Breaking Ground – Black British Writers US Tour
Breaking Ground is conceived, curated and organised by Speaking Volumes. We specialise in producing engaging and excellent literary events designed to appeal to a broad audience and introducing unknown international writing to the UK and Europe. We are committed to making the best British literature known around the world.
As a result of ongoing demand from North American contacts, we have planned an ambitious tour of the USA. Focused around the major talent of the UK’s Black British writers, Breaking Ground is an opportunity for some of Britain’s most exciting literary talents to reach the established US book markets and readers. At this moment in the twenty-first century, Breaking Ground represents a thoughtful and imaginative way of presenting a positive Black British experience based on a spirit of collaboration and exchange.
At the beginning of November we will present a showcase of Black British writing at the 2015 Association for the Study of Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD) conference in Charleston, South Carolina. Prior to this the tour writers will take part in various events on the East Coast of America. In Spring 2016 we are planning a similar schedule on the West Coast. The full programme of events will be available soon.
The Breaking Ground tour list consists of five prose writers, five poets. All of the artists present a vast range of themes in their work and many are multi-genre writers, combining poetry and playwriting, for example. We have paid particular attention to balancing gender and age and to presenting both new and established names to audiences.
The ten tour writers are: Diran Adebayo, Jay Bernard, Bernardine Evaristo, Gabriel Gbadamosi, Colin Grant, Nick Makoha, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Johny Pitts, Roger Robinson and Warsan Shire.
As we are unfortunatley limited in the number of writers we can take on the tour we are producing a booklet featuring a further 40 of the best contemporary Black British writers, which we will distribute everywhere we go in the US, to help further promote black writing. We will publish an online version of this booklet soon.
In addition to the events in the US, we are hosting preliminary tour events in the UK:
Breaking Ground in London – Tuesday 6 October, Waterstones Piccadilly
Breaking Ground in Manchester – Thursday 8 October, Moss Side Powerhouse Library
Breaking Ground in Bristol – Wednesday 14 October