We Need Diverse Books, which was founded in spring 2014 in the wake of a lack of diversity in BookCon 2014’s initial author lineup, announced on Monday that the organization is postponing its first WNDB Children’s Literature Diversity Festival. The festival, which was scheduled to be held in Washington, D.C. on July 23, 2016, will now debut in the summer of either 2017 or 2018.
Ellen Oh, the organization’s president, explained that the event has been postponed so that WNDB can focus on its current initiatives, which include publishing industry internships for multicultural college students; mentoring initiatives; WNDB in the Classroom, which sends multicultural authors into underserved schools; grants for emerging authors and illustrators; and the Walter Dean Myers Award for established writers.
“Taking additional time,” Oh said, “will ensure we get the festival we all envision.”
Including the 10-member WNDB advisory board, there are 60 people volunteering their time with WNDB.
