Virago announces Five Gold Reads as it reveals 50-year anniversary plans

Virago has announced a roster of 2023 initiatives and events in celebration of the imprint’s 50th anniversary including the publication of "Five Gold Reads", representing each decade of its publishing from the 1970s to the 2010s.

According to Virago, each title will celebrate a moment in history, “a changing landscape of women’s writing in our time, reissued with stunning new covers to take them to a new generation of readers”.

Springing from the underground press of the 1970s, Carmen Callil, with Rosie Boycott and Marsha Rowe of the feminist Spare Rib Magazine, started Spare Rib Books in July 1972. By the end of that year the name was changed to Virago and it was listed as a publishing company in June 1973. 

As part of the anniversary programme of activity, in November 2023, Maya Angelou’s memoirs will be published on the Virago Modern Classics list for the first time. Virago will also publish Furies: The Virago Book of Wild Women, an anthology of stories by authors including Monica Ali, Margaret Atwood, Susie Boyt, Emma Donoghue, Stella Duffy, Linda Grant, Kirsty Logan, Caroline O’Donoghue, Chibundu Onuzo, Helen Oyeyemi, Kamila Shamsie and Ali Smith, with an introduction by Sandi Toksvig. 

Each writer will take a word synonymous with ’Virago’ for inspiration: from warrior to dragon, siren to spitfire.  

Other books to be published include Monica Ali’s Love Marriage in paperback, Womb: The Inside Story of Where We All Began by midwife Leah Hazard, and Red Sirens: A Ukrainian Family History by Victoria Belim. 

The imprint will launch a window competition for independent bookshops, providing point of sale items including window clings, tote bags, posters and bookmarks as well as taking space in the digital world with animations, trailers, social assets and banners.   

A spokesperson said: “This is just the beginning of a grand and celebratory year-long campaign with more exciting news to come.”