Publisher
Margaret Busby CBE, Hon. FRSL, was born in Ghana. On graduating from London University, she became Britain’s (at the time) youngest and first black woman publisher when she co-founded Allison and Busby. As editorial director, she presided over an international list that included Buchi Emecheta, Nuruddin Farah, Rosa Guy, C. L. R. James, Michael Moorcock and Jill Murphy. Margaret has written drama for BBC radio and the stage, her abridgements and dramatizations including work by Henry Louis Gates, Timothy Mo, Walter Mosley, Jean Rhys, Sam Selvon and Wole Soyinka. Her high-profile interviewees include Toni Morrison, Nawal El Saadawi and Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Margaret Busby edited the pioneering anthology Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent (1992) and its 2019 sequel New Daughters of Africa. She has judged many literary prizes and is the Chair of judges for the 2020 Booker Prize.
