Asian Women Writers' Collective
{{Short description|Organization of British Asian women writers}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
The Asian Women Writers' Collective (AWWC), formerly known as the Asian Women Writers Workshop, was an organization of British Asian women writers. Founded by the writer and activist Ravinder Randhawa in 1984, the AAWC provided a platform for several British Asian women to enter writing,{{cite book|first=Ruvani|last= Ranasinha|editor2=Emma Parker|editor=Mary Eagleton|title=The History of British Women's Writing, 1970–Present: Volume Ten|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WQHeCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT172|year=2016|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-137-29481-4|page=172|chapter=Redefining Britishness: British Asian Fiction}} including Ravinder Randhawa, Meera Syal, Leena Dhingra, Tanika Gupta and Rukhsana Ahmad.{{cite web|url=https://sadaa.co.uk/studio/files/Asian-Womens-Writers-Collective_biog.pdf|title=Asian Women Writers' Collective|website=South Asia Diaspora Arts Archive|access-date=5 December 2020}}
History
The Asian Women Writers' Workshop was founded in London in 1984. Its aim was to support creative writing by Asian women and increase access to publishers. It was initially supported by the Black Ink Collective, and funded by the Greater London Council (GLC). After the GLC's 1986 abolition, it received funding from Greater London Arts Association and Lambeth Council.
The group grew from a core group of eight South Asian members to a national membership of over a hundred, participating together in creative writing exercises and sharing work with each other. In 1987 they changed their name to the Asian Women Writers' Collective (AAWC), with some political debate over whether to include the term "Black" in their name in recognition of political blackness. As Asha Sen recounts:
{{blockquote|Some members were in favour of calling themselves 'black' to show their solidarity with Afro-Caribbean women, while others felt discriminated against by certain dominant Afro-Caribbean women's groups. Another set felt that there were too many cultural differences between Asian and Afro-Caribbean writing to make it possible for the groups to respond critically to each other. The title 'Asian Women Writers' Collective' was finally agreed upon on the grounds that there had hitherto been no forum for Asian women to express themselves. It was decided that the collective would work closely with black women's groups and participate in events for black women writers.{{cite book|editor=Alison Donnell|editor-link=Alison Donnell|first=Asha|last= Sen|chapter=Asian Women Writers' Workshop|title=Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture|page=20}}}}
In 1991, the AAWC lost its Arts Association funding. In 1992, moving beyond its original South Asian membership, the collective explicitly adopted a wider definition of the term "Asian", to include those from China, Japan, Korea and Turkey.
Two AAWC anthologies – Right of Way (1988) and Flaming Spirit (1994) – opened up opportunities for previously unpublished AAWC members. Though the AAWC was based in London, its postal membership scheme enabled writers outside London to receive feedback on their writing, so that Flaming Spirit also included writers based in Sheffield, Birmingham, Manchester and Cardiff.Abram, Nicola L. (2020), [http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/72518/ "Forging connections: anthologies, artscollectives, and the politics of inclusion"]. In Susheila Nasta and Mark U. Stein (eds), The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 403–416. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108164146.026.
From 1996, Lambeth Council started cutting funding and the organization ceased activity around early 1997. Its papers are held at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.[https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N14456244 AAWC: administrative papers, corresp and manuscripts, also incl personal papers and corresp of individual members], The National Archives. Accessed 5 December 2020.[https://sadaa.co.uk/studio/files/CLD-AWWC-Asian-Women-Writers-Collective.pdf SADAA: Asian Women Writers Collective (AWWC)]
Anthologies
- {{cite book| title=Right of Way: Prose and Poetry from the Asian Women Writers' Collective | publisher=Women's Press | year=1988 | isbn=9780704340916 }}
- {{cite book| editor1=Rukhsana Ahmad | editor2=Rahila Gupta | title=Flaming Spirit: Stories from the Asian Women Writers' Collective | publisher=Virago | year=1994 | isbn=9781853817496 }}
References
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External links
- [https://www.spokenwordarchive.org.uk/content/artist/asian-womens-writers-collective Asian Women's Writers Collective] at the Spoken Word Archive
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Category:British writers' organisations
Category:Organizations for women writers
Category:Asian-British culture
Category:Women's organisations based in the United Kingdom
Category:Arts organizations established in 1984
Category:Arts organizations disestablished in 1997