How to Get Published with Ellah Wakatama Allfrey

24 Oct 2019

Whether you’ve been writing for a while or are just starting out, hear some practical advice on the publishing landscape and the various routes to publication.

Editor, critic and broadcaster Ellah Wakatama Allfrey OBE shares her tips in conversation with Gena-mour Barrett.

Allfrey is editor-at-large at Canongate Books, senior research fellow at Manchester University (Centre for New Writing) and chair of the Caine Prize for African Writing.

She is a judge for the 2019 Northern Writers’ Awards Fiction Prize. In 2017 she served as a judge for the Dublin International Literary Award and in 2015 for the Man Booker Prize.

Allfrey’s journalism has appeared in The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Spectator.

She is the editor of Africa39 and the anthology Safe House: Explorations in Creative Nonfiction and is a contributor to New Daughters of Africa.

In 2011, Allfrey was awarded an OBE for services to the publishing industry and in 2016 was named one of New African Magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential Africans’.

Gena-mour Barrett is a freelance writer and creative content producer from London. She was listed as one of 2019’s ‘30 Under 30’ for media and marketing by Forbes.

As a freelancer she has worked for the BBC, The Guardian and The Pool, and she currently hosts the Netflix IXseries on the channel’s YouTube.

In 2018, she was the recipient of the Roxane Gay fellowship for a woman of colour writing fiction with Jack Jones Literary Arts, and is currently working on her first novel.

Her work was anthologised in Know Your Place: Essays on the Working Class by the Working Class, published by Dead Ink Books in 2017.

More Lambeth Listings MORE

Lambeth Thursday 27 August to Saturday 24 October 2026

The Story

A gripping newsroom drama by Tracey Scott Wilson, The Story makes its UK premiere at the National Theatre,…

Lambeth Saturday 17th October 2026

The Black History Culture Tour Bus

The Black History Culture Tour Bus invites visitors to discover the people, neighbourhoods and stories that have shaped…

Lambeth Saturday 17 October 2026

Black Zine Fair

Discover a new generation of Black independent creators at Brixton Library’s Black Zine Fair, celebrating the continuing tradition…

Lambeth Saturday 17th October 2026

Gospel Orchestrated

Celebrate Black History Month with an uplifting evening of gospel music, massed voices, rhythm and the magnificent sound…

Lambeth Saturday 17th October 2026

FREE Ghanaian Drumming Workshops

Discover authentic Ghanaian rhythms with expert drummer Abass Dodoo and the One-Drum team at these free, interactive workshops…

Lambeth Monday 19 October 2026

Black British Ballet Dance Workshop

Join Royal Ballet School graduate Darren Panton for a dance workshop combining ballet with contemporary, African and Caribbean…