Creative Access got the chance to speak to author Kalynn Bayron about her latest book, Cinderella is Dead – a young adult retelling of Cinderella with a Black, queer protagonist at its heart. We discuss favourite fairytales, representation, and advice for aspiring writers. 

Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself!

I’m Kalynn Bayron, author of Cinderella Is Dead. I live in San Antonio, Texas but I grew up between Anchorage, Alaska and Portland, Oregon. I am a classically trained vocalist. I love musical theatre, horror movies, and, of course, books!

Q: Your passions are broad, from sports to music. What was it that led you to writing?

I think I’ve always wanted to be a storyteller. That’s the common theme that runs through most of the things I’m passionate about. Literature, music, theatre, movies—they’re all mediums for expressing emotions, for telling stories. I knew I wanted to write because I was a reader, first. I read everything I could get my hands on from a pretty early age. And even though I was always reading, I didn’t see a lot of people who looked like me on the page. I started writing for that younger version of myself who wanted to see Black girls in ball gowns, saving the day, and being the heroines of their own stories.

Q: What is Cinderella is Dead about?

Cinderella Is Dead is the story of 16-year-old Sophia Grimmins, a young girl living in the kingdom of Mersailles—it is the place where Cinderella lived and died 200 years before. Cinderella’s story has become the backbone of this society and young women are expected to follow in her footsteps by attending the now mandatory annual ball, where they are chosen by prospective suitors. This kingdom has used Cinderella’s story to manipulate and control the women and girls who reside there. As Sophia is preparing to attend the ball she grapples with how this story doesn’t speak to who she is or what she wants. She’s in love with her best friend, Erin, she doesn’t want to be married, and she watches the people around her fail to help her at every possible opportunity. The ball is a turning point for Sophia. She makes some decisions there that put her on a collision course with Mersaille’s ruler, and in the process she uncovers some earth shattering truths about Cinderella, Prince Charming, and the fairy godmother. It’s a story about raising your voice, about telling the whole truth when it comes to our history, and about telling Black queer girls that they are enough just as they are.

Q: What made you want to tell Sophia’s story?

Cinderella is a pretty popular tale. I wanted to retell a story that was instantly recognizable and deconstruct it in a way that centered the kinds of people who are nowhere to be found in the story itself, mainly Black, queer people. I wrote this story that explores not only how fairy tales have the power to personally affect who we become, but also allows the reader to see this fairytale world through Sophia’s eyes—this young girl who is actively harmed by the societal norms the fairytale itself perpetuates. It’s a continuation of the Cinderella story and a kind of reworking of that already established framework that makes it accessible to people like me, while also being wrapped in this dangerous, magical mystery.

Q: What’s your favourite fairytale?

Probably not something that’s very well known, but there is a story called The Juniper Tree. It’s about a young boy whose mother dies and his new stepmother resents him so much that she kills him and then frames her younger daughter for his murder. Then he comes back as a bird to try and get the towns folk to solve his murder. Very dark, very creepy. But I’m kind of drawn to stories that have elements of horror and fantasy blended together.

Q: What inspired you to give this classic story a dystopian twist?

It was the question of what happened after Cinderella got her happily ever after. You get married and then…what? You’re guaranteed a long happy life? I imagined a world where maybe, Cinderella didn’t have that opportunity and I wanted to know what the people living in the kingdom she ruled over thought of her and her story. It felt like a good entry point into this narrative that is essentially about a fairytale being used as propaganda to manipulate and control the people living in the place where Cinderella lived and died.

Q: You’ve spoken about how important it is for readers to see themselves reflected in your work. What do you think the publishing industry can be doing to champion diverse stories?

There are so many things, but I wish publishing threw as much support behind our stories as they do for stories by and about white/straight/cis people. There is this myth that our stories don’t sell, so we don’t often get as much support. And then guess what? Our titles don’t do well because there wasn’t enough (or any) marketing and publicity. The title tanks and then we’re told, “See. It didn’t sell.” It’s a vicious cycle that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and it actively harms marginalized authors. Our stories are worth championing and our readers are waiting.

Q: What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Don’t wait to be inspired, sit down and write. Be persistent above all else because we all have days when the words don’t flow, the rejections get the better of us, or things just aren’t going to plan. You have to keep going.

Kalynn Bayron’s book Cinderella is Dead is available to order now.

We spoke to Hannah Bond, who works with our friends at Bookouture – a global digital publisher of all kinds of commercial fiction that is part of Hachette UK. She shares with us her top tips for getting into the publishing industry

1. Do your research

If you’re applying for a job at a publishing house, learn as much about them as you possibly can before you write your cover letter. You’ll find plenty on their website, but also look at the Twitter feeds (most people in publishing are on Twitter…) of key people from the organisation to see what books they are excited about and what authors they’ve been signing. You should know all the big hitters for the company you’re applying to work at.

2. Be specific

Armed with all that excellent research, use it in your application and, if you reach the interview stage, in person. After you’ve read as much as you can about the company, explain to them why you want to work for them – whether that’s because you like the kind of books they publish, or think your transferable skills would be a good fit. Don’t just say you’ve always loved books – talk about things that the company has published that you love, and why. Never, ever use the same cover letter for more than one job application: if your cover letters could work for more than one job, you’re not being specific enough when you write them.

3. Be yourself

Lots of the people applying for publishing jobs have the same sorts of skills and experience, so you need to think about what you can use to make your application stand out from the pack. You might be fresh out of college and feel like you don’t have any interesting experience to bring to the table, but even if you haven’t got very far in your career yet, you’ll still have passions and opinions – let those shine through. Think about transferable skills you might have, even if those are from a Saturday job at a supermarket or running a society at university. Highlight the things that are going to make you attractive to this role, rather than focussing on the usual buzzwords like ‘team player’ without evidence.

4. Be passionate – and let it show!

Hopefully, you’re applying for a job in publishing because you’re really keen to work in the industry. Make sure the people assessing your application know that! Don’t be afraid to be excited and enthusiastic: publishing is a fairly informal industry, and it’s definitely appropriate to let your personality shine through. The hiring manager will be looking for someone genuinely keen to work at their company.

