The publishing industry has been widely criticized for its lack of BIPOC voices. At She Writes Press and SparkPress, we are well aware of the need for more and broader representation of BIPOC authors on our lists.
In an effort to address this issue head-on we launched the She Writes Press and SparkPress Toward Equality in Publishing (STEP) contest in 2018 to offer a publishing package (plus a 500-book print run) to publish on either She Writes Press or SparkPress.
It’s our fourth contest year, and after reading through 64 phenomenal manuscript submissions—about a 20% increase in contestants from the last contest year!—we narrowed it down to five top contest finalists.
Meet our lovely finalists below, and show them some love on social!
Fatima Henson, author of Love in the Age of Dragons
Fatima Henson is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. She is a passionate and talented US history teacher and writer, with a penchant for dystopian and fantasy storytelling. She is an alum of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, and American University in Washington D.C.
Much of her work seeks to swing open the doors of imagination into fantastical worlds where she reveals the deep and intimate lives of young Black characters thriving against persistent and remarkable obstacles.
Twitter: @f_henson
Instagram: @fatima.r.henson
Website: www.loveintheageofdragons.com
Kat Bishop, author of Crocodile Tears
Kat Bishop is an author of romance and women’s fiction, a digital marketing veteran, a natural innovator and a thought leader. She enjoys a well-crafted cocktail—bonus points if it involves bourbon.
Kat is a feminist, an oenophile, a cinephile, a social-justice fighter—and above all else, a glutton for a good story.
Twitter: @katishopauthor
Instagram: @katbishopauthor
Facebook: @kat.bishp.9
Maan Gabriel, author of 12 Hours in Manhattan
Maan Gabriel is a Filipino-American writer of women’s fiction with a strong element of romance. She earned her BA in communications from St. Scholastica’s College in Manila, Philippines, and MPS in public relations and corporate communications from Georgetown University. She has lived in Manila, Brussels, Dakar, and Mexico City.
During the day, she works in strategic communications. Gabriel, along with her husband and son, currently calls suburban Washington, DC home.
Twitter:@MaanGabriel
Instagram: @maan_gabriel
Facebook: @MaanGabrielAuthor
Website: https://www.maangabriel.com
Mona Alvarado Frazier, author of Strong Women Grow Here
After years of working with incarcerated youth and raising three creative children as a single parent, Mona is fulfilling her passions of writing and traveling, as well as volunteering, hiking, and watching K-dramas. Her short stories are published in the University of Nevada anthology, Basta! and PALABRITAS, a Harvard College literary magazine.
She is a member of SCBWI, Macondo Writers, a co-founder of #LatinxPitch Twitter event, and a 2021 mentee of Las Musas kidlit collective.
Twitter handle: @AlvaradoFrazier
Instagram: @m.alvaradofrazier
Website: www.alvaradofrazier.com
Smita Venkat, author of Fired Up
Smita is a transplant from India to Singapore to the US, and lives in Northern California. Besides writing, she seeks validation from strangers as a stand-up comedian. She also likes to create interactive comedy experiments, like her viral ‘Parenting in a Pandemic Simulator’ which was featured in the Huffington Post.
As a working mother of two, Smita is particularly interested in how women get to be themselves. Fired Up is her first novel.
Twitter:@almostfavorite
Website https://www.almostfavorite.com/
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