In light of the Black Lives Matter movement, our Press Group is announcing an annual bursary support program aimed at encouraging creative writers in the black community attending a BA creative writing course at any university in the UK.
We will be offering a 3000 pound Bursary for 2021's starting students to apply for. We seek to offset white privilege in British publishing and society and continue to learn the many ways we can do better on the path to allyship. This is our start, not our end. The process is ongoing.
We want to encourage other small businesses to rethink ways they can do more to give back to the communities who have been neglected or mistreated for too long. History is replete with systemic racism and horrific atrocities, and it underpins the world we now live in, and the systems that benefit some of us far more than others. This a moment of reckoning and awakening.
Black Spring Press will be constantly reviewing who we are as a company, with imperative critical feedback review meetings weekly, in order to look at what we can do to improve. Our global society means everything to us, a sense of community is woven into our book bindings, and we know we can do better.
The resounding voices of the Black Lives Matter movement should not become silent as time passes, and this is exactly why we hope this program will become an annual one.
The selection process will involve requesting applicants to send a creative writing sample with a cover letter. We will be co-ordinating arrangements for a judge to be selected who can represent, relate to and understand the black community best. We hope to announce this selector shortly.
UPDATE:
Due to the ongoing pandemic and delays caused as a result, a judge will be announced in 2021! We hope you are all staying safe in these trying times.