THIS WEEK
Feature Male Black British writing
On writing a new chapter for Black British men
In 2016, it was reported that just one book by a first-time Black British male writer was published in the UK, Mama Can’t Raise No Man by Robyn Travis. What has changed?
Text Kadish Morris I
t was a grotesque year in 2016. The UK voted to leave the European Union. Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president of the United States of America. One début novel by a Black British male author was published in Britain (Mama Can’t Raise No Man by Robyn Travis, OWNIT!). It’s easy to untether the seemingly egalitarian publishing industry from the frightening racist political landscape of that time. But as Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of Open Water (Viking), a love story between two young artists, points out: “There’s a lot of work to be done in addressing the systemic issues which plague publishing, most of which are reflective of contemporary societ.” On the surface, the surge in sales of books by Black authors in 2020 might seem like the departure point from the archaic, one-in-one-out mathematics that has afflicted publishing for so long. However, the problem of anti- Blackness will take more than a year to unpick. Reactionary purchasing isn’t sustainable nor a healthy model for publishers to lean on because it puts the responsibilit on the readers’ shoulders, rather than the—overwhelmingly white—system at large. The latest Publishers Association (PA) employee survey from 2020 polled 14,112 individu- als working for 71 organisations. It showed that 13% of respondents identified as Black, Asian or minorit ethnic (3% of respondents identified as Black or Black British), despite making up 40% of the population of London, where the majorit of industry jobs are located. According to the World Intellectual Propert Organization, the UK published 188,000 trade and educational titles in 2018, the largest figure in this report on global publishing data. While not all of these are trade titles—in 2019, the PA reported two billion of sales of consumer books—the vast majorit are aimed at a book-buying public. Three per cent of 188,000? Even from a purely quantitative standpoint, representation of Black authors still has a long way to go. In addition, the #publishingpaidme hashtag that circulated on Twiter in
26 9th April 2021
ALEX HOLMES
CALEB AZUMAH NELSON
J J BOLA
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