Commonword

Commonword (1975–present) is a writing development organisation based in Manchester, North West England, providing opportunities for new and aspiring writers to develop their talent and potential, promoting new writing on a national and international levels.[1] The organisation was set up in 1975. It is currently the largest new writing, community writing and publishing organisation in the North West. It is a limited company and registered charity, and is Arts Council funded.[2][3][4]

Cultureword

Cultureword is one strand of Commonword. It was established in 1986 as a centre for black creative writing. Lemn Sissay was working at the organisation as Cultureword's literature worker and convenor of the "Tight Fisted Poets" group, nurturing new writing talent among many of Manchester's BAME writers.[5]This objective remains fundamental to the organisation's stance to this day.[6]

Events and workshops

Commonword run a number of writers' groups, workshops, events and conferences.

Young Identity

Young Identity (also known as YI) was created in 2006 by Shirley May and Ali Gadema, and is a spoken-word collective aimed at younger writers, aged 13–25.[7] Young Identity has performed all over the United Kingdom, working with a diverse range of writers including Saul Williams, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Ted Hughes Prize Winner Kate Tempest and the late Amiri Baraka.

Black and Asian Writers Conference

In association with the Manchester Literature Festival, Commonword holds the biannual Black and Asian Writers Conference, which aims to highlight the lack of diversity within the publishing industry and encompasses a series of talks, workshops and interviews. Among speakers featured in 2016 were Nii Parkes, Sandeep Parmar and JJ Bola, on wide-ranging topics that included "Writing in Translation: What makes for a good translation?", "Young Writers: How does Generation Y's writing differ from Generation X's?" and "Black and Dangerous: BAME representation of mental health in writing", the conference concluding with an event headlined by Lemn Sissay.[8][9]

Crocus

Crocus is the publishing imprint of Commonword and Cultureworld. It publishes works of fiction and poetry written by authors from the northwest of England.[10]

References
  1. "About Us", Commonword.
  2. "COMMONWORD ENTERPRISES LIMITED". Companies House. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  3. "Commonword Enterprises Ltd". Charity Commission. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  4. "Search results". Arts Council England. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  5. Wroe, Martin (2016). "Why Ever Not? Lemn Sissay interview". High Profiles. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
  6. Lynne Pearce, Corinne Fowler and Robert Crawshaw, Postcolonial Manchester: Diaspora space and the devolution of literary culture (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), p. 86.
  7. Young Identity.
  8. "Main Event: Black and Asian Writers Conference", Manchester Literature Festival, 8 October 2016.
  9. "Lemn Sissay as part of the Commonword Black Writers' Conference". Black Gold Arts. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
  10. "Commonword / Crocus". Literature North West. Index Network. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
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