5. Be open-minded

There are lots of fascinating areas of publishing and more great jobs available than people realise. Even if, ultimately, you’re sure you want to work in Publicity, for example, don’t let that stop you from considering entry-level roles in, say, Contracts, Sales, or Production. Those areas of the business are less visible, so fewer people know about them and apply for them, but they are excellent ways to get into the publishing industry and will give you lots of transferable skills and knowledge of how the company works that will put you in an advantageous position when that next job comes up. You might even find you love the area you start in and don’t want to leave! In the same vein, even if your goal is to work for a big trade publisher, look at smaller publishers, academic publishers, and agencies when you’re starting out too.

You could also consider working in a different industry and then moving sideways. If you want to work in Marketing, for example, you could always look to get an entry-level marketing role in another industry, then apply for Marketing jobs in publishing when you have more experience.

6. Make the most of every opportunity

People in publishing are, generally, really friendly and happy to answer questions and chat to people who want to get into the industry. If there’s someone you really admire on Twitter, drop them a message and ask if you can email them or have a chat on the phone about their role. If a publishing house is running a talk or an event, go along if you can and talk to the people running it about the place they work. If you manage to get an internship or work experience, talk to everyone around you and soak up as much knowledge as possible.

7. Don’t get disheartened

Getting into publishing can be tough: it’s a competitive industry and it’s not unusual for there to be hundreds of applications for every position. It might take you a while to get that first job, but don’t give up if it’s what you really want to do. If you’re not getting through to interview stage, it’s a sign your cover letters and CV need work. If you’re getting through to interview stage regularly but not getting the job in the end, make sure you ask your interviewers for specific feedback – they will be happy to give it. As you refine your applications, you might get to the stage when you hear that you’re a really strong applicant, but someone else pipped you to the post: that means it’s just a matter of time, and at some point, everything will click and you’ll be the right person for a position.

Here at Creative Access, we had the pleasure of speaking to British feminist queer illustrator Florence Given about her debut book, Women Don’t Owe You Pretty, as well as her activism and using your platform to incite change.

Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself!

I’m 21 years old, I’m a white cis queer woman, I live in London, I’m an artist, author and illustrator and I dedicate my entire life and my work to unpacking societies long-held beliefs, particularly the ones that exist in my own mind about myself, my identity, and what I’ve been taught to believe about others! I want to poke holes in the heteronormative façade that has encouraged women to sacrifice themselves and abandon their desires for validation, particularly validation from men. This particular view on feminism was born from leaving an abusive relationship, one I didn’t recognise as abusive until much later. I aim to encourage women to spot these red flags so they’re able to hopefully avoid these situations before it’s too late and they’re in the fog of emotional manipulation.

Q: People know you for your vibrant illustrations and passionate activism. Did one inspire the other or had you always wanted to be an artist?

I have been making artwork since I was about 14 years old for my art GCSE, where I was creating illustrations and paintings of naked women with wonky tits! Although it wasn’t intentionally political at this time. I think my first ‘catalyst’ for introspection was when I separated from the clique I was in at school. I didn’t like the person I had to become just to ‘keep my place’ in the group and once I was out of it that’s when I started to tap into my own self – through isolation. A lot of realisations were born from making that decision that inform my art today. I stopped viewing women as people to tear down in order to make myself feel better, empathised with their pain, and learned how to navigate their projections to cope with the bullying. I journaled in my diary about my experiences and these uncomfortable truths for years. It wasn’t until I went to art college that I decided to do this with slogans, as I also then learned the terms ‘sexual assault’ and ‘sexual harassment’ and quickly became charged with rage at how normalised this behaviour was, and how I’d experienced it so many times before.

Q: What is Women Don’t Owe You Pretty about?

Women Don’t Owe You Pretty is an exploration of interpersonal relationships through a feminist lens, and a book that I hope encourages accountability for our actions and our beliefs, as well as pointing the finger at patriarchy/racism/capitalism. Because those systems exist inside of ourselves, too.

It’s a book full of lessons I learned the hard way through making mistakes, through inflicting my unhealed wounds onto others, or having someone’s unhealed wounds projected and inflicted onto me. I research a lot of psychology articles and listen to podcasts of therapists to better understand my experiences, and the lessons I drew from my experiences are in this book! A lot of the time these wounds we have and take out on others are caused by systems of oppression, and in my case, I inflicted a lot of wounds and insecurities I had about myself from patriarchy onto other women, to make me feel better about myself and my supposed “flaws”. The feedback I’ve had about my book so far is that the chapter on internalised misogyny (“refuse to find comfort in other women’s flaws”) was the hardest and most uncomfortable to read – and I’m so glad. I cringe thinking about the person I used to be, and how still to this day I have intrusive thoughts about women that enter my brain! I talk a lot in my book about how to deal with this and how to cut these thoughts short.

Q: You warn your readers that the book is “full of uncomfortable truths”, were these what led you to writing your book?

Yes. I’m no longer a person who’s afraid to dive deep and face myself, and that’s part of why I’m able to spend so much time alone and as a result, protect my space! Because if I don’t mind being alone, it means I’m less likely to entertain people who seek to use, abuse or mistreat me just because being the comfort of being in a relationship makes me feel validated or ‘loved’. Because I already feel loved by someone – myself. I have spent years surrounding myself with people who weren’t healthy for me or my growth, purely because they helped to distract me from facing and healing my wounds. The thought of doing that and being alone was the most frightening thing on earth! I chased distractions, in order to avoid facing whatever insecurity inside me needed looking after and examining. I learn multiple uncomfortable truths about myself through my relationships with others. I fucking love human beings. I love working together to understand each other better. The people in my life support me and enhance my growth, and part of that involves calling each other in, on behaviours that are harmful.

Q: How important is it for you to use your platform to highlight social issues?

My platform was built on shouting about social issues and my experiences, so for me, it’s the most natural way to use my platform! I think it’s incredibly important that we use whatever voice we have to incite change. Platforms don’t have to be thousands of Instagram followers, it could be your family household. That’s your platform, open their minds!

