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Reese Witherspoon's June 2025 book club selection is "The Phoenix Pencil Company" by Allison King, a fellow from Witherspoon's LitUp program, which provides women and nonbinary authors with mentorship, publishing, and marketing opportunities.
A Milestone for LitUp
The LitUp writing fellowship, launched in 2021 by Witherspoon's media company Hello Sunshine, provides five unpublished authors with mentorship, publishing, and marketing opportunities. The program is open to "diverse women and nonbinary individuals," per its website.
"If the goal of Hello Sunshine is to change the narrative for women, it's one of those places with LitUp that we clearly see us living our mission out," Gretchen Schreiber, manager of books at Hello Sunshine, tells PEOPLE.
Allison King's Journey
Allison King, who works primarily as a software engineer, began writing "The Phoenix Pencil Company" in 2020, after reading Helen Zia's nonfiction book "Last Boat Out of Shanghai." King used the LitUp application deadline as motivation to finish the book.
"I think it's so important as a writer to have a community of people that you trust to bounce ideas off of," King tells PEOPLE. "I feel like the fellowship really cemented us as a group of friends who trust each other."
The LitUp Program
After acceptance into the program, LitUp fellows go on a writing retreat in Nashville, where they commune with other participants and take courses about the publishing industry. Fellows also meet with their mentors — published Reese's Book Club authors — to gain feedback on their manuscripts.
"[Being] able to talk one-on-one with a professional about your manuscript is something very unique," says King, who was paired with novelist Adrienne Young. "You don't get that very often."
A Community of Writers
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That community ethos is a core part of LitUp's mission too. As such, Schreiber has one piece of advice for prospective applicants: don't count yourself out.
"We all want to be more conscious in what we read and the things that we pick," she says. "This is just us trying to find a way to help broaden that scope, and to help more people find those books."
To learn more about LitUp, visit the Reese's Book Club website.