With a goal to help authors of color amplify their voices and bring their stories forward, Running Wild Press, alongside its founder Lisa Diane Kastner, is unveiling the latest publishing platform RIZE to bring this vision to life. Today, RIZE welcomes people of color looking to showcase their incredible story ideas and writing skills to the world.
Lisa Diane Kastner is the founder and executive editor of the top publishing company Running Wild Press. Ultimately, her company publishes exceptional stories that feature writing styles that do not fit neatly in a box. This initiative was a response to a growing gap in the industry affecting unconventional writers. “In today’s world, there are amazingly talented authors with fantastic stories that may never see the light of day because they don’t fit into the traditional structures as defined by larger publishers,” she expresses.
While Lisa may have successfully established Running Wild Press to bridge the gap, her commitment to the publishing community still does not end there. Most recently, she led the launching of RIZE, a new platform designed to cater to people of color who have the knack for writing genre stories. Led by Andrea J. Johnson, RIZE is now set to publish three-genre novels in 2021. “Our goal is to bring forward unique voices and bring them the fans that they deserve,” says Lisa.
For over a decade now, Lisa Diane Kastner has worked in the entertainment and media industry. Her substantial experience and expertise in various fields, including business and technology, have propelled her to succeed in her endeavors, such as Running Wild Press. Recently, the empowered female entrepreneur has also been nominated for the Forbes’ inaugural “Next 1000,” initiative where diverse entrepreneurs redefining business amid the pandemic will be put in the spotlight.
Like its founder, Running Wild Press has also received much acclaim from the community. It has garnered two best of 2019 publications and one best of 2020 for Terence Hawkin’s “Turning’s Graveyard.” Moreover, many of its published works have also received impressive reviews and multiple-starred ratings from readers and critics. “I’m honored to publish these amazing voices with stories from a brain cancer survivor, Suzanne Sample’s ‘Gone Wild,’ to a wife’s perspective of her husband’s return home from war with PTSD, to a short story collection of LGBTQ characters of color, Reuben Tihi Hayslett’s ‘Dark Corners,’ and so many other wonderful narratives,” shares Lisa.
Today, Lisa hopes to bring RIZE to the same level of success as Running Wild Press. But this time, she is not only bringing unique voices and stories to the writing community, but she is also amplifying voices of minorities, helping them stand out in an industry where mainstream writers and large publishers dominate.
Soon, Lisa hopes to publish twice the number of books her companies publish at present. Alongside Running Wild Press and RIZE, she is working on bringing the authors’ stories and narratives to a whole new level, leading them toward electronic books, TV shows, films, and other mediums. Learn more about RIZE and Running Wild Press by visiting their official website.
