worked for gal-dem, have gone on to get book deals,” Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, former editor-in-chief at gal-dem, tells me. She joined the team early on in its develop- ment, before its official launch in 2015, aſter two friends suggested she join their first London meeting. “I got involved with gal-dem because I had this feeling as soon as I started working within the journalism industry, that there was something so deeply, fundamentally wrong with it,” she adds. “I felt very alone at the beginning of my career.” Particularly for prospective non-fiction authors, build- ing a portfolio of journalism, a public platform and a social media following increases your chances of securing a traditional publishing deal. The need to show legitimacy (why you?) and an audience (who’s heard of you?), sepa- rates it from the fiction space. Brinkhurst-Cuff, who has edited two non-fiction essay collections—Mother Country: Real Stories of the Windrush Children and Black Joy—says her work at gal-dem goes a long way to explaining why Hachete and Penguin published the titles. But like publishing, journalism has a long-standing issue with the ethnic diversit of its staff. In 2017, a report by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) did not find any “underlying changes” in the proportions of journalists from BAME groups or lower socio-economic groups. In 2022, new NCTJ analysis found litle had changed.
This makes specialised and youth-led outlets such as gal-dem, Black Ballad, Polyester and Skin Deep a vital entry point for aspiring non-fiction writers from under- represented groups. “[It’s] a point of pride for me to know that we supported people with geting their first foot in the door,” Brinkhurst-Cuff says. Dr Annabel Sowemimo’s book, Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise Healthcare, was published last month. Sowemimo, an NHS registrar in sexual and reproductive health, a PhD candidate and Harold Moody Scholar at King’s College London, and the founder of the Reproductive Justice Initiative, started writing for gal-dem in 2016 and went on to write the Decolonising Healthcare column for the platform in 2018. This brought her to the atention of her literary agent and the publisher Wellcome Collection/Profile Books. “Platforms such as gal-dem and Black Ballad are honestly essential,” she says. “With all the advantages that I have—I’m a doctor, I move in spaces where you might meet publishers—I really could not see a way through. I had Googled literary agents before. And without having these platforms, this would never have happened for me. I’m really sad that future generations won’t have that.” Leah Cowan, author of Border Nation: A Story of Migration, shared a similar road to publication. Aſter work- ing as the politics editor at gal-dem, she was approached by a literary agent and the radical indie publisher Pluto Press in 2021. For her, gal-dem gave her the space to hone her craſt and expand her knowledge. “I think that gal-dem provided a really useful space where people who wanted to go on to write books could be found [in] the very white crowd of non-fiction writers who get published,” she says. While small independent outlets do important work in platforming underrepresented voices, this can sometimes be used as a shortcut to making fundamental changes
TheBookseller.com
Excerpt gal-dem’s goodbye letter
We want to whole- heartedly thank everyone who has been a part of this journey with us—whether you have been a reader from the beginning, a party- goer from our early days, or a more recent member. It meant so much for gal-dem to exist in the world, to tell the stories that mattered to us and our lived experiences, and to do it with authentic- ity, care and heart. We thank our team for doing that work so bril- liantly. We are so proud of what we have been able to achieve with our cherished community of staff, advisors, free- lances, readers, follow- ers and listeners. While this chapter is ending, we hope that the spirit of what gal-dem proved possible over eight years will live on with you all. gal-dem to us, has been so much more than a magazine.
to the publishing industry itself. And in an industry that reportedly had sales totalling £6.9bn between 2021 and 2022, and saw 4% growth, according to the Publishers Association, why should it be leſt to these outlets to force through change?
“There are larger questions to be explored around who is doing the commissioning in publishing houses,” Cowan adds. “If they’re turning to places like gal-dem to trawl through our articles, that’s fine, but maybe they want to think about who is doing that job and potentially hiring someone who already has connections and ideas and genuine interests in authors of colour and the issues that we’re writing about.”
Positive action In response to the resurgence of the Black Lives Mater movement, the Black Writers’ Guild formed in 2020 and wrote an open leter to the industry. Signed by more than 200 writers, the guild challenged the publishing industry to address racial inequalit within its own ranks, including an audit of the books published by Black authors and the absence of Black commissioners. All the “big five” publishers commited to taking action. Three years later, the picture of progress is a mixed bag. The latest Publishing Association survey found small improvements in ethnic representation. But only 17% of respondents were from non-white backgrounds, woefully below the level expected considering that most publishing houses are primarily based in London, where non-white groups comprise some 46% of the population, according to the 2021 Census. That is not to say no progress has been made either.
“We have got so many brilliant writers publishing books that would not have seen the light of day 10 years ago,” Sowemimo says. But with the cost-of-living crisis tighten- ing people’s budgets and reducing disposable incomes, there is a risk the industry will revert to playing it safe and being less willing to bet on “risky” titles and authors. And each specialised outlet that folds reduces the options for coverage and serialisation for début authors of colour. “The very cynical side of me says, ‘One less outlet to tick off your list’,” says Jendella Benson, head of editorial at Black Ballad and author of the novel Hope & Glory. “Because for some publicit and marketing teams, their desire to engage with diverse audiences goes as far as sending a press release to established platforms with that audience.” Benson is more optimistic about the lasting impact that spaces such as gal-dem and Black Ballad have had on the creative industries. “My first print byline was in gal-dem’s first print issue. For those of us without the connections, without the formal education, but with nothing but raw talent, where else can we get that?”
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GAL-DEM FOUNDER AND NOVELIST LIV LITTLE
The inaugural gal-dem print issue sits on the bookshelf in my bedroom, alongside a copy of the gal-dem Guardian Weekend takeover that I was lucky enough to write for, and the other features that opportunit spawned. They are physical reminders of what we achieved. Something to hold onto. “It’s one of the reasons why the gal-dem print issue was so essential,” Brinkhurst-Cuff says. “Books—and the way in which they can be archived— are such magical things; they have such a lasting impact.”
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