I’m going to pick just a few words to describe Catalyst’s weekend at the American Librarian Association‘s Annual Conference. Here goes: Authors, diversity, publishers, and superheroes. Stick with me.
This year’s annual conference, held in Chicago, marked the public debut of Catalyst Press and our chance to show off all of the awesome titles we have planned for the fall and winter. It also gave us an opportunity to meet some incredible writers, teachers, and publishing professionals who are doing all they can to champion our shared love, books.
We were thrilled to share our booth with the mighty teams from Akashic Books and Cinco Punto Press, two independent publishers putting out great work into the world. We are beyond proud to be a part of the independent press movement.
Many of the conference’s presentations focused on diversity—gender, racial, sexual orientation—and how it can’t just be a one-time discussion. It has to a continuous part of the conversation. We all— adults, children, and all points in between— need to feel that our stories are being told. Librarians, parents, educators, and readers have all expressed the need for publishers to be responsive and responsible in amplifying voices on the margins.
There was an especially wide-range of diverse graphic-novel titles. This write-up on the conference from Publisher’s Weekly shows how graphic novels are really stepping up to present inclusive books. And, not to get too excited, but there’s a nice mention our upcoming release, Shaka Rising. (!!!!) The public wants to read these stories, and it was great to see so many publishers meeting that demand.
A few weeks ago, I saw a tweet from National Book Foundation Director Lisa Lucas. “Semi-regular reminder: BOOKS AREN’T DYING.” It’s hard to remember that sometimes. Hard to remember how much books can heal us. And there, among the stacks of words and innumerable authors we are reminded again: the death of the book has been highly exaggerated.
Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. SUPERHEROES! Our wonderful publisher, Jessica, was doing a bit of double duty at ALA. Not only was she repping for Catalyst (and the ever awesome Cinco Puntos Press), she was also promoting her upcoming novel Broken Circle (Akashic Books/Black Sheep imprint, October 2017) with her co-author & “little” brother M.A. Powers. And because they know how to get any party started, this dynamic duo signed their book while dressed as another dynamic duo, 70s super team the Wonder Twins. Powers Squared, activate!
