In an effort to address the publishing industry’s lack of BIPOC voices, we launched the She Writes Press and SparkPress Toward Equality in Publishing (STEP) contest in 2018 to offer two publishing packages, valued at $8500 each, (plus a 500-book print run) to two authors of color to publish on either She Writes Press or SparkPress.

This year marks the fourth annual contest launch, with submissions open April 15, 2021 through July 5, 2021.

“The purpose of this contest is to support inclusivity across our own lists, and to fortify our own mission to give voice to women writers,” says Lauren Wise, associate publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress. “Each contest sees double the contestants of the year before, and we can’t wait to dig in, narrow it down to five top contest finalists, and finally, two winners.”

Visit our STEP contest landing page for details on how to submit your manuscript, the contest parameters, and more!

Meet our past STEP SparkPress winners below! 

Malcolm and Me by Robin Farmer, Nov 2020

Malcolm and Me is a coming-of-age exploration of the elusive truths in our personal and national narrative, based on the adolescent trauma of a Black Catholic schoolgirl—Roberta Forest, a precocious rebel with the soul of a poet—in Philadelphia. It’s about a young teen confronting racism and the hypocrisy that surrounds her, within her school, her family, her community, and the Oval Office as Watergate unfolds.

Throughout, the teen reads Malcolm X’s autobiography, drawing parallels between herself and Malcolm X as a role model.

The Goddess Twins by Yodassa Williams, May 2020

Days before their eighteenth birthday, identical twins Arden and Aurora develop special powers in telekinesis and telepathy, their mother goes missing, and they discover they belong to a family of Caribbean deities. Searching for answers and determined to rescue her, the sisters unearth truths that threaten to extinguish their bond and demolish their strength as individuals.

Can these goddess twins uncover their evil grandfather’s plot in time to save their mother, themselves, and the free world?

 

Meet our past STEP She Writes Press winners below! 

Jambalaya and Rum Cake and Shut the F*ck Up Pie by Erica Jade Crystal, June 2022, (not yet available for preorder)

In Jambalaya and Rum Cake and Shut the F*ck Up Pie, Erica Crystal Jade examines and critiques a vast range of remarkable and devastating intersectional experiences to showcase what it’s like for a powerful queer woman of color to navigate trauma, mental health, and chronic pain, in the pursuit of healing, reconciliation, and self-care.


Purple Lotus by Veena Rao, Sept 2020

Purple Lotus centers around Tara Raj, an immigrant Indian woman in the American South, who finds the courage to walk out of an abusive arranged marriage and marry again for love. This act of self-determination makes her an outcast in her patriarchal community, making her face a lifelong fear of rejection to find her voice as a journalist and defend her name.

Purple Lotus takes a close, visceral look at a woman’s journey through heartbreak, obstacles and self-realization, while questioning misogynistic belief-systems.

Revelation by Bobi Gentry Goodwin, Nov 2019

Social workers often reminisce about their first time “freezing”: the dreaded stillness from emotions so strong that they take the body hostage. Angela Lovelace is a well-trained social worker; she has been working for Child Protective Services in San Francisco for nearly five years and has never frozen, never had a sleepless night. But after she sees her father’s tattered picture on the apartment wall of a little boy whose addict mother just died, she must learn how to overcome the numbness―and sets out to uncover the truth. Told from multiple perspectives across generations, Revelation explores how untreated mental illness and family secrets ricochet and can impact each and every family member―and the importance of perseverance, love, and hope.