Aurora Metro Books founder shortlisted for National Diversity Award

Cheryl Robson, the founder and publisher of Aurora Metro Books, has been shortlisted for a Lifetime Achiever Award at the National Diversity Awards.

The awards, held at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral on 20th September, honour positive role models, entrepreneurs and community organisations.

Robson has been nominated in recognition of her 30-year career publishing drama, fiction and non-fiction that celebrates marginalised voices. 

She first founded the Women Writers Workshop in 1989, which led to the creation of her press. It now has an extensive catalogue of titles focused on women, LGBTQ and BAME writers or subjects. Aurora Metro's Virginia Prize for Fiction, dedicated to unpublished novels for adults or YA readers, written by women, is currently open for submissions. Robson is also campaigning and raising funds to erect a statue of Virginia Woolf in Richmond-on-Thames where the writer lived with her husband Leonard. 

Robson said: “I was thrilled to have been acknowledged by the publishing industry with an IPG nomination earlier this year, and being recognised by the National Diversity Awards, where the competition is even tougher, means a great deal. We have built a very diverse list of amazing authors from more than 20 countries, and we’re always looking for strong, original voices.”

In the last year, the indie press has bagged an IPG nomination and a Pen Translates Award for Gabi Reigh’s work on classic Romanian novel by Milhail Sebastian, The Town with Acacia Trees, to be published by Aurora Metro in the autumn. This month, Chris Woodley’s Next Lesson was longlisted in the Polari First Book Prize.

Robson joins seven other nominees including sports editor Rodney Hinds on the shortlist.