Girls Write Now is giving young women the tools and confidence to tell their stories, and fostering a new generation of writers. These girls are being not only told but shown that their words matter. It is hard to find a more inspiring model than this, and Dutton is so proud of bringing these voices to print.
—Christine Ball, Senior Vice President and Publisher of Dutton, Putnam, and Berkeley
Girls Write Now is proud to partner with Agent of Change Penguin Random House embracing our joint mission to amplify diverse voices and create a pipeline of talent into the publishing industry.
We recently collaborated on a deep-dive, roll-up-your-sleeves employee engagement workshop with the talented teams from Dutton, Putnam, and Berkley. Gathering at tables in the expansive “Julia Child” room in the Penguin office, each Girls Write Now mentee was paired with a Penguin “Mentor for the Day” to work closely on editing and shaping their submission to Taking Our Place in History: The 2020 Girls Write Now Anthology—a book passionately produced by Dutton, including design and editorial expertise.
The results? An impactful exchange between publishing professionals and the next generation of women writers! Quantitative and qualitative survey data indicate that nearly all employees and mentees felt strongly the workshop was helpful, inspiring, a good use of time, and worth coming back for and recommending to a friend!
Measuring themselves before and after the workshop, mentees also demonstrated tremendous growth from the experience: Before they felt stuck with their piece, and lacked confidence in both their piece and their editing skills to improve it; After they had a clear understanding of how to further edit, and felt confident their work would be improved based on the guidance they received.
A few testimonials from our mentees:
There were moments when I could easily be myself and let myself talk about personal things when I wrote my piece.
Even though I was initially nervous, it felt rewarding to read my piece aloud to my mentor.
I absolutely loved getting to meet such cool professionals and laugh about high school with them. They give such great advice too.
Overall, this partnership met our curricular goals and surpassed participants’ expectations, underscoring the impact and benefit of this workshop and its take-away value. Thank you, Penguin Random House!! We are grateful for your support.
Enjoy highlights from the event—as well as a sneak peek of this year’s anthology cover-design options—below!
When reflecting on the workshop, mentee Lorena said “I could easily be myself and let myself talk about personal things…”
Mentee Pilar said that she felt “the whole experience was enlightening and I loved learning about the business side of publishing.”
Mentees were happy to be together, experience this unique opportunity with publishing professionals. “Even though I was initially nervous, it felt rewarding to read my piece aloud to my Penguin mentor,” says mentee Nora.
Mentees enjoyed talking professional development with the Penguin team and had a chance to pick the brains of their mentors for the day. “I loved meeting my mentor and hearing about her job at a publishing company and what that entails. I was so curious about this!” mentee Isabelle reports back.