Dear readers and writers,

This week, I am heartbroken.

I am standing in the UK, watching our brothers and sisters in the US tear each other apart. I am watching a country whose police are so high-strung and terrified that fear and prejudice are pulling triggers. A country whose deep-rooted discrimination and gun-control laws put everyone in danger, but especially those in the minorities.

A few weeks ago, after the massacre of our fellow LGBTQIA people in Orlando, we saw suggestions that if the victims had been carrying guns, the casualties would be fewer. Now, again, we see black men shot for carrying guns, or for looking like they’re carrying guns. Not for threatening anyone with them, not for using them: no, they are shot for carrying guns, the very way members of the white conservative Right keep telling us should make us feel safer.

We at Ink & Locket Press want you all to know that we will keep shouting BLACK LIVES MATTER, as a company and as individuals, for as long as it takes to enact change. We will cry out with you for police reform, equality, better gun control, and everyone’s right to feel safe in their own skin.

We will call out people who say “all lives matter” and point out that for that to be true, black lives must matter the same amount – and that right now, we treat them as if they don’t. We will call out people who talk about guns making people feel safer, and show them how lucky and privileged they are to believe that is true.

Most of all, because it’s what we can do, we will keep seeking out great diverse fiction, publishing children’s and YA literature that can make a difference: for the cops and politicians of the future, and for all the children growing up feeling that their skin paints a target on their back.

We will keep striving to amplify your voices and not mute them with our own.

Be safe and love each other,

Amelia, managing director