- The Conscious Language Newsletter by Karen Yin
- Posts
- New Book From Conscious Style Guide Founder Karen Yin
New Book From Conscious Style Guide Founder Karen Yin
The long-awaited companion to the Conscious Style Guide website.
Karen Yin
April 16, 2024
APRIL 16, 2024
Hello, readers!
If you’ve been subscribing to The Conscious Language Newsletter since I launched it in 2015, then you know that I have never sent an email solely to promote one of my books.
I am writing to you today because I need your help.
From its humble beginnings as a one-stop shop for equitable language, ConsciousStyleGuide.com grew to become a beloved resource across multiple industries, recommended by The Associated Press Stylebook, The Chicago Manual of Style, Writers Guild of America, NASA, and hundreds of other organizations.
After two years of researching, writing, and editing, I am beyond thrilled to announce that The Conscious Style Guide: A Flexible Approach to Language That Includes, Respects, and Empowers will be published by Little, Brown Spark as a hardcover, e-book, and audiobook on May 28, 2024.
That’s 6 weeks away. Preordering my book before the launch date will help it build momentum among bookstores, libraries, and the media. With your support, The Conscious Style Guide can be a success. I can’t do this without you.
You can help in two simple ways:
1) Preorder your copy (or copies) today. Follow the links below to order.
Tertulia (use code STYLE for 20% off through May 28, 2024)
2) Spread the word: Share the link below with your friends, book clubs, schools, companies, and organizations. Promote it on Facebook, Instagram, and your other social networks. Drop the link into your Slack, Discord, Teams, and other community forums.
Link to book page: https://karenyin.com/books/csg-book/
The Conscious Style Guide is for anyone who wants to communicate with sensitivity and compassion. In the book, readers will learn:
How to approach language as it continually changes
How to use the overarching principles to think critically and compassionately
How to practice conscious language as a tool for self-awareness and empowerment
How to forgive allies and others for using language that you perceive as inappropriate
How to alleviate any stress that may accompany working with language consciously
How to collaborate with others and work across differences
How to create a style sheet to support your practice
Filled with practical advice and hundreds of examples, The Conscious Style Guide encourages readers to explore their interests and intentions, embrace flexibility and creativity, and enhance effective communication in all areas of life. There is more than one way to do conscious language.
I believe that my book can make a difference in the world. Below is the advance praise for my book. Thank you for helping my ideas spread.
~ Karen Yin
Advance Praise for The Conscious Style Guide
“In a world where perception consistently trumps reality, fighting—let alone undoing—systemic inequity often feels laughable. What can one person do, anyway? Enter the brilliant Karen Yin. By asking one simple, yet incredibly revealing question: Why do I believe this? Yin, with insight, empathy, and unflinching honesty, deftly guides the reader through finding, and unleashing, the most potent power we have: our conscious choice of words.”
—Lisa Cron, author of Story Genius
“The Conscious Style Guide is far more than style guide. It’s a holistic and generous resource for anyone interested in the real guts of language: tender, messy, hurtful, complex human interaction. It navigates the sometimes maddening flexibility of English by grounding the reader in an awareness of self, society, and others based on kindness and curiosity. The Conscious Style Guide captures the nuance inherent in a living language while providing both micro- and macro-level advice on best practices for writers, editors, and readers. No list of dos and don’ts can replace the thoughtful guidance offered by Yin. The Conscious Style Guide is a must-have reference for anyone who wants to communicate well, compassionately, and clearly.”
—Kory Stamper, author of Word by Word
“By encouraging us to consider the real impact of our words, Karen Yin’s intelligent and fair-minded book upends the conventional wisdom that writers alone, writing for some ‘ideal reader,’ always know what’s best. To write consciously is to be aware of and compassionate toward the actual people who determine not only the success but also the meaning of any work. With its emphasis on critical thinking and the fluid interplay between content and context, The Conscious Style Guide will inspire writers and their editors to make choices that not only respect readers but, in the process, bring us all a little closer to the truth.”
—Russell Harper, principal reviser of The Chicago Manual of Style
“Karen Yin has crafted a generous, thoughtful toolkit for anyone seeking to communicate mindfully. Her insights offer a flexible pathway to practicing conscious language that avoids prescriptivism and instead invites deep reflection. A must-have reference for any bookshelf!”
—Emily Ladau, disability rights activist and author of Demystifying Disability
“The Conscious Style Guide is the best tool book of all. In a time when clear, accurate communication is more essential—and more challenging—than ever, Karen Yin gives writers and editors a great gift: a flexible and detailed guide for thinking through the nuances of language and context and making wise decisions in each situation. She calls on us to embrace the complexities both of language and of people—each person we write about, and each person who reads or hears what we write. With compassion and clarity, she points us toward training our minds rather than falling back on often problematic lists of dos and don’ts. This book is a tremendous resource, affirming and instructive at the same time. I absolutely love it.”
—Paula Froke, editor of The Associated Press Stylebook
“An essential resource for writers and editors who want to get up to speed on writing with empathy and care.”
—Mignon Fogarty, host of the Grammar Girl podcast
“Karen Yin is no language cop, ready to arrest us for our word crimes. Instead, in The Conscious Style Guide, she is the beloved school crossing guard, protecting us, guiding us, reminding us to look both ways.”
—Roy Peter Clark, author of Tell It Like It Is
About Karen Yin
Karen Yin is the author of The Conscious Style Guide: A Flexible Approach to Language That Includes, Respects, and Empowers (Little, Brown Spark). She has written several stories for children, including Whole Whale (Barefoot Books), So Not Ghoul (Page Street Kids), Doug the Pug and the Kindness Crew (Scholastic), Nice to Eat You (Scholastic), and “My Kinda Sorta Badass Move” (Boundless: Twenty Voices Celebrating Multicultural and Multiracial Identities, Inkyard Press). Acclaim for her writing includes a 2021 California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship, a 2020 SCBWI/Smithsonian Nonfiction Grant, selection of her flash fiction by the Los Angeles Public Library for its permanent collection in 2020, and a 2015 Lambda Literary Fellowship.
Winner of the 2017 ACES Robinson Prize (Editor of the Year), Karen founded several acclaimed digital resources, including Conscious Style Guide, The Conscious Language Newsletter, the Editors of Color Database, and Diverse Databases. Conscious Style Guide was named by Poynter as one of the top tools for journalists in 2018 and is recommended by Poets & Writers, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and countless others, including NASA. The Editors of Color Database was one of Writer’s Digest’s Best Websites for Writers in 2023. Karen serves on the advisory board of The Chicago Manual of Style and has contributed to The Associated Press Stylebook.
Did Someone Forward This to You?
Get The Conscious Language Newsletter in your in-box!
There’s no other newsletter like it!