Black British Book Fest and Poetry Wales awarded inaugural Beyond Literature Borders grants

The Black British Book Festival, Poetry Wales, Forty-Four Words, Komet Kashakeel, and Saqi Books have been awarded the inaugural Beyond Literature Borders grants.

In February, it was announced that the British Council had partnered with Speaking Volumes on the new pilot scheme, offering grants of £7,000 to UK-based organisations to develop and deliver new literature projects with international partners.

Beyond Literature Borders grant recipients will have the support and advice of both the British Council and Speaking Volumes for their year-long projects, and will be encouraged to further international work in the future.

The five awardees were selected by an external panel comprised of Francesca Beard, Cheryl Martin and Gavin Moorhead. Rachel Stevens, director of literature at the British Council, chaired the panel, which considered project proposals from 28 organisations from across the UK. 

The Black British Book Festival wins the grant for Fi Wi Time: A New Generation Speaks, a series of online workshops for 30 young people in the UK and Jamaica, developing artistic ability, creating a community and offering opportunities, delivered in partnership with the Jamaica Book Festival (formerly the Kingston Book Festival). Meanwhile, Forty-Four Words’ Reimagining Ghana project is “a collaboration to explore a contemporary reimagining of Paul Strand’s 1977 book Ghana: An African Portrait through a mix of online and in-person activity, with public workshops and sharing events in partnership with Ghanaian artist Isshaq Ismail.”

In partnership with ArabLit, Komet Kashakeel’s Read Aloud Across Borders will be an Arabic flash fiction contest, where winning submissions are translated into English, published in an ArabLit zine and soundscaped as flash fiction podcasts. Poetry Wales’ Ling di Long, Mutetsvaidi will see Welsh and Zimbabwean writers “wander in conversation” about their creative practice, facilitated by creative practitioner Peggie Shangwa. The resulting poems, translated into Cymraeg and Shona, will be published in a chapbook and featured in Poetry Wales.

Saqi Books’ Publishing Palestine project is described as a project of "literary intercultural exchange" between the UK and Palestine, with plans to host a public salon and industry roundtable, writing workshops and showcases in both countries, in partnership with publisher Mahmoud Muna and The Educational Bookshop.

Sinéad Russell of the British Council said: “The British Council is delighted to see the range of projects that have been awarded grants through Beyond Literature Borders and would like to offer our congratulations to all awardees, and our thanks to our partners Speaking Volumes. Supporting organisations to begin to work internationally, to build new partnerships and to reach new audiences is central to our work in supporting cultural connections. We look forward to following the grantees as they develop their projects and to seeing the outcomes of these international collaborations.”