The Black Creatives Marketing Symposium for Published Authors, In Partnership with the Brown Bookshelf, will provide guidance and support to authors who are seeking to energize their careers.
Symposium Speakers
Ebony LaDelle is a brand marketing director at Penguin Random House with over 10 years of book publishing experience, currently working on books like A Promised Land and Becoming. Prior to, Ebony worked at HarperCollins where she worked with authors such as Ibi Zoboi (Punching the Air, American Street, and Black Enough), Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give, On the Come Up and Concrete Rose), Elizabeth Acevedo (Clap When You Land, The Poet X and With the Fire on High) and countless others. She also interviewed authors and helped create content for Epic Reads, an online young adult book community with over 7 million followers across all social platforms and online; as well as was the co-host of Why Not YA?, a monthly video series where she interviewed authors in the young adult space with Karah Preiss from Belletrist. You can visit her online at www.ebonyladelle.com and follow her on social at @ebonyladelle
Tracy Sherrod is VP, editorial director of Amistad. Her most recent titles includes #1 New York Times bestselling Just As I Am by Cicely Tyson, National Book Award Finalist Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson, NAACP Image Award winner Defining Moments in Black History by Dick Gregory, Jenifer Lewis’ The Mother of Black Hollywood, and forthcoming titles by Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Beatty, and Mary J. Blige. The imprint publishes Steve Harvey, Ursula Burns, Gina Yashere, Katherine Johnson, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Timbaland, and other esteemed writers and personalities. She’s a graduate of Michigan State University’s James Madison College.
Dana Chidiac is a senior editor at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Macmillan. She edits picture books, graphic novels, and middle grade and young adult novels, and has had the pleasure of working with Adib Khorram, Sarah Kapit, Joy McCullough, Gillian Goerz, Breanna McDaniel, Shane Evans, Elissa Brent Weissman, Huda Fahmy, Minda Harts, and Joseph Bruchac. Originally from Michigan, Dana was a children’s bookseller at Politics & Prose in Washington, DC, and Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA, earned a master’s degree in children’s literature from Simmons College in Boston, and began her publishing career at Dial/PRH in 2013 before joining Holt in 2021. Her favorite books feature unfamiliar settings and unforgettable voices that beg to be read aloud. Her favorite sports are Olympic swimming and middle school spelling.
Patrick Oliver is a literary arts and education consultant as well as recipient of numerous community service awards, contracts, and grants. Experience and expertise include serving as director of sales and marketing Third World Press (Chicago), program director Open Book Program (Chicago) and senior contract administrator in the aerospace industry (Los Angeles). Founder and executive director Say It Loud! Readers and Writers is a literary art organization dedicated to empowering youth people through culturally relevant literature. He has organized and facilitated panels and workshops for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, American Library Association, College Language Association, Ohio State University, National Black Writers Conference, Princeton University, Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference, Harlem Book Fair and numerous other conferences and events. February 2020 named vice chairman advisory board Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University.
Publications
- Editor Turn the Page and You Don’t Stop: Sharing Successful Chapters in Our Lives with Youth (2006).
- Contributor - “Featuring Leaders of Poetry Organizations for Kids from Around the United States” in the publication Open the Door: How to Excite Young People About Poetry (McSweeney’s April 2013).
- Author On My Own: Vision Board Guidebook for Young People (2015).
- Creator Ananse Journal (2020).
- Editor On My Own: Vision Board Guidebook for Young People 5th Anniversary Edition (2021
- Author Notes from A Literary Activist: Creating the Next Generation of Readers, Writers and Leaders scheduled for 2022 (Third World Press).
Lathea Mondesir is a literary publicist with over fifteen years of experience and is currently an Associate Director of Publicity at Penguin Young Readers. She has secured major national media on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America,” NBC-TV’s “TODAY Show,” NPR, PEOPLE, Entertainment Weekly, New York Times, and more. She has handled campaigns for bestselling authors and turned debut authors into bestsellers such as Jason Mott for The Returned and most recently Ryan Douglass for The Taking of Jake Livingston. When not pitching authors, Lathea enjoys running and spending time with her daughter and husband.
Hannah Oliver Depp is the owner of Loyalty Bookstores in DC and MD. Loyalty is dedicated to diverse and intersectional literature, programs, and gifts for all ages. Oliver Depp has served on multiple ABA committees and is currently on the boards of Bookshop.org and NAIBA.
Dartricia Rollins (pronouns: she/her) is the Assistant Director of Charis Circle, and a bookseller at Charis Books and More. She holds a Bachelor's of Science in Human Services and a minor in Gender and Women's Studies. Dartricia is an art and book collector and does research and program coordination for independent artists and scholars. Dartricia is a cultural worker and community organizer. She serves on the Board of Directors at Access Reproductive Care-Southeast and is a member of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) a people(s)-centered Human Rights project against war, repression, and imperialism. As well as an Advisory Board Member of Been Here. Been Queer. a book project for queer millennial and Gen Z changemakers in the margins.
