The UK’s first books festival dedicated entirely to writers of colour “that has eschewed any panels on diversity” is set to make its debut in February, in an attempt to “empower ... these voices that are so often silenced in the literary mainstream”.
The concept of Bare Lit, which will take place in London on 26 and 27 February featuring names including the award-winning Xiaolu Guo, was sparked by the writers Courttia Newland and Sunny Singh, who mentioned to Samantha Asumadu, the founder of Media Diversified, a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting writers of colour, that they were “rarely invited to literary festivals”.
When Spread the Word, a report into diversity in publishing, found last April that just 4% of writers appearing at Edinburgh, Cheltenham and Hay festivals were BAME authors, “it seemed imperative to do something”, said Asumadu.
February’s inaugural event will feature appearances from writers including poet Jane Yeh, young poet laureate for London Selina Nwulu, and the journalist and fiction author Robin Yassin-Kassab, with events to range from what it means to be a writer of colour today, to the panels “second-generation poets in exile” and “sci-fi vs Afrofuturism”.
“Bare Lit’s racially and globally conscious ethos is in part a reaction to the overwhelmingly homogenous view of contemporary writing presented by UK literary festivals,” says Media Diversified. “The creation of Bare Lit is a step toward empowering these voices that are so often silenced in the literary mainstream.”
The festival is being funded with an Indiegogo campaign and Asumadu hopes it will become an annual event. “Bare Lit will give a destination to hopefully hundreds of people who haven’t felt compelled to go to a literary festival before or felt uninspired when they did because either they didn’t see any, or very few, writers of colour they read or they could discover,” she said.
“We trust that London’s literary community will attend, as they really need to. If we don’t value writers of colour and they are not seen and heard as much as their white peers they are even less likely to get published.”
Attending writers also spoke out about the importance of the new festival. “It’s about stories coming from traditions, dynamics and history which the gatekeepers ignore,” said the Sudanese-born novelist Leila Aboulela, winner of the Caine prize for African writing.
The London-based Malaysian author Zen Cho said she was “used to sticking out” at publishing events. “The stories that fill our heads should reflect the richness and diversity of the world around us. I’m excited to be part of a festival that’s trying to encourage that,” said Cho.