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, including Ravinder Randhawa,

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, Leena Dhingra,

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and

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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 supported by

Black Ink Collective Black Ink Collective was a British publishing company founded in 1978 to publish the work of young Black writers in the UK. The Collective started as a publisher, their first book ''Black Ink'', published in 1978, was an anthology of work by loca ...

, 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 Lambeth London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Lambeth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, and one of the 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council meets at Lambeth Town Hall ...

. 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 Asian Women Writers' Collective, with some political debate over whether to include the term "Black" in their name: Moving beyond its original South Asian membership, in 1992 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 Two AAWC anthologies – ''Right of Way'' (1988) and ''Flaming Spirit'' (1994) – opened up opportunities for previously unpublished AAWC members.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 Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

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and

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

. In 1991 the AAWC lost its Arts Association funding, and from 1996 Lambeth Council also started cutting funding. Around early 1997 the organization ceased activity. Its papers are held at the

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BM&AG) is a museum and art gallery in Birmingham, England. It has a collection of international importance covering fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, natural history, archaeology, ethnography, local ...

.SADAA: Asian Women Writers Collective (AWWC)
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Anthologies

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References

External links

Asian Women's Writers Collective
at the Spoken Word Archive {{Authority control British writers' organisations Organizations for women writers Asian-British culture Women's collectives Women's organisations based in the United Kingdom Arts organizations established in 1984 Arts organizations disestablished in 1997 British Asian writers 20th-century British women writers