It’s no secret that the UK publishing industry has long been dominated by white authors. A recent study found that 53% of UK children’s books with Black main characters are written by white authors. But in the past few years, there have been initiatives to help combat this problem.

Black women are amongst those on the forefront working towards this change by launching bookstores to platform more Black authors in publishing. We spoke with three Black women bookshop owners about what it’s like running their stores.

Afrori Books is a Brighton-based bookshop owned by Carolynn Bain and launched in 2020.

“I was tired of the lack of books by Black authors in bookshops. I knew the books were out there, but nobody wanted to stock them. I wanted to platform Black authors and create a single place where their work could be found,” Carolynn explains.