CBC Diversity Videos

CBC Diversity is dedicated to increasing the diversity of voices and experiences contributing to children’s and young adult literature — encouraging diversity of race, gender, geographical origin, sexual orientation, and class among both the creators of and the topics addressed by children’s literature. Learn more at CBC’s Diversity Initiative.

The videos of our events & programs below are available exclusively to CBC members. If you are a member and have forgotten the login, please email cbc.info@cbcbooks.org.

Not a member? Watch children’s book read-alouds, awesome book trailers, authors & illustrators at work, and more on our YouTube channel.

2023 DIVERSITY COMMITTEE PANEL: A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE TERM LATINX

Join award-winning author David Bowles as he speaks with children’s book authors and editors about the nuances and pitfalls of using the term Latinx. This panel will delve into the term as it applies to the editing and marketing of books for young readers, best practices for describing and defining creators who identify as Hispanic/Latino/a/x/e, and more.

MODERATOR
David Bowles, Mexican American author and translator

PANELISTS

e.E. Charlton-Trujillo — Author, Filmmaker, Youth Literacy Activist
Jasminne Méndez — Author, Educator, Translator
Monica Pérez — Editorial Director, Versify / HarperCollins

2020 DIVERSITY OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS CEREMONY

The CBC Forum Committee is proud to announce the winners of the 2020 CBC Diversity Outstanding Achievement Awards. These awards are given annually to professionals or organizations in the children’s publishing industry who have made a significant impact on the publishing and marketing of diverse books, diversity in hiring and mentoring, and efforts that create greater awareness with the public about the importance of diverse voices. Each winner selects an organization to receive one thousand dollars worth of children’s books in their name.
The official ceremony and conversation with the winners took place on November 5, 2020.

MODERATOR
Andrea Davis Pinkney, author, editor at Scholastic, and previous CBC Diversity Award winner

PANELISTS (& WINNERS)

Kait Feldmann – Editor, Orchard Books/Scholastic
Ebony LaDelle – Director, Teen Marketing, HarperCollinsChildren’s Books
Christopher Myers – Creative Director, Make Me a World, Random House Children’s Books
Laura Pegram – Founding Editor, Publisher of Kweli Journal; Director of the Kweli Color of Children’s Literature Conference
Jamie Tan – Senior Publicist, Candlewick Press

2019 DIVERSITY OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS CEREMONY

The CBC Forum Committee is proud to announce the winners of the 2019 CBC Diversity Outstanding Achievement Awards. These awards are given annually to professionals or organizations in the children’s publishing industry who have made a significant impact on the publishing and marketing of diverse books, diversity in hiring and mentoring, and efforts that create greater awareness with the public about the importance of diverse voices. Each winner selects an organization to receive one thousand dollars’ worth of children’s books in their name.
The official ceremony and conversation with the winners took place on November 19, 2019 at a CBC Forum event.

The audio for the opening remarks is not ideal; read here what Carl Lennertz said.

MODERATOR
Phoebe Yeh, VP & Publisher of Crown Books for Young Readers, Random House Children’s Books

PANELISTS (& WINNERS)

Andrea Davis Pinkney, Scholastic
Namrata Tripathi, Kokila Books
Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson, Just Us Books
Varian Johnson, The Brown Bookshelf

2018 DIVERSITY OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS CEREMONY

The CBC Forum Committee is proud to announce the winners of the inaugural CBC Diversity Outstanding Achievement Awards. These awards will be given annually to professionals or organizations in the children’s publishing industry who have made a significant impact on the publishing and marketing of diverse books, diversity in hiring and mentoring, and efforts that create greater awareness with the public about the importance of diverse voices. The winners will each select an organization to receive one thousand dollars worth of children’s books in their name.
The official ceremony and conversation with the winners took place on October 24, 2018, at a CBC Forum event.

