FEBRUARY 2, 2015 (WORLDWIDE): The Pixel Project, an anti-Violence Against Women non-profit, will be holding the first International Women’s Day (IWD) Edition of their “Read For Pixels” Google Hangout campaign which will kick off on March 1st, 2015. “Read For Pixels” IWD 2015 features live Google Hangouts with award-winning bestselling female authors in honour of International Women’s Day 2015 and in support of the Celebrity Male Role Model Pixel Reveal campaign, which aims to raise US$1 million in aid of The Pixel Project and the USA’s National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Participating authors include Alexandra Monir, Charlaine Harris, Christina Lauren, Diane Chamberlain, Elizabeth Bear, Jane Green, Jaye Wells, Kami Garcia, Lauren Beukes, Seanan McGuire, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Yasmine Galenorn.
“Read For Pixels” IWD 2015 Google Hangout sessions will run on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings throughout March 2015. Each session will feature an author reading from one of their books and discussing their writing, why they support ending violence against women, and women in the media, geek culture, and popular culture. Each session will also include a live moderated Q&A session for fans and book lovers to ask their favourite authors questions in real time.
Participating authors have also generously donated a range of exclusive goodies to help The Pixel Project encourage fans and book lovers to donate to the Pixel Reveal campaign including: 1-to-1 Skype chats for fans and book clubs, signed first editions or special editions of participating authors’ books, a chance to be a minor character in their upcoming books, and more. Additional goodies are donated by Berkeley/NAL at Penguin Random House, and bestselling romance author Nalini Singh. Donations begin at as little as US$5 and the goodies are available to donors as “thank you” gifts and perks depending on the donation amount. Fundraising will take place on Indiegogo in tandem with the Google Hangout series over the month of March.
“Violence against women is one of the most widespread and entrenched human rights violations in the world and The Pixel Project is delighted that so many acclaimed female authors have stepped up to join us in raising much-needed funds and widespread support for this cause,” said Regina Yau, Founder and President of The Pixel Project. “Our first Read For Pixels campaign successfully raised over US$7,000 for the cause and ignited online discussions about violence against women by fans and supporters. We will not only continue to hold “Read For Pixels” annually in September and have also created this special International Women’s Day Edition of the “Read For Pixels” campaign in recognition of the importance of highlighting the voices of female authors, a number of whom have faced gender-based violence in their lives. It is our hope that their support of the cause will inspire fans of their wonderful books and book lovers worldwide to not only donate generously, but also begin taking action to stop the violence in their communities wherever they are in the world.”
More information about Read For Pixels can be found at: http://is.gd/Read4Pixels.
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Media Contact: Regina Yau or Maria Del Rio – info@thepixelproject.net / pixelprojectteam@gmail.com
About The Pixel Project (www.thepixelproject.net)
The Pixel Project is a complete virtual, volunteer-led global 501(c)3 nonprofit organisation whose mission is to raise awareness, funds and volunteer power for the cause to end violence against women using a combination of social media, new technologies, and popular culture/the Arts. Their flagship initiative is the Celebrity Male Role Model Pixel Reveal campaign which aims to turbo-charge global awareness about VAW using social media while raising US$1 million by getting a global audience to collectively unveil a million-pixel mystery collage of Celebrity Male Role Models at US$1 per pixel.