PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (November 17, 2020) – The power of the written word affects all of our lives. Through books and magazines, history is recorded, ideas are shaped, and movements emerge. In fact, most of us were exposed to books before we could even read. Unfortunately, Black writers and publishers are underrepresented in the field of books and publishing. In the $25 billion publishing industry, only five percent of publishers are African American.
That’s why Ecco and the Columbia Publishing Course (CPC) launched “The D’Aprix Sweeney Family Fellowship to Promote Diversity in Publishing.” Students from Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU), Alabama A&M University, Albany State University, Dillard University, Hampton University, and North Carolina A&T State University, which are all Historically Black Colleges/Universities (HBCUs), have been invited to participate in the fellowship.
“I feel an urgency to do what I can to promote better equity for underrepresented voices in publishing,” said internationally acclaimed author Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, who established the D’Aprix Sweeney Fellowship. “I’m excited to partner with my publisher Ecco to promote in-house participation for this effort and, I hope, to help create long overdue change.”
Two students from the six HBCUs will receive tuition, room, board, and incidental expenses of up to $10,000 per year to attend the Columbia Publishing Course, a program conducted under the auspices of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. It’s a total commitment of $100,000 over five years.
“This fellowship gives Black women and men from historically black colleges and universities the opportunity to enter the field of publishing and shape the direction of this industry,” said Daniel Halpern, president and publisher of Ecco. “That said…how important is the field of publishing? It’s a profession in which, at the end of the day, there are books – and, as we know, books last forever. We need diversity in publishing to ensure diverse libraries – and to ensure that those who follow us have gardens that fully represent the vast array of human experience.”
According to Shaye Areheart, director of the CPC, PVAMU was chosen to participate in the fellowship awards because of its “excellent reputation as a rigorous institute of higher education.”
“The award’s significance is the opportunity it presents to two people each year from the six HBCUs who long to choose publishing as a career and who will help make the goal of greater diversity in publishing a reality,” said Areheart.
Members of the fellowship committee expect to hold informational sessions at each campus soon to recruit applicants for the new program, which begins in 2021.
“As the dean of Graduate Studies and dean of the [Marvin D. and June Samuel] Brailsford College of Arts & Sciences [at PVAMU], which houses our Department of Languages and Communication, I am excited about these noteworthy opportunities for our students,” said Dorie J. Gilbert, Ph.D.
Click here for more information regarding the Feb. 4 information session.
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