In its ongoing commitment to champion diversity, equity, and inclusion, IBPA proudly presents the newest cohort of publishers selected for the Innovative Voices Program. Launched in 2023, this initiative aims to empower and amplify the work of publishers from marginalized communities who are dedicated to sharing stories and perspectives that are often sidelined in traditional publishing.

IBPA’s dedication to inclusivity is longstanding, but the organization’s 2020 DEI Commitment marked a pivotal moment in its mission to address the publishing industry’s legacy of privilege, bias, and exclusion. This commitment continues to guide IBPA’s efforts to dismantle systemic barriers and support voices that have historically been overlooked.

The Innovative Voices Program is a platform that equips selected publishers with essential tools, resources, and training to thrive in an industry where they have often faced obstacles. From professional development to networking opportunities, the program is designed to foster growth, resilience, and creativity among participants, ensuring that their unique stories and visions are heard.

This year’s cohort of Innovative Voices publishers embodies the spirit of change that IBPA seeks to inspire within the publishing world. In the following pages, the five innovators tell us about themselves and their publishing mission in their own words.

Con Todo Press

Naibe Reynoso

Con Todo Press is a Latina and women-led, independently owned publishing company. As a proud first-generation Latina of Mexican descent, I founded Con Todo Press to address the significant underrepresentation of diverse voices, particularly Latinx stories, in the publishing industry.

According to the research and data-collecting organization WordsRated, as of 2022, the Big Five publishing houses control over 80% of the trade book market in the United States and are responsible for creating most of the children’s books that get wide distribution. Our mission is to authentically celebrate traditions, food, and culture through books written by authors from marginalized communities.

We have a dedicated focus on uplifting women and the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) community. Our Little Biographies for Bright Minds series highlights Latinx leaders across various fields, including science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM); the arts; and activism, aiming to inspire the next generation of leaders. We are committed to providing opportunities to underrepresented creatives, particularly women, by seeking and hiring talented BIPOC independent illustrators, writers, designers, and artists to ensure our stories are told from culturally authentic perspectives.

Additionally, I mentor a BIPOC student each quarter, guiding them through the publishing process and business operations. Lastly, we have been partnering with many local nonprofit organizations by donating books and/or offering book readings to various organizations that support underserved communities including the Skid Row Learning Center, a Sense of Home, and the Assistance League of Los Angeles.

We have impacted thousands of children by showing them that they matter and that they are seen!

Looking ahead, the books we plan to publish in the next three years continue to align with our mission. We are working on a new series by the same author/illustrator of In the Kitchen, En La Cocina, with titles such as In the Garden, In the Market, and others. We are expanding our Little Biographies for Bright Minds series with new titles highlighting more Latino figures. Additionally, we are developing a series to inspire Latinas to explore sports, more bilingual board books for early learners, and flashcards showcasing Latino iconography to instill cultural pride in our young readers. Through these efforts, we remain committed to amplifying diverse voices and celebrating the richness of Latino culture in children’s literature.

Iskanchi Press for African Perspectives

Kenechi Uzor

Founded by Nigerian-born writer Kenechi Uzor, Iskanchi Press is a U.S.-based publishing house established to exclusively promote authentic African perspectives through a variety of African books, including fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature written in or translated into English. As such, the press is part of the marginalized community of African immigrants and Africans in the diaspora.

Iskanchi Press’s book publishing program exemplifies a robust commitment to promoting topics related to the African experience. The press was founded on the belief that the story of any people is best told by those people. This idea is depicted in a popular Igbo proverb that says that “unless the lions tell their own stories, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”

Iskanchi Press was established for Africans to tell their own stories. African perspectives have often been excluded from the world discourse, sometimes due to a perceived lack of access. Iskanchi Press’s goal is to bridge this gap by making African perspectives more accessible to a global audience because we believe that humanity’s progress is enriched by diverse viewpoints. By promoting authentic African narratives on subjects such as gender, identity, sexuality, politics, climate change, immigration, and many more, Iskanchi Press aims not only to shed light on these subjects as they affect Africa and Africans but also to offer alternatives to the dominant worldviews on these subjects.

We believe stories and ideas convey humanity to the future, and that our progress to an egalitarian world is sooner achieved when all perspectives are heard and considered. We aim to redress the negative presumptions about Africa, satisfy the reader’s interest in diverse expressions, and serve the needs of African immigrants and minorities interested in seeing a more nuanced representation of their experiences.

