#45: A Time for Action

For the past four years, we've held a weekly writing contest here on Reedsy, and we’ve delighted in watching this community of writers grow. In light of what’s happening in the United States (and around the world) — with protests and marches condemning police brutality and long-standing systemic racism — our team has extensively discussed how best to use our platform.

This week, we want to use this space in your inbox to share resources we’ve found helpful — and to amplify a number of organizations that are actively fighting this injustice.

Our contest is also going to run a little differently this week. Instead of picking one winner, we will highlight five stories. And instead of the $50 prize, we will make $200 donations on behalf of each of the five writers to one of the following organizations of their choice.

Black Lives Matter is a global foundation with a mission is to eradicate white supremacy and to enable local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities around the world.

Color of Change is a nonprofit civil rights advocacy organization working to end racial injustice manifested in a number of different arenas — politics, the economy, media, and tech.

Hurston/Wright Foundation is an arts nonprofit devoted to supporting emerging and mid-career Black writers.

We Need Diverse Books is a grassroots organization advocating for literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people. 

To help us put the movement into context, we’ve found it useful to turn to titles such as Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge or A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross. These books, along with many others, are available from Elizabeth’s Bookshop & Writing Centre — a bookstore donating proceeds of book sales to The Loveland Foundation.

In the coming months, we intend to figure out how we can contribute to a more diverse publishing landscape and help Black and marginalized authors make their voices heard.