Q: How politicised do you think art can be and what is your advice for aspiring artists?

Art can be as political as it wants and needs to be. Everything is political. Even shagging is political!
My advice to aspiring artists is to make work that draws from your personal experiences.

Q: How has life in lockdown been treating you?

I’ve been going on lots of bike rides and breaking down some internal confidence barriers I didn’t even know existed as a result of this. I’ve been searching deep into myself, facing all the ‘ugly’, working through old behaviour patterns, and allowing myself to be slow too.

Florence Given’s debut book Women Don’t Owe You Pretty published by Cassell, £12.99 hardback, is available to order now.

Sophia began her career as a Creative Access intern working as a Development Researcher for an independent TV production company in Manchester and is now on the Creative Access Advisory Board.

Over the last five years, Sophia has been developing her portfolio in the factual documentary space and currently works as an Assistant Producer for Nine Lives Media. She recently finished on the BBC series ‘I’ve Been There’ which explores a range of challenges young people are facing; inviting celebrities to talk candidly about their experiences and share coping mechanisms. Her credits include, I’m Coming Out, My Life: Hike to Happiness and Dispatches. Before getting into TV, Sophia largely tailored her undergraduate degree around black identity and post-modernism.

In the post below, she shares insight into navigating unconscious bias in the creative industry as a Mixed-Race woman. Her poem provides a snapshot of her experiences growing up in a predominantly white town and challenges the normalisation surrounding the need to ‘pick a side’ at a time when unity is paramount.

I feel like I’m talking on behalf of many of my mixed-race peers when I say that the question “do you feel more Black or more White?” has been inscribed on our eardrums for as long as we can remember. Oh, that old chestnut! Given that race is a rigid social construct, diminishing blackness and whiteness to interchangeable feelings implies that mixed-race individuals can’t be their whole self without racially classifying and evidencing where and how they feel most ethnically affiliated.

Under Jim Crow in America, the One-Drop rule did not allow for mixed-race children to ponder the prospect of white privilege. Anyone with black ancestry was considered black; meanwhile in the UK mixed-race babies were also deemed subordinate. For years people of colour have been governed by a state of racial hegemony, a system that manufactures a dominant cycle of societal norms and more to the point, systemic racism.

There’s some painful irony in being asked a question that is undoubtedly tied to a premeditated stereotype, as though the person asking the question is so fixed on their vision of how they see you, your answer is frankly invalid – the aim merely to affirm their belief as opposed to engaging with yours. Often many of the people who ask this question are those who say, ‘they see no colour’, colourblindness being yet another form of unconscious oppression in and of itself.

While on the surface the inquisition for you to ‘pick a side’ may not be malicious, for me it’s representative of many deeply rooted messages. Here are a few;

A. Our identity is fluid and we have the physical capacity to change or adapt to the state of becoming more black or white ‘should we decide’. It feeds the notion that each ‘side’ can be turned on and off despite our skin remaining the same.

B. Unbeknown to some, the expectation for us to pick a side, continues to perpetuate a state of self-conflict and a lack of belonging.

Then there’s C. the need for mixed-race people to prove or justify their identity repeatedly throughout their life has become a tool used to help others distinguish what conversations may or may not be socially acceptable around you and in some cases is used as a gauge for how racist they can be in your presence. This is a tool to protect their own fragility.

Daughter to a British-born, Black, Caribbean Mother and White, German-British Father, during my late teens I felt an overwhelming desire to begin studying Black History and Feminism. In doing so, I unlocked a part of me that was earlier denied. My own self-discovery continues to be led by stories and experiences the National Curriculum fails to teach and TV underrepresents:

At a time where education and accountability are vital, I urge creative industries to reframe the discourse they use around race and more specifically the black community. Companies and creatives need to play an active role in tone policing their discussions and reconditioning what is and isn’t acceptable under the guidance of diversity and inclusion experts and black and ethnic minority groups. Fundamentally this process starts with a willingness to review and reform a system that is clearly failing its workforce and its audience. For me, inclusivity is non-negotiable, especially if we want to start seeing BAME creatives in senior leadership positions that have the capacity to contribute towards real structural change.

In an open letter from the We Are Doc Women collective, they highlighted the urgent need for action.

“With 75% of ALL television in the UK being directed by men, and only 2.3% by BAME directors, we are failing our industry and we are failing our audiences who are denied access to a diversity of voices.”

The TV industry still oozes white privilege and has an undeniably disproportionate divide across, race, gender, class, and disability representation. It’s the conversation that goes on behind closed doors that we need to infiltrate, disrupt, and restructure. Starting to address unconscious bias is only the beginning.

‘Mixed Chick’

Black or White

pick a side

one without the other

why must I hide?

If I bled myself of colour

I wouldn’t be alive

I know my blackness is the reason that
I feel this pride.

They called Momma a coconut

mocked for her ‘nappy hair’.

Her father was an angry man…

she left high on lover’s air.

No privilege could protect her

against the cards life dealt

and the world’s given her reasons not to love herself.

Mixed race babies

‘the ultimate sin’

yet they say when two hearts unite as one

both sides can win.

A token in a broken system

advertising change

a child with just enough different

to be unique,

yet the same.

A crown so big

kids discreetly cut chunks out

locks tied to a history

teachers daren’t shout about.

What even are you?

Human, the last time I checked?

When you ask about my roots

say it with your chest.

How can you connect to oppression
when you weren’t present?

When you speak about entitlement
do you count your blessings?

Can this Mixed-Race woman make a few confessions:

I am not exotic because I’m lighter in shade.

The black in me wasn’t enough
excuse for you to question my grades.

My telephone voice isn’t an attempt
to sound white.

Just because I like hip-hop doesn’t mean
I’m down for a fight.

Whether you’re black or brown there’s an expectation
that you owe all your success
to someone with a higher status.

You can’t pet my hair,
my curls don’t want your attention.

If I quote black creatives then they a mention/

I won’t repackage influence
like some new invention.

My twerk skills are average
and so is my singing

When you say the ‘N’ word my ears start ringing.

