The Emma Press and Flipped Eye scoop £200,000 ACE funding

Birmingham indie The Emma Press and London‚Äôs Flipped Eye Publishing have been awarded nearly £100,000 each by Arts Council England as part of a programme to diversify the arts and cultural sector.

The latest funding round of the Elevate scheme aims to specifically address the under-representation of people with disabilities and those from BAME backgrounds across the sector.

It sees £99,934 granted to The Emma Press, a BAME-led indie specialising in poetry, fiction and children‚Äôs books. The firm will spend its money on expanding the team, improving management structures and exploring new options to generate income.

Director Emma Wright, who founded the publisher in 2012 and runs it on her own, said she would use the money to employ a parttime production controller and a marketing and publicity manager.

She told The Bookseller: "This is seismic for The Emma Press and I'm completely overjoyed. It's a dream come true to have the opportunity to develop the organisation in this way, to ensure the press can continue to flourish and innovate."

Flipped Eye, which specialises in poetry and fiction, will also get £99,740 to develop its website, infrastructure, commissioning, sales and marketing as part of the funding round.

Director Nii Ayikwei Parkes said: “We are delighted to receive support from the ACE Elevate initiative, which helps independent organisations like ours build on their strong foundations. In our case, 18 years as a leading publisher of some of the most urgent voices in contemporary poetry have prepared us to leverage this opportunity and have a similar impact in fiction and non-fiction. We will continue to give our authors the best support to realise their ambitions, while developing a robust business and putting the reader first.”