MODERATOR
Alvina Ling, Editor-in-Chief at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

PANELISTS (& WINNERS)

Saraciea J. Fennell, Publicist, Tor
Jennifer Loja, President & Publisher, Penguin Books for Young Readers
Jason Low, Publisher, Lee and Low Books
Beth Phelan, Literary Agent, Gallt & Zacker Literary
Phoebe Yeh, VP & Co-Publisher of Crown Books for Young Readers/Random House Children’s Books
We Need Diverse Books, spearheaded by founder Ellen Oh and COO Dhonielle Clayton

THE SCIENCE OF DISCRIMINATION: A WORKSHOP ON WORKPLACE BIAS

A workshop on the science behind discrimination in the workplace, created by Perception Institute. Featuring Alexis McGill Johnson, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Perception Institute, & Rachel Godsil, Director of Research and Co-Founder of Perception Institute.

SECOND OPINION: UTILIZING SENSITIVITY READERS

Authors, Editors, and Professional Sensitivity Readers discuss how and when a sensitivity reader should be employed to evaluate a manuscript.

MODERATOR
Justina Ireland, author of Vengeance Bound and owner of Writing in the Margins

PANELISTS

Jennifer Baker, Editor, WNDB member, Sensitivity Reader
Jordan Brown, Executive Editor, HarperCollins Children’s Publishers
Kate Milford, Author, Greenglass House

THE DIVERSITY WE DON’T TALK ABOUT: RELIGION IN THE WORKPLACE

The CBC Diversity Committee brings together publishing professionals of different faiths, along with outside experts on religion in the workplace, to discuss experiences, challenges, and strategies.

MODERATOR
Mark Fowler, Deputy CEO, Tanenbaum

PANELISTS

Preeti Chhibber, Senior Editorial Manager, Scholastic Reading Clubs
Shifa Kapadwala, Publicity Assistant, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Ellice M. Lee, Freelance Designer/Art Director. Incoming Associate Art Director, Penguin Young Readers Group

WRITING AND EDITING AUTHENTIC VOICES

Recent campaigns such as #ownvoices suggest that it can be a problem for books featuring diverse characters and voices to be written or edited by people who do not come from that background. We have a responsibility to ensure that marginalized groups are being represented with authenticity. The CBC Diversity Committee has assembled a panel of authors, editors, and agents to explore this topic.

MODERATOR
Ashley Woodfolk, Marketing Manager, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group

PANELISTS

Matt de la Peña, Author (Last Stop on Market Street, The Living)
Patricia McCormick, Author (Never Fall Down, I Am Malala)
Kate Sullivan, Senior Editor, Delacorte Press
Marietta Zacker, Agent, Gallt and Zacker Literary Agency

RECRUITING DIVERSITY

Recent surveys by Publishers Weekly and Lee & Low Books reveal that publishing remains a homogeneous and exclusive industry. CBC Diversity has assembled a panel of Human Resource professionals to discuss the current state of diversity hiring.

MODERATOR
Andrea Davis Pinkney, Vice President, Executive Editor, Scholastic Trade

PANELISTS

Joy Bertan, Director of Talent Acquisition and Diversity Initiatives, Simon & Schuster
Lindsey Cotter, SVP, Human Resources, Scholastic
Kenneth Johnson, President, East Coast Executives
Paige McInerney, VP of Human Resources, Penguin Random House

Outside Industries Capturing the Diverse Market

Our panelists from the television, film, and media industries successfully produce content that connects with diverse audiences. We explore how the publishing industry can do the same.

The panel is followed by a special presentation from First Book.

MODERATOR
Yolanda Scott, Editorial Director, Charlesbridge

PANELISTS

Patrik Henry Bass, Editorial Projects Director, Essence Magazine
Tonya Lee, Chief Creator, ToniK Productions
Amy Tenbrink, Senior Vice President of Business Affairs, Univision

THE DIVERSITY SUCCESS: HOW PUBLISHERS CREATE CAPTIVATING STORIES – BEA PANEL

A book can achieve success in many different ways – earning out its advance, garnering lots of engagement, launching the author into a new age category, reaching the market it was intended for, and more. Each panelist at this BEA event (one editorial director, one marketing/publicity director, and one sales director) shared the success of a single title and how it might be applied to others.

