ICYMI: Forging their own paths

Now Free To Read: Writer and SoA Awards winner Maame Blue on the Black authors who are driving positive change in publishing

It's about time for some good news, isn't it? We have collectively survived season one and two of the pandemic and season three is well underway. Yet here we are still standing, still writing, still trying to embody might with our little pens. We should be proud of ourselves. And for the lucky ones among us, we've been afforded the time to realise that there is more to life than keeping the status quo.

For Black authors especially, experiencing the summer of 2020 and the broadcast of the death of George Floyd - someone who could have easily been one of our own uncles or cousins or brothers or fathers - well, it felt like the end of everything. But it's also hard to deny that in the UK and around the world, his death reignited our calls for racial justice and equity across institutions. The publishing industry has not gone unchallenged.

It is pretty embarrassing that something so horrific needed to happen for historically white industries to pay attention and take stock - but we live in the world we live in and this is legitimately how revolutions begin, and often when the best art is created. Still, I am as cynical as the next person when I consider what real change in the industry could look like - where a multiplicity of stories from Black authors are not only welcomed but encouraged by both independent and traditional publishing houses in the UK. But here's the good news I mentioned earlier: as a collective we have become more powerful. If you are a Black author continuing to write, to read, and generally engage with life, then you should congratulate yourself for pushing forward even when the odds seem stacked against you. And the even better news is that there is no longer only one way to do this - to be an author.

We have more control than ever before over how we get our work out there, where we get it published and how we reach an audience. That's not to say traditional routes to publishing don't still dominate. They do if you want to make it onto bestseller and one-to-watch lists. But if the last two years have given us anything, it's the permission to choose where we place value, how we shape our own careers and what success looks like for each of us.

So, what kind of author do you want to be? Before the panic sets in and you try to scramble for an answer, I have brought options. In the last few years, I have come across many Black authors forging their own paths to success and bringing the community with them. I want to highlight just a few of them.

The-author-holding-the-door-open

First up, Dapo Adeola aka The-Author-Holding-The-Door-Open. If you have never heard of him, then you haven't read a children's book in the last two years. That's the only explanation. And if that's you, let me update you - he's a multiple award-winning illustrator and author with accolades that will send me over the word count. He is the author and one of the illustrators of Hey You - the British Book Award Children's Book of the Year 2022 - for which he invited 18 Black illustrators from across the diaspora to collaborate and create one of the most beautiful and heartfelt picture books I have read. Adeola was working on his craft for years before his first picture book Look Up! (authored by Nathan Bryon) was released in 2019. Since then he has formed a Black illustrators collective, run writers’ clinics as BookTrust's Writer-Illustrator-in-residence, and used his relatively new platform to call out inequities in the publishing industry. This is all while navigating it himself through illustration, collaboration and trying to usher in new Black authors and illustrators. I personally don't know where he's getting the energy but I want some of it.

The-author-unafraid-of-a-challenge

Next is Jasmine Richards, aka The-Author-Unafraid-Of-A-Challenge. I am delving into the world of children's books again because they still don't get as much kudos in our industry as they should, and no one knows this better than Jasmine. In my opinion she is the middle-grade queen - she has written over a dozen bestsellers under various names. She also has the rare skill of teaching others how to do it. Those who can do, really should teach. And for Richards, that meant creating Storymix - an inclusive children's fiction studio. Essentially, Storymix comes up with a brilliant idea for a children's book, and then works with new and emerging writers of colour to create and develop a manuscript that then gets sold to major publishers. They have sold a lot of books in the last two years. As a result, new Black writers and other writers of colour get to work closely with an author and editor with decades of experience in the industry (Richards) and, hopefully, get to publish their first book. This opens the door to children's books featuring more characters of colour, allowing more children to see themselves in the books they read.

The-author-who-experiments

For the poets - I haven't forgotten you - let's talk about Yomi Ṣode, aka The-Author-Who-Experiments. Yomi embodies everything I love about poets - a wizard with language, multifaceted, and someone who finds poetry in everything he does. It is a craft that you have to love with your whole being, to keep going, because there are so few rewards in our industry outside of the thing itself. Sode regularly runs poetry workshops with aspiring young writers. His debut poetry collection Manorism was published in October 2022, but he has experimented widely with his poetry already - collaborating with the Chineke! Orchestra, touring a one-man show and writing his award-winning play and breathe... which debuted in 2021. There is a sense that he is only just getting started; he is an example of what authors can do when we say yes to the unknown.

The-author-creating-community

Christina Fonthes, aka The-Author-Creating-Community, is the founder of Rewrite, an organisation supporting debut, emerging and established Black women and women-of-colour who write. Rewrite provides workshops that help develop the writing voice, alongside mentoring and the chance to join a supportive community. Many writers under Fonthes' tutelage have gone on to have their work published. But it's not simply that she has the golden touch when it comes to encouraging talent at various stages, it is the strong sense of community she fosters among writers often viewed as being on the margins. She helps them become more confident, and she knows how to create fertile ground from which new ideas can spring. And we all know how solitary this work can be, so having a community - to support and bounce ideas off - can very much make the difference between a good story and a great story.

There is no requirement to follow in the footsteps of any of these authors, but you might take inspiration from them - not just from their individual endeavours but from the emphasis on the collective that seems to drive their creativity and push them forward. The summer of 2020 was a turning point for the world, and for many authors especially. It helped us rediscover the value of leaning on community, collaborating with peers, and using each of our tiny platforms to make space for the new authors coming into the industry behind us. We are in an unprecedented time of change, with so many more opportunities for authors to get creative - not only in what we write but also in what we do. There are many different ways to be: some are more individual, some more together. I choose the latter.

First published in The Author, the journal of the Society of Authors, Winter 2022