Feature Diversit in publishing
WriteNow Penguin Random House UK’s WriteNow scheme aims to find and publish new writers who are “underrepresented in books and publishing”. Targeted groups are writers from socio- economically marginalised backgrounds, writers who come from LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer) or BAME (black, Asian, minority ethnic) communities, or writers with a disability. Events have been held to date in London, Birmingham and Manchester.
Turning up the volume
Backed by Arts Council England, individual publishers and a range of pan-industry bodies, Megaphone has been amplifying the voices of writers of black, Asian and minorit ethnic backgrounds—and its founder Leila Rasheed thinks it’s just the start. Sarah Shaffi meets her
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HAVE BEEN AWARE for a long time that when I go to children’s literature events there will be very few people around who look like me,” says children’s author Leila Rasheed, adding that she is “frequently the only person who isn’t white”. Rasheed founded and runs writer development programme Megaphone, a scheme for people from black, Asian and minorit ethnic (BAME) backgrounds. For the past year, Megaphone has worked with five writers—Danielle Jawando, Tina Freeth, Nafisa Muhtadi, Avantika Taneja and Joyce Efia Harmer—to help them develop their work and introduce them to the pub- lishing industry.
Rasheed, who is British Asian, says she was aware of
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the lack of ethnic diversit in publishing for a long time, but it was thinking about characters of colour in books themselves that prompted her to do something. One of the things that made her sit up and take notice was an article by the late Walter Dean Myers for the New York Times, in which he asked where all the people of colour were in children’s books. Added to that was Rasheed’s own experience. “I started writing and all my charac- ters came out white. I didn’t have a way of puting some- one like me into the story. I couldn’t think why that was and I then realised how much of that was about not having any representation.” So Megaphone, “named because it’s your voice, but louder”, was born. The five writers on the scheme have
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Flight 1000
Flight 1000 is a bursary scheme from Spread the Word that supports three aspiring London-based publishing professionals from a background underrepresented in publishing. The trio, know as “associates”, are paid for 1,000 hours of work across 12 months, in which time they are responsible for managing, editing and marketing online periodical Flight Journal, and funded to study editing and proofreading. Associates also complete placements at literary organisations and publishing houses.
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