Ellen Oh is the co-founder of We Need Diverse Books, the nonprofit organization that advocates for diversity in all aspects of the book publishing industry. As part of WNDB’s 10th-anniversary celebration this year, Oh is being honored by Dav Pilkey and Sayuri Pilkey, who recently established a grant in Oh’s name for creators of Asian heritage. Having served as WNDB’s executive director for 10 years, Oh stepped back a year ago and currently serves as an honorary trustee. PW spoke with Oh about the group’s beginnings, its accomplishments, the impact of book bans, and what people can do to combat censorship.
Did you think, more than 10 years ago, when you and a small group of fellow authors responded to an all-male, all-white panel at BookCon 2014 by launching #WeNeedDiverseBooks as a Twitter hashtag, that it would become such a force in the industry?
I don’t think any of us thought it would become what it became. We were just focused on making radical change happen. But in order to make that happen, you put your head down and have to work like crazy. All of us in early leadership roles spent more time on WNDB than our own writing and our own families. It consumed us. We were focused on the work we had to do and not thinking about how we were perceived. And I think because we were so focused on work and not raising our profile, WNDB is not well known outside of the children’s publishing industry —which we didn’t really worry about until we started growing and needed to raise more funds. But to be honest, we were a group of worker bees, not queen bees. We were interested in changing the industry and we truly thought that our task was to work ourselves out of the need for WNDB. The fact that it is more needed than ever is heartbreaking.
What are you most proud of in terms of WNDB’s accomplishments under your leadership?
Seeing Angie Thomas dominate the New York Times list [for The Hate U Give] after winning the first WNDB grant. Seeing the number of WNDB interns entering the publishing workforce. Watching the CCBC statistics for published BIPOC and LGBTQ+ books increase every year. Attending almost every single Walter Award event was so incredible for me because each event was a wonderful celebration of excellence for historically marginalized creators. Seeing the Walter Awards become this exciting and wonderful annual event at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, which allows students from the [Washington, D.C. metro area] meet the winning authors and ask them questions and receive free books, makes me so proud of all the work WNDB staff and volunteers have done over these years. And celebrating more than 10 years of excellence for both WNDB and the Walter Awards makes me so happy because so many naysayers said we wouldn’t make it to our second anniversary.
But the most important accomplishment has been going to schools and conferences and meeting kids and educators and people all over the country who say how much seeing themselves in the pages of a book was life-changing; how a book representing their story saved their lives; how important WNDB has been to them. That is by far the most powerful and beautiful affirmation I’ve been fortunate to receive in my entire life.
What more does the industry need to do to support diversity in ways that are sustainable?
There is so much more to do, but there are two things I want to focus on. Firstly, it isn’t enough to just publish diverse books: it’s about putting targeted and effective marketing money behind them so they can actually be found by an audience and be allowed to succeed. Secondly, when I look at the success of WNDB, I can’t help but immediately think of all the book bans happening in the country—because there is a direct correlation between the two. The publishing industry has to continuously fight back against book bans because they overwhelmingly target BIPOC and LGBTQ+ content and creators. The entirety of publishing has to stand behind authors and illustrators against these attacks on the arts—whether it’s book bans or AI, the industry needs to stand arm in arm with creatives and protect them.
Book bannings indeed are on the rise, and the Trump administration is attacking DEI initiatives as well. What impact do you think all of this will have on the industry and on the work that WNDB does?
Here’s the thing: while it will impact the industry now and of course in the next few years, the industry was fundamentally changed by the success of numerous diverse titles over the last decade. There is an entire audience of readers who will remain hungry for our books, whose lives were transformed because of these books, and who will fight for them. There are new readers who will want to read widely and diversely because they see that the world is beautifully diverse. And there is the reality that the world has become smaller and more accessible in far-reaching ways that allow people to connect around the globe. What that means is diversity is inevitable, no matter how hard certain administrations want to fight it. In fact, they are fighting so hard because they desperately want to stave off the inevitable—but that will not be possible. Our audience will continue to grow and remain hungry for our books. Readers will search out these stories wherever they can. I think that explains the rise of the social media influencer on TikTok and YouTube. They are storytellers, and storytelling will never go away.
Book banners want to make it hard for marginalized creators to continue publishing books, and it’s been working. It’s been harder for so many BIPOC and LGBTQ+ writers to make a living in children’s publishing. It’s more difficult for them to get new book contracts—and then there’s the canceling of school visits that make up such a large part of most authors’ income. This has made it untenable for some to continue writing. And that’s what they want. But as long as we continue to tell our stories, book banners will never win. And that will be the continuing mission of WNDB—to support, promote, and celebrate the works of marginalized creators [and allow them] to continue to tell their stories.
Now that you have stepped down from a leadership role at WNDB, what are you focusing on?
I had always planned to step down from WNDB to focus on my own writing. But then the book bans happened and everything feels so much harder for the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities. The deliberate campaign to suppress and erase our stories has been exhausting. While I fiercely believe that we will win against the worst of the hateful extremism, it takes a lot of us talking and working hard to fight against the dissemination of false narratives and misinformation. Phil Bildner and I have been working on providing virtual and real-time panel discussions about the dangers of book bans and what everyone can do to fight back. I do this in my own presentations also, but Phil and I are very effective as a team. Our mission is to talk to as many communities across the country as we can. This is our way to fight back against misinformation and the inertia of good people who don’t know what to do. And, of course, I will keep writing books and editing anthologies [featuring diverse content] because not only is it something I love to do, but it feels so much more necessary during these times.
