From Black Creatives Fund to Debut Novel: Ballantine Books Releases Lattimore’s ALL WE WERE PROMISED

Apr 3, 2024 | Business

WEBWIRE –

In 2021,Ashton Lattimore, an award-winning journalist and former lawyer, became a participant in the Black Creatives Fund Revisions Workshop. Ballantine Booksis excited to release Lattimores first novel,ALL WE WERE PROMISED.ALL WE WERE PROMISED tells the story of a housemaid with a dangerous family secret as she conspires with a wealthy young abolitionist to help an enslaved girl escape, in volatile pre-Civil War Philadelphia.The narrative is told through the perspectives of three women in vastly different circumstances the rebel, the socialite, and the fugitive risking everything for one another in an American city straining to live up to its loftiest ideals.Publishers Weekly says, [Lattimore] provides a textured view of such historical events as the building of Pennsylvania Hall as a meeting place for the antislavery movement and its subsequent burning by an angry antiabolitionist mob. Lattimore is a writer to watch.

What is the Black Creatives Fund?

Together withWe Need Diverse Books(WNDB), Penguin Random House was thrilled to announce the launch of theBlackCreativesFund, an initiative with a mission of supporting emerging and establishedBlackwriters and illustrators. PRH was the inaugural sponsor of thefundfor the 2021 year and continues to sponsor the program today. For more information on theBlackCreativesFundclickhere.

Penguin Random House and We Need Diverse Books continue to work on more initiatives to promote the Black Creatives Fund, and of course, Lattimores debut novel! Keep an eye out for an upcoming giveaway and an intimate Q&A.

About Ashton Lattimore
Lattimore is an award-winning journalist and a former lawyer. She is the editor-in-chief at Prism, a nonprofit news outlet by and for communities of color, and her nonfiction writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, Slate, CNN, and Essence. Lattimore is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Columbia Journalism School. She grew up in New Jersey, and now lives in suburban Philadelphia with her husband and their two sons. All We Were Promised is her first novel.

Vox Creative’s Explainer Studio collaborates with Marriott Bonvoy to show the positive effects travel has on our brains

Apr 25, 2022 | Business

The ‘Your Brain On Travel’ content series educates viewers on the cognitive benefits of travel, using explainers, quizzes, written content and social videos

WEBWIRE –



Proven in a scientific study (Institute for Applied Research), 97% of people report that anticipating a planned trip can deliver significant mental health benefits, making you happier even before you take off, and can last for weeks after you’ve come home. In an effort to help inspire travel and shed light on the positive effects it has on the mind, Vox Media’s award-winning brand studio, Vox Creative, in collaboration with Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott International’s award-winning travel program, have utilized the Explainer Studio to create ‘Your Brain on Travel,’ a multi-platform content series.


With the help of experts and credible sources like professor and neuroscientist Dr. Beau Lotto, and psychologist, author, and lecturer at Harvard, Dr. Shelley Carson, ‘Your Brain on Travel’ features a 4-minute explainer video that showcases the science on how travel and exposure to enriched environments can promote growth and renewal of connections, build stimuli and complexify the brain, all leading to an increase in contentment and prevention of cognitive delay. A cutdown version of the explainer is currently running Tik Tok.


The series also includes detailed feature articles of artists narrating their journey through life-changing trips that changed their worldview. From igniting creative fuel by facing fears in Cancun, gaining inspiration from the Pacific Coast Highway, to finding a powerful connection with wine in France, each story evokes palpable sensory detail around powerful moments, shares the inspirations behind the trip, and shows who they are today because of it. Each written article ran on a relevant Vox Media brand, ranging from The Verge to Vox to Eater.


The Vox Creative team also created an interactive quiz to help you unlock the science behind your next vacation, inspiring users for their next trip. Marriott Bonvoy and Vox Media’s Explainer Studio developed a unique quiz that asks a series of sensory questions, directing you to the perfect destination with a Marriott hotel where you can take your body, brain, and mind on a singularly awe-inspiring trip.


About Vox Creative


Vox Creative is Vox Media’s award-winning brand studio. Vox Creative’s team of strategists, writers, storytellers, and analysts create original content and experiences that connect brands with influential audiences across Vox Media’s editorial networks and beyond. Vox Creative’s work spans short and long-form video, podcasts, explainers, experiential, shoppable content and more. They’ve built houses, invented cocktails, produced documentaries, traveled inside companies to uncover untold stories, and, on rare occasions, have gone to the moon.


About the Explainer Studio


Inspired by Vox’s signature storytelling approach, Explainers bond brands and consumers over shared interests and curiosities. Blending research, creativity and humanity, Explainers help our audience understand a brand’s product, its technologies, its worldview, and its cultural impact. Since launching in 2017, the Explainer Studio has created original content with over 100 major brands.