Black voices Amplified
Award-winning authors are profiled in in-depth interview series
October is Black History Month in the UK, so what better time to check out a new podcast, ‘The Amplify Project’, where hosts Patricia Cumper MBE and Pauline Walker – both award-winning writers themselves – talk to fellow black authors as well as playwrights, screenwriters, novelists, and poets.
Each of 12 fortnightly episodes in the first season features an in-depth conversation with a black British author – delving into their backgrounds and inspirations and how this has impacted their career, the art and craft of writing, and what it means to be a black British writer.
Among the guests are Alex Wheatle MBE, perhaps best known as the author profiled in Steve McQueen’s award-winning BBC drama ‘Small Axe’, while also featured is Juliet Gilkes Romero – an award-winning writer whose ‘Soon Gone; A Windrush Chronicle’ was co-produced by Sir Lenny Henry’s company Douglas Road.
Hafsa Zayyan – winner of Stormzy’s inaugural #Merky Books new writers’ prize – also appears, while other guests include awardwinning author Diana Evans, and Oladipo Agboluaje (former Alfred Fagon Award winner).
Co-creator Pauline Walker is herself a winner of the platinum prize from Creative Future Literary Awards; her short story ‘The Wait’ published in the winner’s anthology ‘Important Nothings’ alongside Kit de Waal and Dean Atta.
“When you read something like ‘Publishers claim that they would like to reach more diverse audiences but do not know how to, or are reluctant to expend resources on doing so’ in a report [Re:Thinking ‘Diversity’ in Publishing] it’s quite disheartening,” says the presenter, currently working on her novel ‘Welcome Home’.
“Black British writers and their work is no less valuable or vital than non-Black writers.
“We wanted to change that, she continues,” and I’m so thrilled that we’ve been able to bring the project to life with the support of Arts Council England. “One of my favourite things about the podcast is listening to our guests’ stories of how they found their way to writing and what it means to them to be a writer.”
Her co-presenter and podcast co-creator Patricia Cumper MBE, adds: “There is no one Black British identity. More than anything else, that is what I’ve learned from making these podcasts. The range of life stories and the many routes that Black writers have found into making work and viable careers for themselves is astonishing.“
Crumper, who received the MBE for services to Black British theatre, continues: “What comes through in all of the interviews is the power of storytelling: to entertain, to educate, to heal, to reveal hidden worlds and new stories, and the sheer bloody-mindedness and determination to speak out that it takes to be a successful storyteller, whatever your genre.
“I am deeply grateful to the writers for these conversations,” she adds. “And it was fun: challenging, surprising, riveting, but most of all fun.”