Black History Month: 17 October 2020
Margaret Busby was born in Ghana and educated in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisher when she co-founded Allison and Busby in 1967. An independent editor, writer, broadcaster and critic since the 1990s, Margaret has contributed to many publications – including The Guardian, The Observer, New Statesman and TLS – and judged numerous literary prizes. She has worked continuously for diversity within the publishing industry and in the 1980s was a founding member of the organization Greater Access to Publishing (GAP), which engaged in campaigns for increased Black representation in British publishing.
In 1992, Margaret compiled the pioneering anthology Daughters of Africa, which brought together writing by more than 200 women of African descent. Her follow-up, New Daughters of Africa, added another 200 writers and was published to great acclaim last year. She has been awarded the Royal Society of Literature's prestigious Benson Medal, and the Royal African Society's inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award. She was appointed OBE for services to literature and publishing in 2006.
Want to find out more about Margaret Busby? Click here for more information, or here for a video with more about how she got into publishing.
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