Amplify Black Stories

The Brown Bookshelf has partnered with the Highlights Foundation to produce a year-long program to support and amplify Black stories, storytellers, and publishers. The goals are to lift up Black creators and also confront industry challenges and foster change.

Amplify Black Voices

According to the program announcement,  Amplify Black Voices will feature monthly presentations from two distinct cohorts:

“The Storyteller cohort includes debut, midlist, and vanguard Black authors and illustrators across all children’s literature genres and formats, at no cost to the storyteller. Discover the 24 storytellers in the cohort.

The Publishing Teams cohort includes a diverse and inclusive gathering of executives, editors, and marketing and design staff from publishing houses. Our sponsoring publishers and organizations have empowered and funded Black creators and staff to participate while supporting this collaboration to dismantle the systems of racism”

Amplify Black Voices

Heather Murphy Capps
Heather Murphy Capps has always had a deep appreciation for comfort and elegance. She and Claudia would have run out of money quickly together but would absolutely have been on the same page about taxis and nice restaurants. And of course, solving mysteries about beautiful art. That said, Heather also appreciates Jamie’s love of complication, which is why she spent several years living in rural Kenya and then became a television news reporter, which involved standing for hours in the middle of hurricanes and political battles. Now she’s raising middle-grade readers and writing for them. She loves to read and write books with lots of great science, magic, mystery, and adventure. Heather is the communications coordinator for Mixed-Up Files, as well as creator/curator for our We Need Diverse MG series. She is committed to creating more diversity in publishing.