#PublishingPaidMe made it impossible to ignore serious, enduring wage gaps between BIPOC and white writers. Do writing programs at PWIs fail BIPOC writers entering the workforce? This panel unites prominent BIPOC editors, and writers to offer practical advice and expose hard truths of making a living as a Black writer in a whitewashed industry, and to answer: What was your trajectory? What do you wish you were told? What tips, tricks, or strategies aided your success? 

As the VIDA Count demonstrates, BIPOC writers who do publish books are less often reviewed and marketed. While this has been widely critiqued, industry change has been performative and slow. This panel holds space for BIPOC writers who have beaten the odds, offering advice, solutions, and truth-telling for emergent BIPOC voices.