Meet the Pioneers: The Revolutionary Publishers

The recipient of numerous awards and honorary doctorates, she has judged prestigious literary prizes, including the Booker, and served on the boards of such organizations as the Royal Literary Fund, Wasafiri magazine, Tomorrow’s Warriors, the Africa Centre in London and the Caine Prize. In 2023 she was appointed President of English PEN.

His books include Bageye at the Wheel, short-listed for the Pen Ackerley Prize, and Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation, a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. His latest book is I’m Black So You Don’t Have to Be. His oral history of migration to Britain, What We Leave We Carry, will be published in June 2026. Grant is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Editorial Director of WritersMosaic, an online magazine and division of the Royal Literary Fund. He also writes for a number of newspapers including the TLS, The Guardian, The Observer and The New York Review of Books.

As well as leading calypso workshops in schools and colleges, he divides his time between running a 10-piece band and his own record label. Since February 2000 he has also been Calypsonian-in-Residence for the BBC. Alexander has appeared at festivals across the UK with The Alexander D'Great Trio, including The Cambridge Folk Festival, Notting Hill Carnival and The Barbican. Alexander was UK Calypso Monarch in 2010, 2011 and from 2023 – 2025.

She leads the stewardship and public engagement with the archives of Eric and Jessica Huntley. Her work centres on activating Black British histories through archives, writing, and public programming. She has curated and contributed to major initiatives exploring diaspora, education, and cultural memory, and works across cultural and academic sectors to amplify underrepresented voices. Beverley is committed to intergenerational, community-led approaches to heritage and to sustaining the legacy of Eric and Jessica Huntley through research, storytelling, and public dialogue.

They lead Studio Lemara – a bespoke literary studio developing authors and directing literary strategy for publishers and brands, with clients including Burberry and Stone Island – and serve as the talks and cultural programmer at We Out Here Festival. As former Head of Imprint at the award winning #Merky Books, they acquired and shaped titles including Keisha the Sket by Jade LB, The Race to Be Myself by Caster Semenya, and Just Sayin' by Malorie Blackman.

He was born in Billinge Hospital in Wigan. Lemn is a three times Sunday Times bestselling author, and was the chancellor of the University of Manchester from 2015 until 2022. His first Neon artwork featured in the Chanel exhibition of 2023, and he curated the inaugural Ethiopia Pavilion at The Venice Biennale in 2024. Lemn was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics.