FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Suma Subramaniam to receive cash prize and have her winning short story published in
The Hero Next Door anthology, coming Fall 2019 from Random House Children’s Books
New York, NY (January 22, 2018)—We Need Diverse Books™ (WNDB) has selected the winner of its 2017 Middle-Grade Short-Story contest, established to celebrate previously unpublished fiction by diverse writers of all backgrounds. Suma Subramaniam will receive a cash prize of $1,000, plus the opportunity to publish her short story “Leaving Home” in the forthcoming WNDB middle-grade anthology, The Hero Next Door, to be published by Crown Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, in Fall 2019. Subramaniam is the Mentorship Coordinator for SCBWI Western Washington and holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a Certificate in Popular Fiction from the University of Washington. She is the cofounder of Kinder Konnection, a nonprofit literacy and youth development organization, and runs an international pen-pal project to promote cultural exchange between children in India and the United States.
Acquired for publication by Phoebe Yeh, VP/Publisher of Crown Books for Young Readers, and to be edited by WNDB Advisory Board member Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, The Hero Next Door had space reserved for the contest-winning submission. Yeh said of the winning entry, “I was immediately impressed by the sensitivity and sympathy with which Suma Subramaniam handled her characters, and felt strongly that this story would be important to share with young readers.” Said Rhuday-Perkovich, “We were captivated by Suma’s thoughtful portrayal of a young girl who works to seek and offer love in the midst of heartbreak. ‘Leaving Home’ is a wonderful addition to this fantastic collection.”
As previously announced, contributors to the anthology will include William Alexander, Joseph Bruchac, Lamar Giles, Mike Jung, Hena Khan, Ellen Oh, R. J. Palacio, Linda Sue Park and Anna Dobbin, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Ronald L. Smith, Rita Williams-Garcia, and an illustrated story by Juana Medina.
The Hero Next Door is the third collaboration from We Need Diverse Books™ and Crown Books for Young Readers. The first collection, Flying Lessons & Other Stories, edited by WNDB founder and president Ellen Oh, was named a Best Book of 2017 by Kirkus Reviews, the New York Public Library, and School Library Journal. The second collection, Fresh Ink, a young adult anthology edited by Lamar Giles, will be released on August 14, 2018.
Random House Media Contact:
Dominique Cimina
Vice President, Executive Director, Publicity & Corporate Communications
dcimina@penguinrandomhouse.com / 212-782-9314
We Need Diverse Books™ Contact:
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
WNDB Advisory Board Member and The Hero Next Door Editor
olugbemisola@wndb.local
Crown Books for Young Readers is an imprint of Random House Children’s Books,
the world’s largest English-language children’s trade book publisher.
Random House Children’s Books is a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
