Hachette Book Group (HBG) brought employees, authors, and industry experts together for its second annual Changing the Story Festival: Inclusion for Success, an all-staff event focused on inclusion, publishing and reaching new audiences.
Held September 10, 2026, the full-day festival featured conversations about the future of publishing and the ideas and perspectives that can help strengthen the industry. The event also explored HBG’s strategic business pillars, including Understanding Consumers, Owner Mentality and Growth Mindset.
“Changing the Story is one of our core business pillars that ensures we’re a publishing organization that reflects the audiences we aim to serve. Publishing for all directly supports our mission of making it easier for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment, and opportunity,” said David Shelley, CEO of Hachette Book Group.
The festival opened with remarks from Chief People Officer Carrie Bloxson and HBG Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Sara Munjack. The keynote address was delivered by HBG author Colin Kaepernick, former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist. Kaepernick is the founder of the Know Your Rights Camp, Kaepernick Media, Kaepernick Publishing and Lumi Story AI.
Following the keynote, the “Agents of Change: Who Gets to Tell the Story” panel brought together literary agents and HBG editors to discuss representation and the publishing process. The panel featured Amy Bishop-Wycisk and Tamara Kawar of Literary Agents for Change, along with Morgan Wu and Alexander Littlefield of Little, Brown & Company. Niyati Patel moderated.
Another discussion, “Inkluded: Where Publishing Talent Begins,” examined pathways into the publishing industry. The panel was moderated by Legacy Lit Editor Amina Iro and featured Inkluded Executive Director Michael Mejias, Writers House, and Inkluded alumni and HBG employees Maya Lewis and Alexandra Hightower.
The afternoon keynote came from Sruti Swaminathan, senior staff attorney for LGBTQ Rights at the ACLU. Her work includes impact litigation and legislative and administrative advocacy involving LGBTQ people and people living with HIV.
Additional panels addressed book bans and neurodivergence in publishing. “Authors Against Book Bans: Keeping Stories on the Shelf” featured authors, a PEN America representative and HBG legal counsel, while “Neurodivergence as a Catalyst for Creation” brought together Hachette UK authors to discuss creativity and publishing.
The event concluded with remarks from Shelley and interactive activities, including packaging books for prisoners through Right to Read, a Spanish Publishing Working Group catalog showcase and a virtual spoken-word poetry session. The New York celebration ended with refreshments and a musical set from DJ Soph Thee Sage.