This past weekend saw the inaugural Bare Lit Festival take place in the east end of London. ‘Bare Lit Festival is a new literature festival for writers of colour, giving them the platform and visibility they deserve.’

On Saturday I went to two panels, ‘What Does Liberation in Literature Look Like?’ followed by ‘(Re)Writing Pasts and Futures’, before going to listen to JJ Bola perform some of his poetry and then discuss his work with Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire.

L-R: Radhika Swarup (chair), Robin Yasmin-Kassab, Leila Aboulela, Joan Anim-Addo, Sareeta Domingo The first thing that was immediately noticeable was the make-up of the audience. I’ve been to a number of literary events and they’re dominated by white people, on and off stage. For the first time, I was in the minority – and hurrah for that. If publishers are wondering where their audience is for books by people of colour, they…