HarperCollins’ HarperOne imprint will team up with the Skoll Foundation to publish narrative nonfiction books written by Skoll Foundation Social Entrepreneurs–bright minds who received support from former eBay president Jeff Skoll.
This group includes 91 entrepreneurs from around the world, and they will collaborate with writers to share “dramatic first person stories about creating large-scale impact on the world’s most daunting problems.” The series will begin with However Long the Night: One American Woman’s Journey to Help Millions of African Women and Girls Triumph, a book about Tostan founder Molly Melching. Publication has been set for April 2013.
Here’s more about her work: “Through the Tostan program, she has helped these villages address Female Genital Cutting (FGC)—a violation of human rights and a practice which up to three million girls are at risk of undergoing each year in Africa. Because of their work, over 6,000 communities have now publicly declared their abandonment of FGC. Tostan, which means “breakthrough” in the West African Wolof language, now operates in eight countries and twenty African languages and is applying its successful “community-led” social change to address a wide range of Africa’s most pressing issues.”
The next book published by the imprint will be by Half the Sky CEO Jenny Bowen, writing about her work in China.
Editor’s Note: This post has been updated to correct a link and change the subtitle of the book.