#Merky Books was presented with the Collective of the Year award by Stormzy at the ELLE Style Awards 2023, in partnership with Tiffany & Co., in London this evening.
Stormzy presented the award to his team, including Lemara Lindsay-Prince, Tallulah Lyons and Lydia Weigel. The platinum-selling rapper said: ‘I don’t have much style tonight, my stylist is on holiday! But thank you so much to ELLE magazine and Kenya Hunt for this award.’
On accepting the prize, senior commissioning editor Lindsay-Prince said: ‘I really believe in building a legacy of literature [...] real intersectional inclusivity is something that happens with intent.’
Continuing her moving speech, she said,‘To be able to bring people together through the power of storytelling is the most honourable thing that we do.’
Founded in 2018 in a landmark collaboration with Penguin, #Merky Books has published award-winning titles from both emerging and established authors, including Malorie Blackman’s autobiography Just Sayin’ and Ramla Ali's memoir Not Without a Fight.
2023 has been a landmark year for the publishing imprint, including a two-day #Merky Books Literature festival at London’s Roundhouse, with guest speakers such as Malorie Blackman, Bolu Babalola and Candice Brathwaite. This autumn, #Merky Books will also release Olympic champion Caster Semenya’s highly anticipated memoir, The Race To Be Myself.
‘There’s a definite energy and integrity about what we do, where we show up in culture and, crucially, what we publish,’ says Lindsay-Prince. ‘We’re committed to building a new legacy of literature and bringing the mainstream to where ‘we’ – meaning voices that are grounded in intersectionality and inclusivity – already are, rather than the other way around’.
An annual #Merky Books New Writers’ Prize is awarded to ‘young, underrepresented and unpublished writers from across the UK and ROI’, who are ‘telling the stories that are not being heard, and the stories that deserve to be read, across fiction, non-fiction or poetry’. The prize offers writers a boot camp, writing workshop, editorial one-to-one and a chance to meet the #Merky Books Team.
Other winners at this year's ELLE Style Awards include Tems, Sex Education actor Ncuti Gatwa and Oppenheimer star Florence Pugh.
