#WritersAgainstRacialInjustice raise $63k for the outstanding Equal Justice Initiative

At the beginning of June, novelist Lise Haines got in touch with me to see what we could do in the time of COVID-19 to protest against egregious acts of police brutality/murder of unarmed black men and women and systemic racism--so deeply scored into our national psyche. We decided to conduct a fundraiser to support the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), founded by Bryan Stevenson (Just Mercy). Four more authors: Delia Cabe, Elizabeth Searle, Rosie Sulton, and Michelle Hoover joined us to form #WritersAgainstRacialInjustice, a fundraiser on Facebook. We started with a reasonable aim of raising 10K. By Juneteenth, we had raised $40,000. Now, in our final week (we're wrapping up the fundraiser on July 3rd), we have raised more than $55,000 for EJI.

It's been an amazing awakening to see the support of more than 1100 contributors collectively shining a light on EJI. Here are links to write-ups in The Boston Globe, Shelf Awareness, and Publishers Weekly, Emerson Today, and others.