Our latest children’s books will be published on December 7! We're so proud of the young immigrant authors who drew inspiration from their experiences and the gaps they noticed in existing children’s books to create four thoughtful stories for young readers. Their stories will be published in Spanish and English in bilingual illustrated children’s books.
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Composed of award-winning authors and advocates for diversifying youth literature, Megaphone Board members will lend their platforms to elevate the voices of Shout Mouse Press’s authors, all of whom are young people from marginalized communities and write books that speak to the most pressing issues of today, from #BlackLivesMatter to immigration to bullying to gender norms.
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Throughout July, 13 Reach Incorporated tutors participated in virtual workshops with Shout Mouse Team Story to write four new children's picture books! We're delighted to welcome back returning authors Japan, Jocktavious, and Riley and to work with writers Anthony, Damarco, Danya, Daveena, Diarou, Emilie, Geralyn, Joseph, Samaria, and Shatiya for the first time.
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On August 20th, Shout Mouse Press authors met to celebrate their contributions to #ShoutInPlace and hear work from featured poet Pages Matam and fellow authors. Our team is constantly humbled and honored to work with powerful young writers who share their stories with vulnerability, eloquence, and intentionality. We loved seeing and hearing from authors about their #ShoutInPlace work and how it feels to be accomplished writers!
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Thanks to a partnership with An Open Book Foundation, the wonderful poet Mahogany Browne joined 17 young SMP writers for a workshop on August 5th. As part of our #ShoutInPlace storytelling project, we organized this event to provide an opportunity for authors to connect with an award-winning writer whose work engages with topics that arose in their submissions, such as social justice, racism, discrimination, and resilience-- to and ask any questions about writing or process and celebrate their many contributions to #ShoutInPlace.
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A lot of things have changed for me since March 11, including being without work for almost three months…But mostly, it has been a time to reflect more on myself, to think about what I can do better and what I need to change. It has been a time in which I realized that life is short and anything can happen from one day to another.
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Our authors’ stories are needed now more than ever. Every book in our catalog is written by authors from communities who are under threat by current political conditions and rhetoric. We are currently hearing the calls for #OwnVoices literature louder than ever -- as well as calls for tools to help spark important conversations. With this in mind, we’re releasing new book sets!
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Shout Mouse Press condemns the ongoing state-sanctioned violence towards Black people across the nation. We stand in solidarity with Black communities, racial justice advocates, and all of you who are outraged by repeated acts of racism, violence, and abuse of public trust. We support the Black Lives Matter movement and share in their mission of combating white supremacy and "creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy."
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Writing this book was a special exercise in stretching and strength. I’ve been uncomfortable, uncertain, nervous, tired. I had to grow during our two week writing intensive. My mind was out of words and ideas, but my soul wasn’t out of stories. I had to stretch to get out all the tales I felt obligated to tell. I drew on my fellow authors for inspiration, drive, and energy. Music, memory, stereotypes, hyphens, we talked about everything.
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Through a one-day campaign, enough gifts were given to donate 375 books to local readers in need! We started the day with the goal of giving 100 books -- but surpassed this initial goal by noon. As always, we are grateful to our community for your bold and wonderful support!
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On February 8, 2020, a group of 20+ Shout Mouse Press authors and staff gathered in Studio J at The Kennedy Center’s REACH for our first-ever Author Talks Training. Our books are written in #OwnVoices by young authors and advocates who are Latino immigrants, formerly incarcerated, Black, Muslim, and of many other identities. This was a wonderful opportunity to bring a collective of SMP authors, many of whom had never met, together.
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In solidarity with the #DignidadLiteraria movement, we are sharing a post from Rosa, who is a 21-year old Latina immigrant, author of Voces Sin Fronteras: Our Stories, Our Truth, first generation student studying health science in Washington, D.C., and Shout Mouse Press intern.
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In fall of 2019, Shout Mouse Press awarded $500 direct aid scholarships to 14 authors as part of the Ballou Story Project “College Ready” program. The idea for this fund, made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor, came from student authors themselves, who faced byzantine financial aid systems that didn’t suit the needs of first-generation, low-income college students. This spring, each student will receive another $500 scholarship. All awardees are Shout Mouse Press authors who contributed to The Ballou We Know and graduated as part of Ballou High School’s class of 2019. We recently heard back from the awardees; these are dispatches from their first semester!
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We are THRILLED to announce the addition of four new children’s books, authored by the amazing tutors of Reach Incorporated, to the Shout Mouse Press catalog. This stunning set of books covers important themes for people of all ages.
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Recently, an author of Voces Sin Fronteras had the opportunity to do an author talk at the District’s Central Detention Center (“DC Jail”) through our partners at Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop. Free Minds provides books, creative writing workshops, and peer support to DC youth who have been incarcerated as adults to help them achieve their education and career goals — and become powerful voices for change in the community. They host a book club in the DC Jail that meets once a week to read and discuss contemporary literature. The members choose what books to read democratically. In September, the Spanish book club Mentes Libres decided to read Voces Sin Fronteras, our collection of comic memoirs by young Latinx immigrants, and our partners at Free Minds invited an author to come speak! In this blog post, Erminia reflects on her experience talking to the book club.
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We’ve finished our seventh summer of writing workshops with the teen tutors of Reach to create four new children's books. These students were excited to create stories that will inspire and educate the young people they tutor and throughout their community. They spent four weeks writing with the help of our story coaches, brought their characters to life with up and coming illustrators, and learned what it takes to create a children's book. Now that the authors have finished writing, our illustrators are working on bringing their stories to life! Books launch in November and we can't wait. We couldn’t keep these exciting new stories to ourselves, so here’s a sneak peek at this exciting new batch of books:
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