Our titles are very much aligned with our mission of offering authentic African perspectives. Our already published books have received critical acclaim and have been recognized for their ability to present nuanced, diverse narratives that challenge stereotypes and provide fresh, authentic viewpoints on African life and experiences. In our mission to promote African perspectives, we are particularly interested in promoting the lesser-heard voices of African women and their experiences. In this regard, three of our fall 2024 titles are by women, with books such as Ifeoma Chinwuba’s Waiting for Maria, detailing the experiences of women combatting patriarchy in Africa and the plight of women in the legal justice system. We will also be publishing a romance novel, The Man with Yellow Hair, by Meriel Mongie, a South African great-grandmother. Her book is an example of our goal to promote voices that usually go unheard.

With the forthcoming Iskanchi Folktale Series, we want to collate and preserve folktales from as many African cultures as possible. Most of these folktales are getting lost because they were mostly shared in the African oral storytelling tradition. To further enhance the diversity of topics and perspectives, Iskanchi Press also publishes works in translation, bringing stories from various African languages into English.

MathXplorers

Gigi Carunungan

I am a female American of Filipino descent, categorized as a first-generation immigrant. I grew up communicating in Tagalog, English, and Spanish. Math is an opportunity gatekeeper, impacting grade averages and access to promising career prospects. Subpar performance in math not only affects academic standings but also erodes overall confidence in one’s abilities. Educational research reveals a troubling trend: Many students perceive themselves as incapable of mastering math as early as fourth grade. Children don’t think like calculators. They have complex natural circuits that intersect rational and emotional responses. Life experiences, language, senses, environments, and culture weave through these circuits.

MathXplorers makes math learning intuitive, friendly, exciting, and fun! Our math stories offer a nuanced approach to teaching mathematics to children. They bridge what is concrete and familiar to everyday life, resulting in a meaningful understanding and appreciation of learning mathematics.

MathXplorers taps into children’s sense of wonder. The math stories captivate children’s curiosity, drawing them into imaginative narratives featuring relatable multicultural characters. Readers role-play and become active participants in the events unfolding. Story elements make math ideas comprehensible and relevant.

The characters’ predicaments are opportunities to solve problems by applying math ideas in context. They need the children’s help. Learning is making mathematical sense and problem-solving with mathematical thinking. Captivated by the characters and images, young learners follow the story, eager to know what will happen next. More than math, MathXplorers’ intercultural math stories have been tested and proven to engage, elevate conceptual understanding, diminish anxiety, and inspire and excite students to learn math. We accentuate four crucial elements that foster interest, active participation, and agency in math learning: necessity, curiosity, creativity, and community.

Math stories empower children’s minds to “think and enjoy math!” Initially uncomfortable, parents and teachers who lack confidence in math smiled after reading a few pages. Many said, “Equality was never explained to us in class; we were just expected to know it. I wish I had these books in primary school. I would have understood and not feared math.” A vital differentiator of MathXplorers stories is the weaving of math ideas, a humanist way of learning, and real-world simulations.

Mathematical thinking improves life and work in the real world. We are reinventing math learning through an intuitive, engaging, and joyful story-based approach. MathXplorers contextualizes math learning in the 21st century, where artificial intelligence permeates everyday life. The dialogue embeds mathematical vocabulary and provides scaffolding to develop analytical understanding and agency. Mathematical thinking is fueled by the intersections of a child’s background knowledge and interactions with math stories’ literary and visual elements. Math stories illuminate the purpose of mathematics. Children help the characters move the action forward.

They shape the stories through problem-solving and hands-on activities. The stories simulate multicultural children learning together. Children also learn to collaborate and grow in curiosity and creativity. Teachers were surprised at how students embraced math ideas and were inspired to solve problems. “I was so happily surprised at how the students learned the math concepts they struggled with for a whole semester, all in one story.” Students were engaged in reading the stories and doing the math activities with minimal prompting. “It felt like a different class.” The reactions of young learners have been most telling. “It doesn’t feel like math class!” “We love math!” “Can we bring the picture books home to share with our families?” This interest contrasts sharply with children’s resistance to traditional math homework.

Shaherazad Shelves

Samiha Hoque

As the daughter of Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants born and raised in New York, my heritage has been the driving force in my decision to establish the independent press, Shaherazad Shelves. In its nearly three years of operation, Shaherazad Shelves has published 10 books and has supported over five Muslim debut authors, whose backgrounds range from Bengali American to Syrian American to international writers from Ghana and India. Shaherazad Shelves has six books forthcoming in 2024 and 2025, and as the lead editor and co-founder of Shaherazad Shelves, I have spearheaded and supported each book from acquisition to publication.

Shaherazad Shelves fosters literary innovation from diverse cultures and histories, primarily but not always through the lens of Muslims. Muslims number over 1 billion adherents, yet we have been highly politicized, racialized as one ethnic group, and marginalized for decades via stereotypes and American law (e.g., the Patriot Act and the “Muslim Ban”). The current titles I have published aim to combat this, ranging from culture-steeped romances to chapter books dealing with peer pressures Muslim children specifically face.

