Hachette UK network to host Black History Month panels

Hachette UK’s Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) employee network THRIVE has announced two panel events to mark this year’s Black History Month. 

Held virtually in October, the panels will feature a range of Hachette UK authors and are part of a wider programme of diversity and inclusion initiatives at the publisher, known as Changing the Story. 

The first panel, open for all to attend, is called “Centering the Black Queer Experience Through Storytelling” and will take place from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on 20th October. Chaired by director of the Prim storytelling platform K Bailey, the panel will feature Robert Jones Jnr, author of The Prophets (Quercus), and Okechuckwu Nzelu, author of Here Again Now (Dialogue Books), who will discuss depictions of Black queer love in their novels and storytelling. The panel will be accompanied by a reading from writer and poet Remi Graves, one of this year’s cohort of authors from THRIVE’s fiction development programme, Grow Your Story. Tickets are available online. 

The second panel, which is internal, will take place from 12.30 p.m. to 1.30 p.m. on 26th October and focus on mental health, wellbeing and the workplace. Chloe Pierre, author of Take Care (Headline), will be in conversation with Samantha Clarke to discuss her book Love It or Leave It: How to be Happy at Work (Octopus) and give Hachette UK staff tips for a healthy work/life balance. 

Joelyn Esdelle, chair of THRIVE, commented: “We’re incredibly excited for the activity we have lined up to celebrate Black History Month this year. The two panels we have planned are a continuation of our theme from 2020 of ‘celebrating Black lives’ and are at the heart of our core aims in the network to bring people together, build people up and raise cultural awareness.”