You can’t slag off all immigrants
but say “I’m okay”
and think your outward discrimination is going to wash with me.

Just because I’m Jamaican
doesn’t mean I’m Anti-Africa.

Shoutout to the Motherland,
my sisters know that I stand with them.

Stop asking me questions about feeling
more Black or more White…

preaching anti-racism while encouraging DIVIDE.

By Sophia Slater.

You can follow Sophia on Twitter at @SophiaSlater_

We caught up with our former intern-turned Economics reporter at The Telegraph, Lizzy Burden, to learn about her journey into newspaper journalism and hear her top tips for getting started in the industry.

Filipina-English by birth, Lizzy has lived all over the world, having worked as a fashion model for eight years before becoming a journalist, including walking the fashion weeks of New York, London, Milan and Paris. She’s now economics reporter at The Telegraph, with a focus on international trade. She covers protectionism in the Covid-19 crisis, developments in the post-Brexit ‘Global Britain’ project and trade wars between the world’s biggest economies.

Head to our YouTube channel to listen to Lizzy’s top tips or read them below…

Hello, I’m Lizzy Burden, Economics reporter at The Telegraph. I started my career as a Creative Access intern at The Times, so I wanted to share with you a few things that I’ve learned along the way.

When I did The Times internship on the home and foreign news desks, I had no experience in journalism except on my student paper, so it was during those six weeks that I learned to write a news story. I started off turning copy from wires like Reuters into Times-style stories, and then graduated onto writing my own stories that editors would ask me to write, maybe following up on something another paper had written to find a new angle, or turning a press release into a story. Then I was sent out to cover stories like the Salisbury poisoning and Notting Hill carnival, and finally I started pitching my own news to editors. I loved feeling like I was at the helm of what was happening in the world and being around all the savagely witty characters of the newsroom, and I decided that I didn’t want to leave.

I applied for funding from the journalism diversity fund to complete a fast-track NCTJ which is where I learned short-hand media law and more about writing journalistically. Not spending a whole year on a masters meant I could get back to the newsroom faster, which I found much more beneficial than sitting in a classroom, and during the course I was constantly keeping an eye on the next step. As soon as I finished, I did another two internships at Reuters and Bloomberg, then worked as a producer at the BBC on the daily politics programme, and at the same time I would do night shifts as a reporter with The Times. I was knackered. Then I joined The Times as a grad trainee, where I rotated through the Glasgow office on the Scottish edition of the paper, the business desk and the sub editing team.

I then moved to The Telegraph, where I am an economics reporter specialising in trade, which I love, because my beat sits at the intersection of business, foreign and politics. When I arrived, the biggest issues of the day were Brexit and the US-China trade war, and now I’m covering the biggest economic crisis in centuries, so I really do feel hugely privileged to do what I do.

Applying my experiences to you, here are my six tips on starting your career as a newspaper journalist:

1. Read widely. Even the papers you don’t agree with, even the sections you find boring, and even the news in brief.
2. Be open minded – because you don’t know what could suit you until you try it. I didn’t realise how much I’d love financial journalism at first, but what I discovered at Bloomberg was that I really like how it has a quantifiable impact.
3. Constantly push to level up. If you’re doing work experience, try to turn it into an internship. And if you’re doing an internship, try to turn it into shifts or a grad scheme. Never sit twiddling your thumbs. Come armed with ideas for stories, ask how to improve them if they get rejected, volunteer to help other reporters, ask them where they get stories, look at the news to see if you can follow up on anything. Just always find ways to add value so that you’re remembered. Then at the end, ask what other opportunities are available and ask specifically what you need to do to get onto that next step. Then when you leave, keep in touch.
4. Break news. Getting scoops seems like luck, but you need to make your own luck to be in the right place at the right time for a tip off. For instance, ring a source quoted by a rival paper and go for a coffee. Find out what’s going on with them and check in regularly. You might wonder where to start if you don’t have a beat yet. When I was on the business desk at The Times as part of the grad scheme, I wasn’t assigned a specific patch to cover, so I made myself one. The retail editor had just left, so I targeted retail stories until they found a replacement for her. And when the new retail editor arrived, the market reporter job was empty, so I volunteered to do that. And if all the beats are taken, look at a rival newspaper and pick a beat your paper doesn’t have covered yet. Make yourself indispensable.
5. Breaking news is about being first, which means being organised. For example, make twitter lists and subscribe to other people’s lists so you can keep abreast of the current debates in different areas. Put your calls in early as soon as you set a story, so people have time to get back to you well before your deadline. If you’re waiting to cover a speech, write a template with as much other detail as you can beforehand, and keep a diary. And finally, perhaps the hardest lesson of all…
6. Be okay with conflict. Newsrooms are full of strong characters who will respect you more if you stand up for yourself when you need to. Pick your battles, but never let anyone walk all over you, because people will push you as far as you’ll let them. Work hard, but learn to say no.

You can follow Lizzie on Twitter at @LizzzBurden

Isabella Silvers, Associate Editor at Hearst Magazines UK, and former Creative Access intern, shares her nine tips for being a good ally. In these traumatic times, many non-Black people are asking what can be done to support fight systemic racism so we are grateful to Isabella for sharing her thoughts:

1. Do not share videos of black people dying on social media. Black people know what’s happening and it’s traumatic to see it.
2. Do be vocal when an incident occurs. State loudly and proudly that this behaviour is unacceptable and that Black lives matter.
3. Do use your voice to call out systemic racism and murder whenever you can. Say that you stand with black people and that you do not accept the actions of anyone who shows racism or unconscious bias. Call out this behaviour whenever and wherever you see it (when it is safe to do so); this includes at work, in your friendship group, within your family and more.
4. Do write to your MP and politicians to put pressure on them to see consequences for those who exhibit racist behaviour. Ask them what they’ll be doing and demand justice for the victims of systemic racism.
5. Do challenge those you work with or your employer and ask what they will be doing to be an inclusive company and stand up for Black people.
6. Do Sign petitions from legitimate sources, such as Change.org or Petition.Parliament.co.uk
7. Do donate to legitimate fundraisers, funeral funds, bail funds for protesters and organisations fighting against systemic racism.
8. Do educate yourself. While Black people are grieving, it can be exhausting to be asked to educate non-Black people. There are lots of resources online and on social media on how you can be a better ally.
9. Do seek out perspectives other than your own in film, TV, literature and more. Seek out different stories, biographies and shows.