Shaherazad Shelves’ mission statement is to diversify bookshelves all over the world. We do this by dismantling barriers that often stop a writer from being published: a polished manuscript or a specific word count is not required, as I understand it takes time and resources that many marginalized (low-income, racial, and religious) writers may not have or know.

The name of the press also plays a role in our mission. It takes after the legend of Princess Shahrezad (Scheherazade), who told stories every night for 1,001 nights. Her storytelling not only kept her alive but also ended a law that punished innocent women. My goal for Shaherazad Shelves is to emulate Princess Shahrezad by publishing 1,001 books to mitigate prejudice through engaging stories. Shaherazad Shelves’ current and upcoming lineup exemplifies this.

Our breakout title, Home Is a Silhouette (September 2023), tells the story of two Ghanaian women who critique society without scapegoating or resorting to stereotypical language against Africans or Muslims. The forthcoming title, Blood of the Levant (October 2024), is an alt-historical fantasy exploring war, love, and faith. Unlike most novels set in the Arabesque, which are written from Orientalist perspectives, Blood of the Levant is written by a Syrian American who has lived and loves his heritage. This is seen in his book—through the fierceness of the storyline and characters.

Flowerchild (February 2025) is a high school romance set in Philadelphia’s suburbs, with all the angst of teenage years. Written by a Black Muslim, the story recounts peer pressure and prejudice Muslims face growing up, but also the love found in the Muslim community. It’s Just Business (April 2025) is a romance in which a master’s student, hoping to get funding for a research institute in Dubai, falls in love with the venture capitalist offering to pay for it. This wholesome romance allows every Muslim to see themselves in meet-cute scenarios, not just as victims or villains.

Phoenix in the Night (Spring 2026) is an upmarket fiction novel set in London and occupied Kashmir, written by a British Pakistani author who has encapsulated the love and activism of a region with a deadly history. Lastly, the Library Guardian trilogy (2025-2027) is about a white fifth-grader who learns about science and making friends through a traveling, magical library. Written by a Florida-based author, this chapter book series combines adventure through the reflection of multiculturalism in classrooms all over America.

For the millions of Muslim readers, there is no greater representation than finding a piece of yourself captured in a book. And for the billions of children and adults who want to read a great story, Shaherazad Shelves provides both.

Waub Ajijaak Press & Foundation

Cecelia Rose LaPointe

Waub Ajijaak Press & Foundation is a nonprofit publisher, and we support the Native American community through scholarships and philanthropy. Our focus is on Michigan, the Great Lakes, the Midwest, and the Anishinaabe Nation. Our book publishing spans working with language revitalization, supporting and uplifting the next generation, as well as honoring our elders.

The mission of Waub Ajijaak Press & Foundation is soaring to new heights through education, advocacy, and empowerment for our Native American communities in the Great Lakes and beyond. Ajijaak - Crane, Bizhiw Miinawaa Miinan - Lynx and the Blueberries, Dakonaninjingwaan - To Fall Asleep Holding Hands, and our coloring book are directly connected to our mission by providing books that are 100% bilingual in Anishinaabemowin and English.

In the next three years, our goal is to publish two to three more books each year. This is a creative and cultural process rather than creating books quickly based on capitalism and the means of production. Waub Ajijaak Press & Foundation seeks to promote and uplift Native American, First Nations, and Métis authors, illustrators, translators, and stories. Since we are based in Michigan, we have a unique cultural identity with the Three Fires – Ojibway (Ojibwa, Ojibwe), Odawa (Ottawa), and Potawatomi (Bodewadmi), Anishinaabe Nation, and Métis communities in the Great Lakes. Our commitment is to support new and emerging Indigenous authors, writers, poets, illustrators, translators, and storytellers. Through our value of intergenerational learning, we also support writers, illustrators, and storytellers of all ages. Additionally, we support Anishinaabe language teachers, speakers, and learners on all levels. Our books serve as a resource to learn, have fun, and connect to culture and our greater community. 

Innovative Voices Program Finalists

IBPA had so many amazing and worthy publishers apply for our Innovative Voices Program, but we could only choose five for the new cohort. Cheers to these 15 finalists:

• 1 Plus Books
• DUKEScomics
• Eternal Tree Books
• Forest Path Books
• Global Bookshelves International
• Good Rain Publishing
• Kuwento Co.
• Leap Forward Publishing LLC
• NatureCulture
• Queen of Swords Press
• Quiet Storm Services
• Shero Comics
• Strange Inc.
• The Author's Journey
• Three Fortnights Press

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