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COVERT magazine
Earlier this year a very sexy-looking 92-page literary magazine called Covert was released to showcase the creativity of black, Asian and ethnically diverse writers and artists.
Produced by Writing Our Legacy in association with New Writing South, the magazine’s theme was: Sussex Fortune Teller – What Do Writers See in the Future, and its impact in terms of both contributors and audience wasn’t necessarily something the editorial team could have predicted.
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“We had more than 100 submissions in each of the categories: fiction, poetry, artwork,” says editorial team member and a driving force behind the project, Amy Zamarripa Solis.
“In 2019 we published an anthology of writers of colour called Hidden Sussex, which was life stories, but this book [focusing on fiction and poetry] was something I had been thinking about for six years.
“I could observe that there were a lot of talented writers but they might not try to access opportunities or try to get published, so I thought if there was something local [that might sway them].
Amy Zamarripa Solis
“A lot of the work we do with people of colour is really about confidence building. We try to do things that still help with that and being published is a great feeling. It really gave me a taste of what community publishing could achieve.”
As with so many projects, it was somewhat hampered by the pandemic and the first lockdown, but the group applied for emergency funding from the Arts Council and from March to May was busy organising “lots of solidarity Zoom calls to try to help people stay connected”.
Amy and her fellow voluntary editorial team members, writer Sharon Duggal and poet John Prebble, made the initial selection of works and gave recommendations to guest editors for their consideration.
Each submission had to fit the theme, which, says Amy, was about asking writers to look into the future. Fifteen contributors are showcased in the magazine.
As for the final article, with its high-quality finish: “I think I blew people’s minds a little bit. I decided to really push the boat out. I was originally thinking of doing something digital but with lockdown it’s nice to have something a bit special, especially for readers of colour when they don’t have much validation.”
And the work doesn’t stop there. “The next phase will be approaching universities and libraries to get it to a wider audience,” says Amy. “We haven’t put it on Amazon but we do have an e-book.”
Writing Our Legacy has managed to secure further Arts Council funding and is in the process of moving to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, along with planning how the next edition will be funded.
