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In Support of Black Lives Matter

 

Black lives matter.

Structural inequality must be dismantled.

Diversity is not enough—we need inclusion, equity, and reparations.

We add our voice to the chorus of those in the anti-racist global movement seeking justice and change.

 

Our actions since June 2020 (so far):

  • We suspended our regular publication schedule from June 2 to June 16, 2020, in order to minimize promotional content on our social media platforms and to use our time discussing anti-racist actions we can take as a literary magazine—we will continue to share our progress.
  • We will share on Twitter resources related to racial equality and specifically to the publishing industry’s systemic racism.
  • CRAFT matched all donations made personally in 2020 by the editor in chief at the time:

$200 to Florida Bail Fund via Florida Justice Center
$400 to Gas Mask Fund via Black Lives Matter
$400 to Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp
$200 to Los Angeles Action Bail Fund via Black Lives Matter Los Angeles
$400 to NAACP Legal Defense Fund
$400 to National Bail Fund Network

  • With our submissions for short and flash fiction always free and always open, we sought a way to expedite the work of Black writers through our queues. We introduced free fast response categories for short and flash fiction, and offered them exclusively to Black writers until November 2020, when we expanded this fast response to include all BIPOC writers and other historically mis- and underrepresented writers. (In early 2022, we opened the fast response option for all creative categories.)
    • Additionally, in 2020, we temporarily opened our forms so that any writer could send fiction for fast response in exchange for proof of donation to an organization in support of Black lives.
    • In 2020, writers submitting to CRAFT donated over $7,000 to organizations all over the world! The average donation is $40.
  • Our reading team undergoes antibias training to ensure we’re including diverse voices in our publication selection process.
  • Please follow current Editor in Chief Courtney Harler on Twitter for free contest entries for BIPOC and other historically mis- and underrepresented writers, often offered toward the open or close of each contest.

We will update this page as we take more steps toward lasting change.

Please visit our Resources page for more on anti-racism in publishing and more information about representation and inequality in publishing.

As a tenet of our editorial philosophy, we do not discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, disability, family status, gender identity or expression, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, or for any other reason. But we seek to do more to increase access to the literary community for historically mis- and underrepresented writers. We look forward to sharing ideas with you as they become actions.

Here is an additional list of organizations our staff and the team from our greater cooperative have chosen to support so far, and that we’ve learned of from the community: