Each year, the Black publishing issue offers a critical pause: a moment to reflect,not only on the books, voices and visions shaping Black British publishing today, but also on the wider systems in which they are trying to thrive. It is an issue produced with care, but also with urgency – because the stories shared here are not new. What is new is the increasing clarity with which they are being told, the precision with which patterns are being named, and the deepening call for change that will not settle for surface-level progress.
(more…)Natasha Onwuemezi
Writer, editor, strategist
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In 2020 – amid a glut of black Instagram squares, urgent tweets and bold diversity declarations – publishing promised change. Five years on, the industry is seemingly teetering between stasis and regression. Behind the public messaging, many publishing insiders describe a quieter, more insidious reversal: funding has dried up, initiatives have folded and editorial interest has waned. Instead, the landscape of Black publishing appears marked by stalled momentum, systemic fatigue and profound frustration.
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Celebrating 40 years at the forefront of Caribbean and Black British literature, Leeds-based independent publisher Peepal Tree Press has become a “honeypot” for writers and readers seeking stories that transcend the mainstream and preserve the cultural richness of the Caribbean and its diaspora.
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RF Kuang is having a chaotic start to the year. Before we chat, she kindly warns me that she might have to step away for a second to take a call from the mechanic. She also asks if we can Zoom with our cameras off – she’s just had eye surgery and shouldn’t spend too much time looking at screens. Feeling the effects of screen fatigue myself, I am more than happy to oblige.
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“Surprise, bitch—I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me.” For some, this issue of The Bookseller might feel like the literary version of that “American Horror Story” meme, where Emma Roberts’ character (spoiler alert) comes back from the dead. Reactions to us working on this second iteration of last year’s award-winning Black Issue, expertly edited by Black Agents and Editors’ Group founder Marianne Tatepo, have been mixed. For some (including our painfully honest contributors) there is a risk of tokenism and othering in such dedicated issues. The same criticism has been levelled at the Discover Preview that I curate each month.
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I first met Ayobami Adebayo six years ago to interview her about her debut Stay With Me; it was the first interview she’d done for the book. Many things have changed since, for one, Adebayo has just been longlisted for the Booker Prize for her latest novel A Spell of Good Things. For another, we’ve both lived through a global pandemic, which has seen us replace the fancy restaurant and expense account of our last interview with a video call that might have been hiding the fact that we were both wearing pyjama bottoms.
Back then, not only was the word pandemic not in our vernacular, neither was Zoom, something that has made this international call possible. Except, it’s not quite as international as I was expecting. Logging on, I assumed Adebayo would be dialling in from sunny, vibrant, colourful Lagos, but instead, the grey backdrop tells me all I need to know: she’s currently experiencing the best summer the UK has to offer. I ask if she’s looking forward to going back to her home city. “Very much so, given the turn in the weather,” she says, with a laugh. “I mean, a couple of days ago I was thinking of bringing out a duvet, it was that cold. It went down to like nine degrees at one point. Like what is this?”
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“I think love is a really transformational thing. For me, I’ve found being in relationships with other women, especially Black women, has been kind of like holding up a mirror to all of the different parts of yourself.” So says Liv Little about the driving force behind her delicate, evocative début Rosewater, which follows 28-year-old poet Elsie as she struggles to find her feet in a world that is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate.
Speaking on a surprisingly resilient WhatsApp call that only disconnects once, Little is currently in a reflective, contemplative headspace in the Jamaican mountains, where she has come to spread her dad’s ashes. From the first page to the last—and including the moving acknowledgements and disarmingly atmospheric cover—the novel’s heady themes of love, home and grief are powerfully portrayed.
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When I first meet Obioma Ugoala, we are at The House of St Barnabas, judging one of the British Book Awards; we are both on the panel for the new Discover Book of the Year. What strikes me is that Ugoala—who is affable, funny and articulate—really puts in the work. Alongside starring as Kristoff in “Frozen” on the West End, following a turn in “Hamilton” as the George Washington (a.k.a. the best character in the history of musicals), Ugoala has also read every book on the shortlist, made thoughtful pre-panel notes about each one and participates in the discussion with passion and consideration. I say this because it might be tempting for someone with such a busy schedule to phone it in, but that’s not Ugoala.
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On 12th June 2016, the world witnessed what many US media outlets were calling the “most deadly shooting in US history”, when a gunman walked into a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and killed at least 49 people, injuring a further 53.
It is in times such as this that the world takes notice, but in the US, on average, seven children are shot dead every day. In Another Day in the Death of America (Guardian Faber, September), journalist Gary Younge tells the stories of 10 youths who were killed on just one of these days: 23rd November 2013. “Whenever there is a big mass shooting, like Columbine or Sandy Hook, then America pays attention, but most kids that are shot dead are killed on a daily basis,” Younge says.
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Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Drinks, ascribes the success of the multimillion- pound business to the way the brand’s “joyfulness, creativity and friendliness” managed to “connect with people”. The same could be said for Reed himself, whose exuberance, excitement and genuine interest in the people around him has enabled him to compile a collection of the best advice from some of the most “remarkable people” in the world.
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Natasha Onwuemezi 