Books Council of Wales hands out £186k of funding to publishers

The Books Council of Wales and Creative Wales will pay out £186,000 of grant funding to an initial round of 13 recipients.

Conceived to create new opportunities and develop more audiences with a view to diversifying the country’s publishing sector, the New Audiences Grant was made possible by Welsh government agency Creative Wales.

Helgard Krause, chief executive of the Books Council of Wales, said: “We were delighted that Creative Wales responded so positively to our proposal to create new opportunities within the publishing sector in Wales.

“The purpose of the grant is to strengthen and diversify the parts of the publishing industry we at the Books Council currently support, and the grants specifically prioritise new publishing ventures, authors and audiences.”

The available grants were split up into bands A to C, with A up to £2,500, B between £2,501 and £15,000, and C £15,001 to £40,000. So far £186,000 of the funding has been awarded but Krause said other projects had been identified for further development and collaboration later in the year.

One of the projects funded is Lucent Dreaming, Wales’ first funded book and magazine publisher led by and employing two full-time editors of colour. With the new funding it will develop to include book publishing and aims to platform new and emerging writers and foster new editors and publishing professionals from under-represented backgrounds in Wales. 

Editor in chief Jannat Ahmed said: "After several years of volunteer-led magazine publishing, this fund will be transformative for me, and for the book industry in Wales. We look forward to publishing books from emerging authors and artists in the UK and bringing Wales and Lucent Dreaming to international audiences."

Graffeg, a Llanelli-based publisher of non-fiction illustrated books and illustrated fiction for children, will use its funding to produce a digital magazine facilitating access to publishing as a career – aiming to address the underrepresentation of disabled people in literature, and barriers to working as a writer or publisher for disabled people.

Dawn Bowden, the Welsh government’s deputy minister for arts and sport, said: “I am delighted that Creative Wales have been able to provide this funding that will make a real difference in diversifying the publishing sector in Wales – and give underrepresented groups a chance to tell their story. The Books Council has created a grants programme that will support an exciting and wide range of projects and I’m looking forward to seeing them develop over the coming months.”

The full list of grant recipients can be found here.