In search of lasting change Kerry Young “Whilst acknowledging the vast array of initiatives for so-called BAME writers, what will be the enduring impact? The six writers here, commissioned in the summer of 2019 before the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, have wrestled with this question throughout their careers.” The Jhalak Prize Sunny Singh “The Jhalak Prize is disruption, defiance, challenge, subversion. It is an initiative to decolonise our literatures, imaginations, cultures, and even ourselves.” Advice to my younger self Malika Booker “That nerdy little brown skin girl freezing in the playground, that girl is going to be a writer. A poet.” Mainstreaming and greater choice of books Margaret Busby “Being black seems to be considered my expertise; the couple of times I’ve been asked to review a white writer is when their subject- matter is ‘black’.” And the rest of you are normal Mahsuda Snaith “On the night of the awards, I sat in the audience with my heart pounding. Then my name was announced.” The writing culture I would like to see Katy Massey “Such is the weight of the cultural baggage attached to books that there is a fervour of protective jealousy over who gets to put their name on one.” Being my own person as a writer Irenosen Okojie “I am still that young girl with a keen hunger to know the world, having adventures on the page.”
