel José Older, Thien Pham, Jason Reynolds, Gene Luen Yang, and Nicola Yoon

New York, NY (July 21, 2016)—We Need Diverse Books™ (WNDB), a grassroots organization dedicated to advocating for and supporting nonmajority narratives, will publish two books with Random House Children’s Books, it was announced today by Mallory Loehr, SVP, Publisher, Random House/Golden Books, Doubleday, and Crown Books for Young Readers Group. Phoebe Yeh, VP/Publisher of Crown Books for Young Readers, acquired world rights to a middle-grade and a young adult anthology from Barry Goldblatt of BG Literary, and the collections will be edited by Ellen Oh, cofounder and president of We Need Diverse Books™, and Lamar Giles, cofounder and SVP of Communications.

The middle-grade anthology titled FLYING LESSONS & OTHER STORIES is set to be published on January 3, 2017. The book will feature original stories by an award-winning lineup: Kwame Alexander, Soman Chainani, Matt de la Peña, Tim Federle, Grace Lin, Meg Medina, Tim Tingle, and Jacqueline Woodson. The collection will also include a story by debut author Kelly J. Baptist, winner of the WNDB short-story contest, and by Walter Dean Myers, the late and beloved award-winning children’s author.

“We are so pleased to be collaborating with the We Need Diverse Books team to bring these important stories by extraordinary author talents to readers everywhere, and to support our collective goals of promoting diversity in children’s literature,” says Yeh.

“This anthology has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my career,” says Oh. “It is a dream come true to work with these amazing authors, and I know that these stories are going to resonate with so many readers.”

The young adult anthology, LIFT OFF, is scheduled for release in Summer 2018 and will be edited by Lamar Giles, author of the Edgar Award–nominated novels Fake ID and Endangered. The book will feature original YA short stories and contributions by authors including Melissa de la Cruz, Sara Farizan, Sharon Flake, Eric Gansworth, Malinda Lo, Walter Dean Myers, Daniel José Older, Thien Pham, Jason Reynolds, Gene Luen Yang, Nicola Yoon, and others. The anthology is dedicated in memory of Walter Dean Myers.

“The stories in this anthology will be the kind I longed for but never found in my formative years,” says Giles.

As with the middle-grade anthology, WNDB hosted a short-story contest for a spot in the anthology by an unpublished diverse author. The winner will be announced on October 1, 2016, and will receive payment of $1,000 US. The contest was open to diverse YA authors who are previously unpublished in any format. WNDB defines diversity as including, but not limited to, LGBTQIA+, people of color, gender diversity, people with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities currently marginalized in North America.

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Dominique Cimina

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Jillian Vandall

Publicity Manager

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Crown Books for Young Readers is an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, the world’s largest English-language children’s trade book publisher. Random House Children’s Books is a division of Penguin Random House LLC.