THIS WEEK
The Black Issue 2022 DEI work at publishers
PICTURED LEFT, FROM TOP VALERIE BRANDES, JOSIE DOBRIN AND SHARMAINE LOVEGROVE
Book firms in sharp ‘move from talk to action’ after BLM—but work remains
Creative Access has reported a steep rise in book businesses seeking to ramp up their diversity and inclusion efforts in the past two years–but those in the trade are cautioning that systemic, lasting change remains some way off
Reporting The Bookseller News Team 08 20th May 2022 A
nti-racist action catalysed by the Black Lives Mater movement of 2020 saw myriad programmes, initiatives
and long-term plans introduced across agen- cies, publishing houses and industry bodies, but the extent to which the dial has shiſted two years on is up for debate.
As Aliya Gulamani, commissioning editor at Unbound, and head of the publisher’s new imprint of début writers of colour, told The Bookseller: “It’s possible for two things to be true at once—to say that the publishing industry has made progress since the Black Lives Mater international movement in 2020, and to say that, crucially, it hasn’t made much [progress], if any at all.” For Creative Access co-founder and
executive chair Josie Dobrin, the Black Lives Mater protests were “a watershed moment for the publishing industry”, prompting organisations which had not even started on their “diversit, equalit and inclusion [DEI] journey” to take action, “and fast”. She said: “Those who had plans in place needed to accelerate, stop talking about their plans and instead show real, tangible progress.” In the past two years, Creative Access has seen a sharp increase in the number of organisations “wanting to move from talk to action”; from consultancy on puting a DEI plan in place or accelerating it, through to diversit and inclusion training for their teams, specifi- cally on race in the workplace, allyship and anti-racism. At the time of Floyd’s murder, Hachete UK c.e.o. David Shelley said he and the whole team had been watching events unfold with “increasing shock, sadness and anger” and that “there is a more urgent need than ever for us to stand together and educate ourselves [and] become beter allies”.
Since then, the publisher has formed a part- nership with the Black Writers’ Guild to focus on actions to increase representation of Black
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