Minorities in Publishing

[This interview was conducted online and there may be some audio variation.] "Platform alone will not persuade an editor [to acquire your book]." --Alia Hanna Habib During pub week for Take It From Me: An Agent's Guide to Building a Nonfiction Career from Scratch ,  VP & Literary Agent, Alia Hanna Habib and Jenn discussed the plethora of information detailed for writers, particularly nonfiction wr...

[This interview was conducted online and there may be some audio variation.] "I think human nature is always enamoured by it's own reflection. But to what end?" --Irvin Weathersby Jr.  Irvin Weathersby Jr. is the author of In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space , which was longlisted for the PEN Award for Nonfiction. At the time of recording, Jenn and Irvin spoke to...

[This episode was recorded by Westport Library on-site in Westport, Connecticut.] Last Fall, the MiP Podcast returned to Westport Library for their annual StoryFest! Jenn was joined by fellow debut authors / pub professionals Lauren Morrow (author of  Little Movements ) and Amber Oliver (author of When the Music Hits ). They discussed the narrative parallels of these two novels with Black women pr...

[This interview was conducted online and there may be some audio variation.] "Your sentences are your vehicle." --Denne Michele Norris Denne Michele Norris ( When the Harvest Comes  and  Both/And ) returns to the MiP podcast to discuss everything leading up to her debut novel, including breaking from a "quitting" mentality to one where she invested herself fully into the writing process. A process...

The Power of Storytelling is a special collaboration episode between Minorities in Publishing and the Restorative Works! Podcast . Through the power of storytelling, we aim to engage powerful leaders and activists in conversations around keeping hope in dire times; giving back power to communities; radical empathy; arts as means to tell real life stories, and the effects of genuine engagement in c...

[This interview was conducted online and there may be some audio variation.] "Writing has extracted from me this idea of exorcising demons, but also exercising a self that felt so erased." -Cherry Lou Sy In the first MiP episode of 2025, Jenn speaks with debut author Cherry Lou Sy ( Love Can't Feed You ) about adjusting to prose writing as a playwright, the line between fiction and autofiction, an...

[This interview was conducted online and there may be some audio variation.] Jenn spoke with the most avid of readers and the most bountiful of hosts, Traci Thomas (The Stacks podcast), about The Stacks origins and Traci's deep love of books in her approach to interviews, plus we go in-depth about the reader experience! Discussing book events and the possibilities, Traci suggests  The Art of Gathe...

This is a live recording of the Minorities in Publishing podcast hosted at The Westport Library on September 21st as part of the 2024 StoryFest line up. Audio was provided by Travis Bell (The Westport Library).  StoryFest 2024 welcomed Jenn and fellow 2023 debut authors  Don P. Hooper ( True True ) and Shannon C.F. Rogers ( I'd Rather Burn Than Bloom  and  Eighteen Roses ) about their respective y...

  [This interview was conducted online and there may be some audio variation.] Newly anointed MacArthur Fellow and best-selling, award-winning author Jason Reynolds returns to the MiP podcast for the 10th anniversary year! His new book, Twenty-Four Seconds From Now , joins the compendium of many of Jason's love stories for and featuring young people. Jason speaks to the transparency of larger conv...

[This interview was conducted online and there may be some audio variation.] Continuing the podcast's 10th anniversary year, Jenn speaks with book influencer--bookstagrammer and booktoker elite-- Lupita Aquino ! Lupita keeps it real about the influencer life, setting boundaries, reading for the joy of it, and the ways the book influencer space has changed over the years. In this very illuminating...

[This interview was conducted online and there may be some audio variation.] As the 10th-anniversary year continues, Jenn welcomes debut author Danica Nava ( The Truth According to Ember ) for some laughs around romance shenanigans! Danica breaks down what often makes a rom-com while increasing the stakes for characters, she discusses the necessity of representing the reality of Indigenous charact...

[This interview was conducted online so there may be some audio variation.] For the 10th anniversary year of Minorities in Pub, Jenn welcomes Nick Medina to the podcast! Nick Medina is the author of the novels  Indian Burial Ground  and  Sisters of the Lost Nation.  In this episode, Nick discusses the many drafts that lead to his first book deal, how horror can represent some of the truest and mos...