MODERATOR
Julie Hochheiser Ilkovich, Co-Founder, Managing Partner, and President of Editorial Operations at Masthead Media Company

PANELISTS

Melanie Chang, Vice President of Integrated Marketing at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
David Gale, Vice President & Editorial Director at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Mark von Bargen, Senior Director of Trade Sales for Children’s Books at Macmillan

CBC DIVERSITY LUNCH & LEARN PANEL: TALKING DIVERSE BOOKS

This panel focused on the ins and outs of discussing diverse books with colleagues — both inside and outside the publishing house — to gain champions at every turn. The event offered a unique opportunity for CBC members to hear directly from Diversity Committee members, who shared their knowledge and experience.

MODERATOR
Virginia Anagnos, Executive Vice President, Goodman Media International Inc.

PANELISTS

Faye Bi, Publicist, Simon & Schuster
Daniel Erhenhaft, Editorial Director, Soho Press/Soho Teen
Andrea Davis Pinkney, VP and Executive Editor of Trade, Scholastic
Mark von Bargen, Sr. Director, Trade Sales for Children’s Books, Macmillan

DAY OF DIVERSITY: DIALOGUE & ACTION

The Association for Library Service to Children and CBC Diversity co-hosted a Day of Diversity: Dialogue and Action in Children’s Literature and Library Programming at ALA Midwinter on January 30, 2015 in Chicago. The invitation-only event provided a forum for children’s literacy advocates to brainstorm ways of increasing diverse literature and library programming.
See footage from the event below, and view the entire playlist here.

CBC DIVERSITY LUNCH & LEARN PANEL: SALES

The Diversity Committee assembled a group of sales reps to talk about what bookstores, wholesalers, and other points-of-sale are looking for in terms of diverse books.

MODERATOR
Angus Killick, VP, Associate Publisher, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group

PANELISTS

Ray Paszkiewicz, Senior Buyer, Baker & Taylor, Inc.
Max Rodriguez, Founder, Harlem Book Fair
Nikki Mutch, New England District Sales Manager, Scholastic Inc.

CBC DIVERSITY LUNCH & LEARN PANEL: PUBLICIZING YOUR BOOKS TO A MULTICULTURAL AUDIENCE

This panel focuses on the role that publicity and the media play in promoting diverse titles and authors. CBC Diversity brought together experts from in-house publicity departments and media representatives from major outlets to discuss how diverse titles are publicized and selected for coverage, and what steps can be taken to reach a wider audience.

MODERATOR
Caroline Sun, Assistant Director of Publicity, HarperCollins Children’s Books

PANELISTS

Melanie Chang, Executive Director, Publicity & Communications, Little, Brown BFYR
Justine Kenin, Producer, National Public Radio
Sarah Smith, Children’s Book Editor, The New York Times Book Review
Tracy van Straaten, VP, Trade Publicity, Scholastic

CBC DIVERSITY LUNCH & LEARN PANEL: MARKETING YOUR BOOKS TO A MULTICULTURAL AUDIENCE

This panel illuminated the different channels available to market to kids and parents of diverse backgrounds. The prevailing thought is often, “we just can’t reach this target market”, but this panel demonstrated that these markets are accessible if one simply understands them better.

PANELISTS

Telly Wong, IW Group, Inc.
Dabo Che, Spike DDB
Annie Shih, AdAsia Communications, Inc
Aaron McQuade, GLAAD

CBC DIVERSITY LUNCH & LEARN PANEL: BOOK COVERS

To continue CBC Diversity’s online conversation about challenges to diversity in kid lit covers, the Committee hosted a panel discussion on September 25th, 2012.