Shout Mouse Press Blog
It’s hard to keep up with all that our authors do (for us too)! We’ll be sharing updates from our programs, news about book releases, and pieces from our authors here. For media about our authors’ accomplishments, check out our press room.
On August 20th, Shout Mouse Press authors met to celebrate their contributions to #ShoutInPlace and hear work from featured poet Pages Matam and fellow authors. Our team is constantly humbled and honored to work with powerful young writers who share their stories with vulnerability, eloquence, and intentionality. We loved seeing and hearing from authors about their #ShoutInPlace work and how it feels to be accomplished writers!
Read MoreOur authors’ stories are needed now more than ever. Every book in our catalog is written by authors from communities who are under threat by current political conditions and rhetoric. We are currently hearing the calls for #OwnVoices literature louder than ever -- as well as calls for tools to help spark important conversations. With this in mind, we’re releasing new book sets!
Read MoreShout Mouse Press condemns the ongoing state-sanctioned violence towards Black people across the nation. We stand in solidarity with Black communities, racial justice advocates, and all of you who are outraged by repeated acts of racism, violence, and abuse of public trust. We support the Black Lives Matter movement and share in their mission of combating white supremacy and "creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy."
Read MoreThrough a one-day campaign, enough gifts were given to donate 375 books to local readers in need! We started the day with the goal of giving 100 books -- but surpassed this initial goal by noon. As always, we are grateful to our community for your bold and wonderful support!
Read MoreOn February 8, 2020, a group of 20+ Shout Mouse Press authors and staff gathered in Studio J at The Kennedy Center’s REACH for our first-ever Author Talks Training. Our books are written in #OwnVoices by young authors and advocates who are Latino immigrants, formerly incarcerated, Black, Muslim, and of many other identities. This was a wonderful opportunity to bring a collective of SMP authors, many of whom had never met, together.
Read MoreOn Thursday, February 8 at 6 p.m., Beacon House authors will discuss The Day Tajon Got Shot at the Mount Pleasant Public Library.
Help us celebrate the new year by donating to our cause and helping meet our year-end fundraising goal.
Read MoreIt was our busiest summer yet here at Shout Mouse Press! Help us celebrate these summer highlights and look forward to all to come this fall.
Read MoreWe are incredibly honored to feature the work of Critical Exposure Fellow Amir Price in upcoming novel-in-stories, "The Day Tajon Got Shot." Here, Amir explains why he traveled to Baltimore in 2015 to document the aftermath of the tragic murder of Freddie Gray.
Read MoreWe’re turning three this summer! We’ve published 25 books and worked with over 200 young writers from 5 different non-profit partners. To celebrate, we are participating in 2017 United Way Do More 24 Campaign, the area's biggest 24-hour online fundraiser, on June 8 from 12:00 AM – 11:59 PM. You can make an advance donation starting May 25. All you have to do is log on at www.domore24.org/npos/shout-mouse-press and donate!
Read MoreThis winter has been a busy one! This is what we’ve been up to.
Read MoreHere at Shout Mouse, we see Black History Month as an opportunity to look at the past and think about how and why history matters for the present and the future.
Read MoreHere at Shout Mouse, we’re excited to celebrate September as National Literacy Month. Literacy is not only dear to our hearts, but central to our mission. To us, literacy is not only about ability to read, but also the capacity to love stories and to value one’s own voice. Find out our authors are encouraging literacy.
Read MoreYou’ve heard about the incredible #1000blackgirlbooks campaign, right?
If not, here’s the scoop:
Marley Dias, age 11, decided she was sick of always reading about “white boys and dogs.” She asked, where are the characters who look like me? Those books about strong proud funny beautiful black girls were not showing up in her school curriculum, so she decided to do something about it: she started the #1000blackgirlbooks campaign.
Read MoreRecently, we sat down with Jonae, a Beacon House author of Trinitoga and our upcoming book, The Day Tajon Got Shot. We got the opportunity to ask her about her reaction to other students and adults who have read her work, and what it means to her to be a teenage author.
Read MoreOur authors write for the same reasons all authors write: to express themselves, to explore and imagine, and ultimately, to connect to others through their words on the page. Writing and reading helps us all feel less alone.
So we were gratified and thrilled by a reaction we got recently from a reader who needs that connection and community right now very much. Through our partners at Free Minds Book Club, we’ve sent several Shout Mouse books to young people who are incarcerated, which is how L, a twenty-year-old from Baltimore, got to read Trinitoga. After reading, she wrote to the Trinitoga authors, saying that she related to their book, and she hoped they would keep writing. She talked about the importance of writing in her own life:
Read MoreWe recently sat down with Najae, one of the authors of The Day Tajon Got Shot. Najae is writing the chapter for Bobby, a drug dealer who gets in an argument with Tajon before he is shot. She's also helped with the character of Dwayne, Tajon’s father. Najae talked to us about her inspiration for writing and the importance of being able to see the world through different perspectives from her own.
Read MoreIn one night this past weekend, two young men from the communities served by Shout Mouse were shot and killed in senseless acts of violence...
I cannot help thinking of our authors when I hear this news, and of the weight of growing up in such a world where life is taken so carelessly outside your front door. I'm thinking about the psychic pain of not feeling safe at home. It sticks with me.
Read MoreWoohoo! Shout Mouse books on national radio and Kojo Nnamdi's 2015 Summer Reading List!
Mark Hecker of Reach, Inc. knocked it out of the soundbooth today on The Kojo Nnamdi Show's Kids and YA Summer Reading program. He was an incredible ambassador not only for Reach's teen authors but also for the authors of Ballou Senior High School, and Beacon House.
Read MoreOn Tuesday, May 12, 2015, I was given an incredible opportunity: to meet President Obama and put our authors' stories in his hands.
WHAT?!! That's how I felt. Here's how it happened:
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