Magazine Features

A literary magazine Five Dials, published quarterly by Hamish Hamilton one of London’s oldest publishing houses

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IC3 At 20 HOW ONE ANTHOLOGY CHANGED THE LANDSCAPE

To celebrate the anthology’s twentieth birthday, Five Dials asked as many of the original contributors as possible to reflect on the experience and examine what’s changed for Black British writers in the intervening years. 

IONIE RICHARDS

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When my piece ‘Nine Nights’, a memoir about my father, was published in IC3 in 2000, I was ecstatic. It was my first piece of work published in an anthology amongst a long list of distinguished writers. For years I had written short pieces, essays, poetry, short stories, but here I was on the brink of launching myself into the world of a published writer.

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I remember the invitation to the launch event that year and how desperately I wanted to go to celebrate but I was unable to do so. The year 2000 and many years to come was a period of challenging health issues so huge, it propelled me to write my own autobiography of that experience as therapy. It was as though ‘Nine Nights’ was just the start of what was to come and gave me confidence to write about that experience. Yet, twenty years on, where am I now?

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In my writing and my thinking, I have always explored the economic, social and political underbelly of society, speaking about the underclass, migration and giving voice to the dispossessed.

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I am currently developing an historical fiction novel based on my research into my slave ancestors, discovering more about who I am and my place in this world as well as exploring new ways of storytelling.

I am also developing a poetry series, preserving untold stories from Caribbean elders. These will be added to an extensive collection of poetry on the human condition produced over the decades, through my lens.

My writing journey has over the years reconnected with both editors, Kadija Sesay and Courttia Newland through retreats, writing courses and publications. My poetry appears in the anthology Red: Contemporary

Black British Poetry.

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The reissue of the publication of IC3 in 2021 to mark its twentieth anniversary now gives me that opportunity to be part of a celebration of Black British writers who, while twenty years older, are part of a canon of writers who provided a snapshot of our collective experiences at the time. It is a legacy of what was achieved then, with the promise of what was still to come from many of us as contributors.

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