Ensuring a More Literate Future for All

Diversity, inclusion, and community engagement all play critical roles in nurturing new readers and writers

Access to and engagement with literature is critical to inspiring creativity, fostering literacy, and strengthening communities.

At last month’s annual PubWest conference, three of today’s leading literary advocates shared how they are helping to shape a more literate future for readers, writers, and publishers.

In an excerpt from the PubWest session recorded in Portland, Oregon, the keynote speakers describe their projects and elaborate on how diversity, inclusion, and community engagement all play critical roles in nurturing new readers and writers, while expanding the current – and future – audiences for books.

• As CEO of 826 National, Laura Brief, works with the largest youth writing network in the country, serving over 80,000 students ages 6 to 18 years. She has worked in the fields of education and social impact for nearly twenty years and has held key leadership positions at The Posse Foundation, BUILD, First Graduate, Juma Ventures, and Youth Speaks, where she currently serves as board chair.
• Andrew Proctor is Executive Director of Literary Arts, based in Portland, Oregon. Born and raised in Canada, he earned an MA in English Literature at the University of East Anglia under the supervision of England’s then Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion. From 2000 to 2004, he worked as an editor for HarperCollins in New York City and then as the Membership and Operations Director of the PEN American Center, a global literary and human rights organization focused on the welfare of writers and editors.
• Guy LeCharles Gonzalez is chief strategist at Free Verse Media and project lead for the Panorama Project. Previously, he was publisher and marketing director for Writer’s Digest; director, content strategy & audience development for Library Journal and School Library Journal; and founding director of programming and business development for Digital Book World.

To listen to a complete recording of the PubWest 2020 keynote session, go here.