You can follow Isabella on Twitter and Instagram

We caught up with Mareyah Bhatti, our intern with Forum for the Future, who talked to us all about her food blog Carbon Foodprints and how sustainable cooking has been keeping her sane during lockdown.

Graduating with a Geography degree means I have a well-established passion for the environment, and it’s something I wanted to integrate into my everyday life. My love of cooking and being creative was something I aimed to combine with my knowledge of all things sustainable. So, I created my food blog, Carbon Foodprints. Alongside setting this up, I applied for an assistant role at Forum for the Future through Creative Access. They’re a charity who aim to tackle global challenges such as sourcing sustainable protein. As a Geographer, I really admired their focus on everyday issues and I’ve been able to feed these ideas into my blog.

Forum for the Future’s values include being adaptable, and I think that that’s something that resonates with the current situation. We have been pushed to rethink many aspects of our lives: how we work, how we exercise and even how we eat. Even more importantly, we’ve had to re-imagine how we relax and de-stress. Working from home has its ups and downs and finding a way to disconnect from the outside world is essential to our well-being. I’ve found cooking to be a great outlet to do just that.

Buyer stockpiling has reshaped our grocery habits, and the availability of certain items has sometimes meant that deciding what to cook may be a struggle for some. It’s important to view the current climate with a positive attitude though, and in this case re-imagining the dishes I prepare has motivated me to be flexible and even more creative – and that’s not such a bad thing. We still have the freedom to make whatever we like whether it ends up being tasty or not (no-one has to know…)

Being the founder of the cooking blog, Carbon Foodprints, has meant that I’ve also had to adapt to the recent shopping trends. Recipes I’ve posted during lockdown come with tips to help us all navigate this situation – this includes cooking meals with more dry cupboard ingredients, but also considering how to substitute elements of a meal and still end up with something pretty decent. After all, what’s the point of food if you don’t enjoy it? All this is done with a consideration of the environment in mind, as changing our kitchen habits to be kinder to the planet isn’t as hard as you might be thinking. As you may have guessed from the name of my blog, I cook with a focus on being sustainable and reducing our carbon footprint. This involves being reactive to our surroundings, whether this means only using produce in season or adapting recipes to what we’re able to find in our local supermarket.

My cooking is inspired by my south Asian heritage as I grew up surrounded by traditional dishes using recipes that have been passed down the generations. This includes everything from pakoras to a classic chickpea curry with roti. Each recipe is given a ‘carbon foodprint’ score so you can assess the impact of what you’re choosing to eat and compare which ingredients are better for the environment. Most of my recipes can be changed to be veggie or meaty, and as a result are highly adaptive to suit your needs. This is extremely helpful at the moment if you’re struggling to find all the ingredients you want.

Substituting ingredients isn’t as scary as it sounds, and here a few examples I’ve found to work really well:

• Couscous is a great alternative to rice and roti and can be used as a side dish to the curry dishes I’ve shared
• Plant based mince is high in protein and as easy to cook as beef or lamb, and it has a much lower carbon footprint
• Adding blended cashews to curries adds a depth to the flavour usually given by cream, it’s also a good source of healthy fats

I hope these tips have been helpful, and have shown how relaxing being creative with cooking can be. More ideas can be found on my website and Instagram page, ranging from further tips on how to successfully substitute ingredients to how to grow your own fruit and veg at home. Just a few simple changes can mean your meals are environmentally friendly and just as delicious. Please get in touch by messaging my Instagram page if you have any questions or meal requests!

This post is written by three people with disabilities who work in academic publishing – Simon Holt (Senior Acquisitions Editor, Elsevier) is visually impaired, Katy Alexander (Global Director for Marketing and Communications, Digital Science) has dyslexia, and Becky Degler (Digital Product Manager, Wiley) has chronic migraine.

Diversity is finally at the forefront of the agenda for many creative organisations. This post explores the importance of making the publishing industry accessible to people from all backgrounds and walks of life. In a recent survey by the UK Publishers Association, just 5.4% of respondents indicated that they have a disability, compared with 15% of the global population. We also know that people with disabilities of working age are 30% less likely to have a job than the rest of the population, both in the US and UK. The UN suggests that the picture is similar (or worse) in other parts of the world.

Why is this the case? The answer lies somewhere between culture and awareness:

Simon: There are barriers to entry within the publishing industry that disproportionally affect people with disabilities. For example, as a visually impaired person, I was once asked to do a proofreading test at an interview for a Development Editor job with no proofreading responsibilities (I was told it was needed to demonstrate ‘basic publishing skills’). There are certainly challenges that arise as a result of having a disability, but there are also lots of skills I have gained, too. The thing that I want to make clear is that I haven’t been successful *despite* my disability; I’m successful *because* of my disability, and the adaptability, resourcefulness and efficiency that has given me. These are all things that help me at work.

Becky:  People with disabilities often face double discrimination: there are barriers to gaining and staying within employment, but also to earning potential and career progression. For example, as a person with chronic migraine, I’ve encountered prosaic versions of ‘someone who is frequently sick cannot be as productive as a healthy ‘normal’ employee’; ‘if stress is a migraine trigger, then you’ll never be able to cope with the increased responsibilities’; and ‘if you can’t put in overtime then there’s a limit to your progression.’ Managing stress effectively is what I do to survive. Progressive roles shouldn’t be off-limits because of my disability. In fact, the skills I’ve acquired through it can be differentiators that help me — and the company — thrive.

