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Why do our heroines have to be ‘beautiful’? Can a female character… just be? What is it saying about literature that we as women still produce, if our heroines have to be beautiful? Does it not say more about the society in which it’s written? I’ve recently been a part of a shortlisting process and the experience left me disturbed and depressed. I can’t begin to count the amount of times I was told, by a writer, how ‘beautiful’ the heroine was. How her ‘beauty’ then motivates the other characters and the story. What?

Patrice Lawrence, who appears in our Inscribe title Closure: Contemporary Black British Short Stories (edited by Jacob Ross with series editor Kadija Sesay), has been shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards for her novel Orangeboy. Congrats, Patrice! We're crossing our fingers for you.

Lynne E. Blackwood has one of the short stories from her collection on The Asian Writer's competition shortlist. The story will also be in an anthology published by Dahlia Books in Spring 2017.

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Presence 
A multi-media project in the North-East England funded by Arts Council England

Coordinated by identity on tyne, Presence has developed out of a First World War project, Beyond the Western Front, which researched the contribution of Black, Asian and ethnic minorities in the First World War.

The UK celebrates Black History Month in October and Patricia Foster has a busy calendar ahead!

This Wednesday 19 October 2016, Patricia will be delivering a poetry workshop for Black History Month. It will be part of the University of West London Students’ Union (UWLSU) Black Histoy Month programme.

Slavery: Close to the Bone
Saturday 22 October, 2-3pm
Georgian House Museum – 7 Great George Street (off Park Street), Bristol

The Brunswick, 1-3 Holland Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 1JF, tel. 01273 733984

by Nikheel Gorolay

Saturday 5 November 2016 from 11am-4pm
DIY Space for London, 96-108 Ormside Street, London, SE15 1TF
£12-15
Book online

Inscribe-supported writer Lynne E. Blackwood has begun to blog about her travels around Spain as she researches her latest work. Read the blog to find out what she's been up to so far.