Diversity in Publishing - Overview

Focus On CanLit

Dundas, Deborah. “The Year in Review: CanLit Is Dead, Long Live CanLit.” The Star, Dec. 30, 2018. Read Article

Elliott, Alicia. “CanLit Is a Raging Dumpster Fire.” Open Book, Sep. 7, 2017. Read Article

Granholm, Kirsti. “Where We Started and Where We’re Heading: An Introduction to the Evolution of CanLit.” The Canadian Children’s Book Centre, Jul. 2, 2019. Read Article

McGregor, Hannah, Julia Rak & Erin Wunker, eds. “Refuse: CanLit in Ruins.” Book*hug Press, Nov. 15, 2018. More Info | Find in a Library

Miller, Monica. “Diversity in CanLit.” 49th Shelf. Recommended reading for diverse Canadian books. Read Article

Raymundo, Bridget. “10 Canadian Books to Read During Asian Heritage Month.” CBC, May 5, 2023. Read Article

Sookfong Lee, Jen. “Open Letters and Closed Doors: How the Steven Galloway Open Letter Dumpster Fire Forced Me to Acknowledge the Racism and Entitlement at the Heart of CanLit.” The Humber Literary Review. Read Article

Thorkelson, Erika. “Setting the CanLit canon on fire.” University Affairs, March 6, 2020. Read Article

Wang, Yilin. “Racism in #CanLit: Barriers in Publishing & the Need for Safe Spaces.” Oct. 18, 2019. Read Article

Focus on Race

Alter, Alexandra and Elizabeth A. Harris. “Publishing Pledged to Diversify. Change Has Been Slow.” The New York Times, Feb. 28, 2024. Read Article

Baxter, Amy Mae. “What Will It Take To Eliminate Racism In The Publishing World?” Vogue, August 13, 2021. Read Article

Canas, Tania. “Diversity Is a White Word.” ArtsHub, Jan. 9, 2017. Read Article

Deahl, Rachel. “Why Publishing Is So White.” PublishersWeekly.Com, Mar. 11, 2016. Read Article

DiAngelo, Robin. “White people are still raised to be racially illiterate. If we don’t recognize the system, our inaction will uphold it.” NBC News, Sept. 16, 2018. Read Article

DiAngelo, Robin. “Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism.” HuffPost, Dec. 6, 2017. Read Article

Isen, Tajja.“How the Book Industry Turns Its Own Racism into a Marketable Product.” Literary Hub, Apr. 20, 2022. Read Article

Kantor, Emma. “’People of Color in Publishing’: Striving for More Industry Diversity.” Publishers Weekly, Dec. 12, 2017. Read Article

Kim, Sandra. “Why Healing from Internalized Whiteness Is A Missing Link in White People’s Anti-Racism Work.” Everyday Feminism. More Info

Rajesh, Monisha. “Pointing out racism in books is not an ‘attack’ – it’s a call for industry reform” The Guardian, August 13, 2021. Read Article

Oluo, Ijeoma. So You Want To Talk About Race. Seal Press, Jan. 16, 2018. More Info

Vallianatos, Mary Anne. “Best Approaches for Anti-Racism Education: A Literature Review.” University of Victoria, Aug. 2018. Read Report

McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” Wellesley College Center for Research on Women. Essay excerpted from Working Paper 189. “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies”, 1988.
“I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group.” Read

Focus on Strategies

“Best Practices for Equity-Driven Acquisitions – Tech Forum 2019.” BookNet Canada. Watch Video

Chertock, Marlena. “How to Make Your Literary Magazine More Inclusive.” Association of Writers & Writing Programs, Oct. 2017. Read Article

Chen, Joyce. “The Politics of Gatekeeping: On Reconsidering the Ethics of Blind Submissions.” Poets & Writers, Oct. 7, 2020. Read Article

“Diversity in Publishing From A to Z: A List of Book Publishers Who Specialize in Diversity and Inclusion.” Feb. 19, 2019. Visit Site

“Diversity in Publishing: What Can You Do as an Editor?” Reedsy Blog, Apr. 27, 2021. Read Article

“Overcoming Bias and Diversity Issues in Publishing.” Bias and diversity issues are still prevalent in the magazine industry. The blog post talks about how the industry needs to address issues of inequality in the workplace. Read Article

Sparkes, Ainsley. “Building in-house momentum for diverse books.” BookNet Canada, Nov. 27, 2017. Listen to Podcast

Reimer, Nikki. “Hold Your Fucking Communities Accountable: Defining and creating safer spaces for women, trans, non-binary individuals, and people of colour in literary writing communities.” The Insurgent Architects’ House for Creative Writing. Read Article

Thomson, Stephanie. “How to Make Your Writing More Inclusive.” Medium, May 30, 2019. Read Article

More Essays on Diversity in General

Ansari, Sadiya. “Diverse from What?’: Dionne Brand on Art for All People.” The Globe and Mail, Sep. 27, 2018. Read Article

Baker, Jennifer. “When It Comes to Inclusivity in Publishing, Editors Also Play a Role.” Electric Literature, Oct. 25, 2017. Read Article

Crispin, Jessa. “Publishing’s Diversity Problems, or The Paris Review Was Started by the CIA” (w/ Alexis Aceves Garcia). Listen Notes, Feb. 21, 2019. Listen to Podcast

“Diversity: Issues Facing Underrepresented Writers.” National Writers Union. Read Article

Ho, Jean. “Diversity In Book Publishing Isn’t Just About Writers — Marketing Matters, Too.” National Public Radio, Aug. 9, 2018. Read Article

Mani, Hamidreza “Foot print of a paper: accountability in academic publishing.” The Lancet, August 06, 2016. Read

Neary, Lynn. “To Achieve Diversity in Publishing, A Difficult Dialogue Beats Silence.” NPR, Aug. 20, 2014. Read Article

“Responsibility and Accountability of Authors and Co-authors.” Reproductive BioMedicine Online, Vol 16. No 6. 2008 p. 763-764. April 21, 2008. Read Report

Rodan, Galit. “Reflected on the Page.” The Globe & Mail, Jul. 28, 2017. Read Article

Teixeira da Silva, Jamie A. & Judit Bobranski. “How Authorship is Defined by Multiple Publishing Organizations and STM Publishers.” Taylor & Frances Online, November 23, 2015. Read

Zachary, A. Light. “For New Gatekeepers.” Arc Poetry Magazine, June 20, 2018. Read Article

Ongoing Resources

Baker, Jenn. “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

PublisHer: An organization that provides diversity and inclusion guidelines targeting the inclusion of more women in publishing. Visit Site

Rethinking Diversity in CanLit: Originally started as a high school project, this blog challenges current curriculum standards to change to more, contemporary, diverse Canadian content. Visit Site