Katy: From my own experience and what I’ve observed of friends and colleagues with disabilities who have established themselves within the industry, I think there are several key traits that can support success. Skill Number 1) Grit: growing up with dyslexia teaches perseverance; constant effort is required to overcome obstacles or challenges that are part of my everyday life. Skill Number 2) Creativity: being dyslexic means thinking outside the box — we dyslexics just have to. For small and large organisations alike the ability to come at problems from a different perspective can support innovation. Skill Number 3) Relationships and Professional Development: I care very deeply about what motivates the people I work with and how I can help them succeed. In part, I’m sure this is because I didn’t experience this type of support myself.

So how do we change perceptions and grow representation in the industry? Simon, Becky and Katy emphasise that the answer is in changing our attitude and policies. We need to stop focusing on the ‘dis’ in disability and focus more on the ‘ability’. The message is that disability inclusion is about engaging with a sector of society who are currently underrepresented in our workforce, recognising the skills that we can offer– skills that we have because of, not despite, the fact that we have a disability. Most of all, it’s about solving problems together to find creative solutions that benefit everybody – as people with disabilities, that is simply what we do.

Check out the original post on Scholarly Kitchen here.

We caught up with former Creative Access intern Dean Webster, who spoke about the need for greater accountability when it comes diversity in the freelance television workforce…

I started my career in television seven years ago as a Creative Access & PACT Diversity intern, where I was given a fully paid placement at Shine and sent on a funded training programmes. I was given the skills and connections required to start in television and, since my internship, have continued to receive support and advice from Creative Access. Unfortunately not all diverse talent have access to the same resources that I had.

As far as I see it, the diversity issue essentially comes from a lack of accountability. Whilst the Diamond system’s aims are commendable, production companies can choose to opt-out of it and the metric has many flaws exacerbated by the workforce’s fast turnaround, which means that quotas are currently the best workable solution. If we want to make authentic progress when it comes to diversity and inclusion, we need to address systemic issues around recruitment, progression and training, and pay which affect the industry as a whole.

There is an inherent lack of accountability when it comes to TV recruitment. Not all jobs are advertised, full job and people specifications are rarely provided and opportunities for part time working, working from home or job sharing are not considered from the outset. This is exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis, with PACT and the CDN airing concerns about the impact on producers in the nations and regions and diverse talent respectively.

If all roles on programmes were advertised, even ones earmarked for people who had worked on previous series, we would be in a better position to monitor diversity as well as career progression within the workforce. Other sectors have adopted initiatives like the Rooney Rule, where at least one BAME person must be interviewed for a role, but the lack of transparency means we don’t know if things like this are being done or, in the instances they are, if they’re successful. To eradicate barriers for diverse talent we need to identify where those barriers exist and this requires us to objectively look at initiatives and challenge those who fail to adopt them. Transparency also helps us look at other issues – how many people move up in our sector, how many people with career breaks return to the sector and at what position, how many people who’ve never worked for a production company/group are offered interviews or roles there for the first time?

I also believe there’s a broad issue with freelancers’ progression up the career ladder, which can be linked to the lack of training offered. Freelancers are commodities, so it makes sense to offer work to ‘safe bets’ who are very experienced in that job role. I believe this, however, is short sighted, does not benefit Britain’s creative sector as a whole and does not benefit freelancers individually. For employers of permanent staff, the cost behind recruitment and retention means there is a financial interest in upskilling workers so they stay with you for as long possible. In my view, the same incentive does not exist for freelancers, so freelancers have to pay for their own training or hope to find a kind employer to do that for them. Whilst I know first-hand that the latter exists and am grateful to the people who have helped me on my way to where I am, it’s unfair to rely on this inconsistent, informal arrangement to help a sector of thousands of workers. Relying on individuals to self-fund their development and training plays directly into the mechanism of inequality that stops diverse talent joining the industry.

We need a formalised training system, led by a consortium of broadcasters and/or production companies, which recognises that a highly skilled freelancer is beneficial to the sector as a whole, not just that sole freelancer. Solving this not only helps diverse talent but helps the sector as a whole, by unlocking the potential of freelancers at every stage. (NB: I have been to ITF training and am currently attending some of the fantastic free ScreenSkills virtual training courses, so I appreciate that there are initiatives out there for freelancers. I do, however, think lots of freelancers can move through their career without receiving any formalised training.)

Finally, pay. It has been clear for a long time that our lack of collective bargaining has resulted in freelancers’ rates being individually negotiated down, often dressed as a lack of budget. Whilst we all know this is commonplace, the lack of data means evidence is usually anecdotal. BECTU’s move to release a rate card for editorial staff, giving parity with camera and sound colleagues, is welcome, but without in-depth analysis of data from freelancers across the sector – this is a subjective ‘best guess’ and doesn’t consider factors like experience. We need to coordinate ourselves to regularly assess industry rates for roles and join collectively to set minimum levels for roles and agree on annual rate rises. This is perhaps the most troublesome issue for us, as it essentially requires individual freelancers to agree not to take jobs when these rates are undercut – but with strong leadership, from the union or another widely endorsed body, we could weather this storm and see long-term benefits.

Apologies for the length of this post – it’d probably be shorter if I had a job (hint hint). This just scratches the surface, I know there’s more to add and there will be lots of views on these thoughts. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback.

You can follow Dean on Twitter at @TVsDeanWebster

Here at Creative Access, we had the privilege of speaking to the multi-talented Ingrid Persaud, author of the stunning new novel, Love After Love. Winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the BBC Short Story Award, Ingrid gave us an exclusive interview all about her journey from law to fine art to writing, and shares her wisdom for aspiring authors.

Q: Tell us about your background?

I am a Trini to the bone – born and lived there until I was eighteen. Since then London has been my home and I also spend time in Barbados. Regardless of where I am physically my heart and navel string are firmly in Trinidad.

Q: You’re a woman of many talents, from law to fine art. Why did you decide to start writing?

I took my cool time getting to writing. For decades I was hustling with this thing and that thing and never completely at peace with myself. It was only when I moved to Barbados and desperate to carve out a creative space that I turned to writing fiction. It was portable and fitted with my other commitments. Now I’m privileged to write full time.

Q: What is Love After Love about?

