THIS WEEK


Through different services and scholarship opportunities, Black writers’ retreats are opening up spaces for underrepresented writers to hone their craft


Sabrina Fearon-Melville @sabrinasfm1


F


or many aspiring writers of colour, find- ing the time and space to complete an entire body of work can seem like such a far-off process. Many deal with the expecta- tions of parents and their wider communities when it comes to making a choice to pursue the arts as a career and, for most authors, writing is destined to be a second job or side- hustle that is undertaken on weekends or aſter completing a nine-to-five. In a report commissioned in 2022 by the


UK Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Societ (ALCS), professional authors earned a median of only £7,000 a year. The report focused on writers from all industries (script- writers, journalists etc) who dedicate at least 50% of their working day to writing. It went on to further report that the median earnings of authors was down 33% since the report was last commissioned in 2018.


With the decline of professional authors profiting from their work full-time and a further estimated 19% of authors having a second job aside from writing, it begs the question of how authors—and particularly authors of colour—can make space to hone their craſt. Writers’ retreats have always been popular, but they are oſten inaccessible due to high price points and obscure locations. A well-known example of the power of writing retreats for women of colour is Candice Cart- Williams, who—aſter winning the opportunit to undertake a retreat sponsored by Jojo Moyes—wrote the majorit of her first novel Queenie (Orion), which went on to win Book of the Year at the 2020 British Book Awards,


18 26th May 2023


making Cart-Williams the first Black woman to do so. I spoke to Black authors who are finding


ways to pour back into their communities through hosting their own writers’ retreats. Rachel Edwards is a Jamaican-Nigerian author who has writen two novels and is working on her third when I reach out for a chat. Having published her first novel Darling in 2018, and her second, Lucky, in 2021 (both with HarperCollins), Edwards had previous experi- ence atending retreats herself. “I had been on one or two retreats before, and at the time I was writing my début Darling and I found it really beneficial.” Edwards later decided to host retreats from her farmhouse home that she shares with her husband in 2020 and began hosting guests post-pandemic. Having hosted both bestselling authors and those who are just beginning their writing journeys, Edwards offers two stles of solo retreats perfect for escaping the busyness of daily life. The first is the “Freedom Retreat”,


The Black Issue 2023 Black Writers’ Retreats


Black writers’ retreats provide attendees with the space to prioritise their writing


AUTHOR RACHEL EDWARDS HOSTS RETREATS FROM HER FARMHOUSE HOME


this is where Edwards will more or less leave you to your own devices, while occasionally bringing you hot meals cooked in her own kitchen. The second, the “Masterclass Retreat”, is a one-to-one programme where Edwards will advise, read draſts and provide home-cooked meals. Both of these are designed to “take the author away from their domestic environment”. Edwards hopes to eventually be able to host scholarship retreats for writers who are underrepresented in the industry. “A side [of the retreats] I want to focus on and build on more is [supporting] underrepresented writers who might feel that they don’t have the opportunit to really prioritise their writing in the way they want to,” she says. “Because that is something I really felt I didn’t have when I was [younger]. First I had to pay the bills, and then it was having to sort out everything else—you know life—and writing, that was maybe something to cram into the evening.” According to ALCS’ report, Black and


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