[This interview was conducted online so there may be some audio variation. Intro/Outro music is by Moutaineer and licensed through  Premuim Beat] Continuing the 10th anniversary year of Minorities in Pub, Jenn welcomes another Newbery honoree in Veera Hiranandani ! Veera her new middle-grade novel, a follow-up to the award-winning  The Night Diary, Amil and the After. Veera also discusses how writ...

[This interview was conducted online so there may be some audio variation. Intro/Outro music is by Moutaineer and licensed through  Premuim Beat] (Content Warning: At around the 20-minute mark there is mention of the video of Ahmaud Arbery's death and the last words of Elijah McClain when Alicia mentions participating in NaNoWriMo. If this may be triggering, please skip forward by 2 minutes and 30...

[This interview was conducted online so there may be some audio variation.] For the 10th anniversary year of Minorities in Pub, Jenn welcomes recent Newbery honoree and Pura Belpré winning author/illustrator Pedro Martín! Pedro talks about his entry into books from creating greeting cards, how the Mexikid online comic expanded even more with his award-winning book, learning  lots  about publishing...

[This interview was conducted online so there may be some audio variation.] For the 10th anniversary year of Minorities in Pub, Jenn welcomes back best-selling & award-winning author Renée Watson for her fourth episode (in a year she has 4 books publishing)! We discussed Renée origins in storytelling as a poet and playwright when she started a performing arts company in high school, her new book o...

[This interview was conducted online so there may be some audio variation.] For the 10th anniversary year of Minorities in Pub, Jenn speaks with author Matt Mendez about his new young adult novel,  The Broke Hearts,  a companion to his debut YA  Barely Missing Everything.  Jenn and Matt discuss the unrealistic expectations of knowing your path at a young age, male representation for young readers,...

[This interview was conducted online so there may be some audio variation.] Jenn speaks with editor and graphic novelist/author Elizabeth Agyemang ( Fibbed ) about her debut middle grade, finding space for her professional and creative life, how she's learned that incremental progress is still progress in all aspects of our work, and the inherent struggles creators of color face when the expectati...

[This interview was conducted online so there may be some audio variation.] Jenn speaks with Candlewick publicity manager Jamie Tan (a 2020 PW StarWatch honoree and CBC Diversity Achievement Awardee ) and former Candlewick outreach manager Ally Russell (whose debut middle grade It Comes From Tree s pubs in 2024). They discuss working outside of NYC in the publishing industry and the reality of wha...

[This interview was conducted online so there may be some audio variation.] Jenn speaks with debut novelist Namrata Poddar about her book  Border Less   (longlisted for the 2022 Center of Fiction First Novel Prize), pursuing publication with an small press versus a Big 5 publisher, the "classic" question of marketability versus craft that BIPOC writers especially face when publishing their work, a...

[This interview was conducted online so there may be some audio variation.] Jenn speaks with TV writer and journalist Kashana Cauley author of the debut novel The Survivalists   out now from Soft Skull Press. Kashana talks about the many drafts before this novel came to fruition, how juggling several career paths helped her stay on the path to writing, and how this novel's themes apply to what she...

[This interview was conducted via Zoom with several participants, so there may be some audio variation.] Ten days into the HarperCollins Union strike, four employees and union members--Doris, Genessee, Ahmunet, and Parrish--spoke to Jenn about the requests the union has made to HarperCollins, how to support those on strike, on why they believe in the work they do as both publishing professionals a...

[This interview was conducted online so there may be some audio variation.] Jenn speaks with associate production editor, Kaitlyn San Miguel , about her switch from editorial to production in children's lit, adapting to a white collar and white dominant work space, and why the production department spoke to her love of books.  [Transcript of this episode can be found on the Episodes page of the po...

[This interview was conducted online so there may be some audio variation.] Jenn speaks with production editor, Carla Benton, about the specifics of the role of the production editor in trade publishing, how more remote positions may help with representation in the publishing landscape, and how some may look into freelancing by using social media to connect with other production editors in the ind...

[This interview was conducted online and is an overseas conversation so there may be some audio variation.] Jenn speaks with illustrator/author, Kate Gavino about her latest graphic novel  A Career in Books will publish on August 2nd. Kate discusses how life imitated art--and was fictionalized--for her latest book, the experiences that led her to leave the industry and pursue life as an artist, in...