It’s the story of an unconventional family – Betty a widow, Solo her son and Mr Chetan their lodger. All is well until one night, after a few glasses of rum, secrets are revealed that tear them apart. To mend a broken family takes all kinds of love – starting with love of the self. Love After Love borrows its title from the poem by Dereck Walcott. If you haven’t read it yet go now. I don’t know what you’re waiting for.

Q: Have you started your next book yet? If so, what’s it on?

I am always writing. When I’m not writing I am thinking about writing. Maybe what I’m working on now will come together and form the next novel. Or not. I’m prepared to discard work if it isn’t good enough.

Q: What do you think about representation of diversity in literature in the UK?

Serious talk now. What we read and who we read moulds us so we can’t let this issue slide. Diversity in literature suffers from both under-representation and misrepresentation.

The under-representation is stark. Statistics show that less than 5% of characters in children’s books are BAME. Fewer BAME writers are being published since 2000 than the previous two decades. Indeed, the Jhalak Prize was created specifically to raise the profile of BAME writers in Britain.

As that wasn’t bad enough we have a next challenge – misrepresentation. Once your name looking little ethnic your work is immediately exotic – “multicultural literature” or “world literature” or some other subset that gets put on the back shelves. It’s hard to simply be considered as writing literature and to have your work compared to your peers regardless of ethnicity.

Q: What’s your advice for aspiring authors?

Respect yourself and your work. That means showing up at your desk and writing every day. Yes, every single day even if it’s for 15 minutes or half hour. None of this waiting for the muse business. For all you know the muse self-isolating. And read, read, read. It’s that simple and that hard.

Q: Something we won’t find out about you from following you on Twitter!

Decide what you’re willing to reveal on social media and leave out the rest. I tweet mainly book related content and a bit of politics. Otherwise, you see me? I keeping myself quiet. But if I had to tell you something personal…Is shame I shame. I’m the only Trini who can’t dance. How I born without rhythm I’ll never understand.

You can buy a copy of Love After Love here.

By Nelima Begum, Editorial & Marketing Assistant at The Literary Consultancy

I’ve always thought the road to ‘success’ was a straight line – you get good grades in school, graduate from university and suddenly the universe will just deem you worthy of your dream job and you get to live your best life. No. Maybe some of you already knew before graduating but I sure didn’t – looking for ANY kind of job post-uni is difficult, let alone the one you want to pursue a long-term career in! And if that career is in a creative industry, well, you may be in for a bumpy ride. When I graduated with an English degree in 2017 (why does that feel like centuries ago now?!), I was having an existential crisis every other day thinking about my career, what I wanted, how far I’d like to go and who I’d want to work for. I. Was. A. Mess. Looking back on it now, those feelings were totally normal – you can’t make a decision like that in a day. When I sat down and made a mind map of things I was interested in, spoke to people about my options and spent many a late night in bed staring at the ceiling, I decided that more than anything, I wanted to work with books. They’d shaped me, changed my outlook on the world and I wanted to be a part of the industry that churned them out: publishing.

How? How does one get into publishing? It was like I’d just decided and now I didn’t know where to go. I started with creating a LinkedIn and then progressed to the jungle that is Indeed.co.uk. Neither really gave me anything substantial and so I thought to Google publishing houses and apply directly through their websites and portals. To keep track of everything, I made a spreadsheet of EVERY job I applied to and had columns for whether I got an interview and whether or not I received an offer. Each stage of progress was marked by red, amber and green boxes and after a while, I realised that the whole spreadsheet was red. All of it. What was I doing wrong? I made it a mission to get in first with every vacancy but everything just got so overwhelming – why were there so many areas in publishing, which role was I best-suited to? I thought you just needed to love books? No one wanted to hire me without experience but no one was giving me the opportunity to gain experience either. It felt like the biggest catch-22 and after a bag of rejections a few train wreck interviews, I was almost ready to give up and NEVER look at another publishing job description again.

Then, just like those moments in cartoons where the clouds part to allow a big ray of sunshine to come through and the birds start singing, a friend of mine told me about a handy little (not little at all) organisation called Creative Access which is dedicated to creating diversity and inclusion in the UK’s creative sectors. Plagued with disappointment, I felt like this was my lifeline and started looking at the opportunities page on their website. I was amazed to say the least – so many vacancies with such big, reputable names in a variety of industries! I starting applying like no tomorrow and was pleased to see my CV and cover letter going further than it ever had before. Suddenly, I was interviewing with places like Bloomsbury and Pan Macmillan! Each interview taught me something different so even if I wasn’t getting the job, I was still getting better each time and growing in confidence, too. I found myself checking the Creative Access website pretty much every day and becoming more optimistic with each application.

Suddenly I landed my first role in publishing – Submissions Administrator for The Future Bookshelf, a creative writing initiative being run across four imprints within Hachette UK, which sought to encourage submissions from writers from under-represented backgrounds. It was something that spoke to my heart and I was over the moon to get it! While there, I had a fantastic manager who, knowing it was my first job, did everything to make sure I got as much experience and exposure to the industry as possible. I was reading submissions, co-ordinating readings for colleagues, getting involved with social media and even putting data together for team meetings. I loved every minute of it and was trying to learn as much as I could. I got to sit in on meetings, have one-to-one chats with people from every department and even pick up skills in copy-editing and proofreading. It was an incredible first job because I had the opportunity to learn a bit of everything and network with smart, creative and talented people who had worked on incredible books. At that point, I’d decided I wanted to work in editorial. Even though I was sad to see my contract end after six months, I knew I had enough to apply for another job. Back to the Creative Access website I went.

My second job was at HarperCollins; I’d applied for their BAME traineeship (through the Creative Access website, obviously) and after 2-3 rounds of interviews and a terrifying presentation in front of company executives, I got a rejection. It was a bitter feeling to say the least BUT, they liked how I came across and kept me in the pipeline, regularly sending me and other candidates they’d liked but not hired, vacancies before they went live on the website. That’s how I landed my second job – Marketing Intern at Avon, a commercial imprint publishing everything from women’s fiction to crime and thrillers. It was great – different, but great! How I’d ended up in marketing, I wasn’t sure but because it was such early stages of my career, I thought to be open to everything. I learnt LOTS when I was at Avon; Photoshop, creating digital content, helping out with marketing campaigns, reading submissions with the team and learning all things social media. It was wonderful but it was another six-month contract and I was nearing the end. At the time, there weren’t any other permanent jobs going, so I thought to do what I always do: go back to the Creative Access website!

