Diversity in Publishing – Organizations & Initiatives

— Last checked August 2025 by Doris Fiedrich.

In this section:

• Projects and Initiatives
• Awards and Funding
• Inclusive Conferences, Festivals, and Events
• Mentorship and Other Career Assistance

Projects and Initiatives

• Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW): The AAWW, created and written by Asian Americans, has been designed to promote and make visible the work of Asian American authors. The online content includes magazine articles and a series of podcasts. Visit Site
• Asians in Publishing: This resource is specifically created to support Asians in publishing and literature. The Facebook group offers mentorship and building connections in the community. Visit Site
• Building Good Relationships With Emerging BIPOC Writers: This 2019 MagsWest workshop with Phoebe Ka-Ir Wang discusses ways to encourage emerging writers and build more inclusivity at a magazine. Watch Video. Accompanying materials by Phoebe Ka-Ir Wang: Wishlist and checklist (pdf), Wishlist and Checklist (MS Word), Scenarios (pdf)
• CAN’T LIT: A podcast hosted by Dina Del Bucchia and Jen Sookfong Lee. There is a wide range of Canadian topics that are covered in this podcast, including literature. Listen to Podcast
• Code Switch: A weekly NPR podcast run by a team of multi-racial and multi-generation journalists who are interested in race and racism in society. The topics in the podcast cover issues related to race and how they impact different areas of society. Listen to Podcast
• Danielle & Mollie. Black Chick Lit: The podcast covers books that are written by black women authors. Listen to Podcast
• Disability Visibility Project by Alice Wong: “An online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture.” Visit Site
• Disabled Writers: This resource is designed to support editors who want to connect with disabled people who currently work or want to work in the field. Visit Site
  
• Editors of Color by Conscious Styleguide: A database that contains listings of people of colour who work in different professions, including editors. The goal is to provide networks to help diversify companies and other organizations. Visit Site
  
• Identity Politics: Features stories and views of race, gender and life of Muslims in America from invited guests who share their perspectives.  (Ended as of Aug. 2021. However, eight seasons of episodes are available) Listen to Podcast
• Lambda Literary: “Nurtures and advocates for LGBTQ writers, elevating the impact of their words to create community, preserve our legacies, and affirm the value of our stories and our lives.” Visit Site
• Latinx in Publishing: “Supporting and increasing the number of Latine in the publishing industry, and promoting literature by, for, and about Latine people.” Visit Site
• Lean In: This website is a collection of resources to “help women achieve their ambitions and work to create an equal world.” Visit Site
  
• Minorities in Publishing: This podcast discusses diversity among authors, people in the book publishing industry, people in literary fields, and other professionals working in-house. Listen to Podcast
• Native Land Digital: Includes a guide on territorial acknowledgments and many other resources. Visit Site
  
• Publishing in Color: This resource is a series of conferences and workshops for groups of writers of colour who are currently under-represented in publishing. Visit Site
  
• Writers Guild of Canada. WGC Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA): A committee “Created to develop and implement initiatives supporting diverse screenwriter members, the WGC IDEA Committee first convened in 2017.” Visit Site
• Yueh, Marvin and Rerra Yoo. Books & Boba Book Club & Podcast: “A book club and award nominated podcast dedicated to spotlighting books written by authors of Asian descent.” Visit Site

Awards and Funding

• The Canadian Ethnic Media Awards: Canadian Ethnic Media Association (CEMA) is formerly known as the Canadian Ethnic Journalists and Writer Club. The organization supports ethnic professionals in the fields of print, radio, television, and online journalism. The competition is welcome to all journalists, in any language, whether they are members of the Association or not. Awards Page
• Carl Brandon Society: The society’s goal is to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the production of and audience for speculative fiction. There are two awards given from this society and both award work related to speculative fiction. The winners will receive a $1000 cash prize. Visit Site
• First Peoples’ Cultural Council: The First Peoples’ Cultural Council (FPCC) was created by the BC government in 1990. The program offers funding for individual Indigenous artists living in BC. The artistic works can be in any artistic discipline: visual, literary, media and more. Visit Site
• Indigenous Voices Awards: The awards were created to support and nurture the work of Indigenous writers and Indigenous artistic communities. The eligible applicants for the competition must be Indigenous. Visit Site
• JWC Emerging Writers Award: Created in 1999 as the Emerging Writers Award and renamed in 2017 to the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award in honour of Asian Canadian writing pioneer and mentor Jim Wong-Chu. The award is for Asian-Canadian writers. Visit Site

Inclusive Conferences, Festivals, and Events

• The Festival of Literary Diversity: FOLD celebrates diversity in literature. “The FOLD is the only literary festival in Canada dedicated to connecting readers, educators, literary agents, and publishers with writers from diverse backgrounds.” Visit Site
  
• LiterASIAN Writers Festival: The festival’s purpose is to promote and celebrate the works of Asian Canadian writers and artists. Visit Site
• Wakefield Writers Festival des Écrivains: “Writers Fête is one of the most anticipated cultural and literary events in the region. We work purposefully to build a linguistically diverse program that showcases local and national francophone, anglophone, ethnic and indigenous literary talent.” In Wakefield, Ontario. Visit Site
• WisCon: A feminist science fiction & fantasy convention held annually in Madison, Wisconsin. Visit Site

Mentorships and Other Career Assistance

• Diaspora Dialogues: “Supports diverse writers to turn their craft into a career through mentorship, professional development and opportunities to publish and present their work.” Visit Site
• The Editor-Writer Mentorship: The program is to help pair upcoming writers from underrepresented groups with an experienced publishing editor. Visit Site
  
• Inkluded: Champions diversity in publishing by supporting like-minded organizations and works to develop and place young people from diverse backgrounds into their first publishing jobs. Visit Site
• InkWell Workshops: Currently offering live workshops online: “free, high-quality literary programming to people living with mental health and addiction issues.” Visit Site
• International Women’s Media Foundation: The program supports reporting projects, particularly stories of global importance and underreported stories. Women journalists, which includes trans women, and non-binary people, from anywhere in the world are eligible to apply to the program. “IWMF will make an annual total of $230,000 worth of grants through four rounds of funding through 2025. The average grant size in $10,000.” Visit Site
• Learning Lab: BIPOC Performing Artists Edition by ArtStarts: This is a lab to help professionals develop experiences in various fields. “Learning Lab is to build capacity for performing artists who are Black, Indigenous, and/or people of colour.” Visit Site
• Newcomer and Refugee Artist Mentorship by Toronto Arts Council: The program offers support to individual newcomer and refugee professional artists and to be mentored in their chosen arts discipline. Visit Site
• Thursdays Writing Collective: This archive resource contains related writing workshops and support for writers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside that ran from 2008-2018. Visit Site
• We Need Diverse Books: This blog advocates essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honours the lives of all young people. Visit Site
• Writing the Other: Resources and workshops on “writing characters very different from” the writer “sensitively and convincingly.” Visit Site