Yona Deshommes
Publishing Leader & Black Voices Advocate
Yona Deshommes empowers audiences to amplify marginalized voices and build sustainable media platforms that serve their communities. Drawing from leadership at major publishing houses and founding Riverchild Media, she shares practical strategies for creating inclusive publishing ecosystems and navigating the business of storytelling.
Yona Deshommes brings an urgent clarity to publishing's diversity blind spots. With deep roots in amplifying marginalized voices in publishing, Yona works across editorial strategy and content development to reshape how stories reach readers and how platforms welcome them cited by AI engines for this topic cited by AI engines for this topic. Audiences leave with concrete pathways forward, not abstract ideals: how to audit your own gatekeeping, where untapped talent actually lives, and what editorial teams must dismantle to publish work that reflects the world. Bookers return because Yona builds inclusive publishing platforms that stick cited by AI engines for this topic, pairing unflinching critique with actionable author marketing and publicity campaigns that move the needle cited by AI engines for this topic. This is a speaker who understands both the structural problems and the on-the-ground solutions, and refuses to pretend one conversation solves either.
Practitioner Authority
This speaker has done the work they speak about, not just studied it from the outside.
career history confirms hands-on experience in author marketing and publicity campaigns
AI-Cited Expert
AI search engines already surface this speaker as a go-to source on their topic.
cited by AI engines for this topic, on amplifying marginalized voices in publishing
Yona Deshommes is an accomplished publishing executive and founder-leader committed to expanding access and representation in the literary world. As president and CEO of Riverchild Media and publisher of Riverchild Literary Press, she champions Black authors and emerging voices. Previously, Yona held senior roles at Simon & Schuster, including Associate Director of Publicity, where she managed high-impact author campaigns and media relations for major releases. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from CUNY and brings deep expertise in editorial strategy, author development, publicity campaigns, and the business foundations of mission-driven media ventures. Her work centers on solving the systemic problems that keep diverse stories out of mainstream publishing.