Then I saw it – an entry-level role with The Literary Consultancy (TLC), an editorial consultancy based in Farringdon which prides itself on working with writers of all kinds and providing a variety of services, hosting events and creating content dedicated to their development and success. They were hiring an editorial and marketing assistant and I went for it. I feel like my previous roles had prepared me for this moment – editorial AND marketing? It HAD to be for me. I was abroad the week that they were interviewing, but the team were lovely enough to interview me via Skype! I felt very lucky and to this day, am full of gratitude for their time and consideration. Long story short, I got the job and was over the moon. I bid farewell to the lovely folk at Avon and began my new venture at TLC.

I’ve been working with TLC for almost a year now, and there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t feel blessed to be here. I have an incredible team (see pictured) who are so dedicated to overseeing my professional development and are forever creating opportunities for me to get involved with whatever crazy, cool, creative project they’re working on next (watch this space for something exciting in the coming months which yours truly will be doing!) I love working with writers as well as our team of industry experts, having fun with TLC social media, getting involved with marketing campaigns and events and everything in between. This job is a dream and I wouldn’t have this (or any of my previous jobs) without Creative Access. They are an incredible resource and have been a beacon of hope for me for almost two years now! An incredible organisation, I have hope that thanks to their tireless efforts and dedication, creative industries WILL reflect society and WILL progress for generations to come.

Sometimes I feel like my way in was just a happy accident and other times, when I’m being contemplative and thoughtful, it feels like the stars had aligned and I got what was meant for me. My point is that success is NOT linear, but you should enjoy the journey and learn all that you can from it. Every job was a stepping stone and gave me a wealth of experience and knowledge, each one developing me more than the previous role. I’m incredibly excited for my future at TLC and can’t wait to see what else comes my way. My advice to applicants, job-hunters and publishing hopefuls is to work hard (network, volunteer and put yourself out there), be patient, remain optimistic and know that it will happen for you when the time is right…

Oh, and check the Creative Access website on the daily – in case it wasn’t obvious ????

Have a publishing interview coming up but have no clue what to expect? We caught up with our former Harlequin UK intern – turned Head of Zeus Commissioning Editor, and now the Editorial Director for Orion Books, Rhea Kurien, to ask her about her top tips for acing those interview questions…

1. Tell me a little about yourself and your experience to date.

They ask this 9 times out of 10, so do think carefully about how you present yourself. Try and be succinct and tailor your answer to the job you’re applying for. It’s a question that trips a lot of people up, so it’s worth practising this one out loud so you don’t blank when asked.

2. Why do you want to work for us?

Be specific – show them that you know their list, have read their biggest books and are keeping abreast of what exciting things they are doing. Don’t just read their website (websites are usually out of date), really study their social media feeds and search for articles about them on The Bookseller. What are they doing that you feel really passionately about?

3. What have you read recently and really loved?

If you’re fresh out of university, I know it can be difficult to think of any books beyond what you read on your course. However, to work in publishing (especially editorial, marketing and PR), it is crucial that you have read books that have been published in the last year or so. Go into bookshops and see what books are charting, compare that to the kind of books that are featured in supermarkets, look at the Kindle bestsellers on Amazon as often as you can, and then read read read.

Here is a chance to showcase that you have read books on their list, do try and read a couple of their big books of the last couple of months.

4. What is a recent marketing campaign that really stood out to you, and why?

This will depend entirely on which area of publishing you’re looking to go into e.g. commercial, literary or academic. A couple of stand out campaigns for commercial fiction in the last year or so are Candice Carty-Williams’ Queenie and Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare. Lots of pre-publication buzz, a really standout and high concept package, great endorsements from other authors and trade publications, lots of visibility both digitally and on the ground e.g. tube advertisements for Queenie at Brixton station. A similar non-fiction example is Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women. With literary fiction, two examples are Margaret Atwood’s Testaments and Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light (did you see when they placed the Wolf Hall Tudor rose emblem on a billboard in Leicester Square?).

You don’t have to use an example from the publisher you’re applying to – they want to know you know the wider market.

4. Why should I consider hiring you?/What makes you the right candidate for this role?

Here, you want to do the same thing you should have done for your cover letter: refer to the job description. Pick out key phrases from this, boring but important things like good at meeting deadlines, managing conflicting priorities, good people skills, and yes, ultimately, that you love and are excited by the idea of seeing a book from concept to finished product.

5. What have been your major achievements to date?

This doesn’t always come up, but if it does, don’t be afraid. It doesn’t have to be work-related, you can talk about something you did at university or something you achieved outside of work or study. Having other interests is a good thing, and having an example that shows you are capable of taking initiative is even better.

6. Any questions?

Always prepare at least three questions for this. You want the interview to be a conversation. Something I always like to ask is which books the interviewers are really excited about publishing this year.

Competency-based questions

With entry-level positions, there is really only so much they can quiz you about the industry. For the most part, if you’ve got to the interview stage, they already think you’re qualified. They just want to know if your work style will fit in with their team. That’s where competency-based questions come in, things like ‘give me an example of when you had to juggle conflicting priorities’ or ‘tell me about a time that you had to handle a difficult client’. This guide will help you construct your answers in this format: the situation, the obstacle you had to overcome, your strategy, and the (successful) outcome.

Your examples can be from situations you faced at university, any part-time jobs, or even previous internships. It doesn’t matter, the important thing is that you highlight that you know how to handle difficult situations. Publishing is all about working to really tight deadlines, working with lots of different people, and multi-tasking so show them you can do these things.

Final tips for interviews

Be your amazing and authentic self, make good eye contact, smile and be enthusiastic about being there, drink water when your mouth gets dry, don’t panic if you need a minute to think about your answer before you reply, and thank them for their time.