Way back in February, one of my colleagues alerted me to the new Award being organized by Gollancz and Ben Aaronovitch, focused on lifting up the voices of unpublished BAME authors and fostering new talent in the industry.
Fast forward to all the craziness of this summer’s pandemic and the announcement of the shortlist, where I was absolutely ecstatic to be placed with seven other amazing writers and their works. But of course with the virus raging and in-group meetups cancelled (including Gollancz’s planned prize-giving ceremony), all of us were only able to talk online. Still, I wanted to know more about the shortlisted works, and the people who created them.
So I reached out to ask them a few questions about them and their writing. I hope you find the answers as fascinating as I did! These are all writers to watch, and I can’t wait to see what happens with all these amazing stories.
The Shortlistees
Dan Buchanan – The Scent of Cloves
Dolly Garland – Kali’s Call
Kyla Jardine – The Reeves’ Guild
Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson – The Principle of Moments
Ewen Ma – Nowhere More Changeable than the Mortal Heart
Jaya Martin – Blood of the Wolf
Victor Ogana – Seeds of Heaven
I’ll be posting each of the interviews over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned. And of course, for the winners’ announcements, definitely check out the immensely talented Esmie and Kyla on the Gollancz blog.
The Venture 