Black Book Swap is organised by readers for all book lovers. Don’t miss Black Book Swap 9 – book tickets here
Tickets: £8.55 – £13.33
Meet the authors
We are delighted that some wonderful authors will be with us on Saturday 3 June to celebrate Black Book Swap 9:
Zuri Amarcya is a fantasy author working on building her body of literary work. She is passionate about performing arts and currently works in education. Zuri was born and raised in London to a family of creatives and has written creatively since a young age. She became inspired to take writing more seriously after one summer discovering great fantasy books. Zuri wanted to contribute to the genre with racially diverse stories because, growing up, it was rare for her to read about people that looked like her in her favourite genre.
Twitter: @zuriamarcya
Facebook: facebook.com/zuriamarcya
Sareeta Domingo, an editor and writer born in Camberwell, South East London. Sareeta spent her formative years in Bahrain, when her family moved there for her father’s job.
She works as an Editor at Harlequin Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harper Collins, and previously edited children’s fiction at a creative book packager. She squeezes writing into her mornings, evenings and weekends. Having been commissioned to write erotic short stories published in compilations for Agent Provocateur, and then an erotic novella for Pavilion Books, she turned her hand to her first full-length novel, a contemporary romance entitled The Nearness of You, published by Piatkus Books in May 2016.
http://www.sareetadomingo.com/about.html
Twitter: @SareetaDomingo
Catherine Johnson is an author, writer and screenwriter, who has written several books for children and young adults, including A Nest of Vipers and Sawbones, which won the Young Quills prize for Historical Fiction. Her YA novel The Curious Tale of the Lady Caraboo, published by Penguin Random House in 2015 was nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2016 and the YA Book Prize. Her latest book, Blade and Bone is out now and is a follow up to Sawbones.
Catherine also writes for film, television and radio. In 2005 she co-wrote the highly acclaimed feature film Bullet Boy, followed by a number of commissions for Century Films, Working Title and Channel 4.
Catherine was Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of the Arts London, Writer in Residence at Holloway Prison and Reader in Residence at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the Children’s Literature Festival ‘Imagine’. She was awarded an Arts Council of England Writer’s Grant in 2004 and a Writer’s Bursary in 1996. Catherine was selected for the BBC Writer’s Academy in 2012.
Twitter: @catwrote
Sheeda Queen born Priska Kibala is an Author, mother, wife and social activist from South London. Leaving her native country of Democratic Republic of Congo in 1993 at the age of five alongside her mother and two siblings to join their father, the UK became her home and she adapted very fast. Being brought up in an environment that oozed creativity, diverse cultures and social injustice, Sheeda was never short of inspirations for her short stories and the poems that she often wrote as a youngster.
Her first novel, Chestnut was self-published in 2016, as a fiction autobiography. It reveals a young girl’s journey of self-discovery, heartache and humour, as she uncovers the power of her buried past to shape her destiny.
We are delighted to announce that we will also be joined by:
Valerie Brandes is the Founder and Publisher at independent, diversity-led publishing house Jacaranda Books. Valerie has over 15 years book trade experience both in the UK and in the USA and is a proud graduate of the MA Publishing Studies at City University London.
In 2012 Valerie left her job at Profile Books to set up Jacaranda Books Art Music Ltd, feeling the need to explore publishing the kinds of books she longed to read but was having trouble finding. Her first title, Fashion Africa by Jacqueline Shaw, was published in February 2014. Since then the company has published outstanding writers including Irenosen Okojie (Butterfly Fish, Speak Gigantular), Fiston Mwanza Mujila (Tram 83), Anthony Anaxagorou (The Blink that Killed the Eye), Bernice L. McFadden (The Book of Harlan) and Stephen Thompson (No More Heroes).
In February 2017 Jacaranda published the acclaimed memoir Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin by Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin. The book was the first by the parents on the life and tragic death of their son, and the fight for justice that gave rise to the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
Valerie is an ardent supporter of promoting ethnic and gender equality and diversity in the publishing industry. She is a public speaker on publishing, entrepreneurship, and diversity, and has served on various committees including Fiction Uncovered.
Rasheda Ashanti Malcolm is a writer, playwright and the founder of Candace Magazine aimed at women of colour. She is the recipient of multiple awards including the National Black Women Achievement Awards (1994), and the Pandora Award for Publishing by Women in Publishing UK (2010).
Rasheda initiated and co-ordinated the Candace Black Women Achievement Award and is co-founder of WILDE (Women into Literature Development & Empowerment) International Network. She currently teaches Creative Writing in London and works with vulnerable women in shelters across the UK.
Rasheda’s short story, Justice was published in Skin Deep (Puffin Books) in 2004 and her screenplay, House Full of Women was long-listed for the Bush and Angle Theatre Award in 2011. Swimming with Fishes is Rasheda’s debut novel, and was runner up in the Saga Literary Prize.
There will be chat about writing, poetry, biography, history, novels, screenwriting, romantic fiction, books for children, drama, short stories, fantasy fiction. Yes we will be talking about all these genres!
Don’t miss out – the early-bird tickets will go fast!
Swap books at Black Book Swap
In addition to hearing from recently published authors, you can ‘swap’ or buy books from our amazing collection of books by black authors from around the world. If you don’t have a book to swap – donations to help us keep the Black Book Swap ethos alive will be totally welcome on the day.
Don’t miss Black Book Swap 9 – book tickets here and share this link to help us to spread the Black Book Swap word.
Check out the photographs of the previous eight Black Book Swaps at Facebook/BlackBookSwap
Keep in touch @BlackBookSwap or Facebook/BlackBookSwap
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