'Brilliant' CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS author of QUEENIE'Essential' BERNARDINE EVARISTO author of
GIRL WOMAN OTHER'Hugely important' PAULA AKPAN____________________________As a minority in a
predominantly white institution taking up space is an act of resistance. Recent Cambridge
grads Chelsea and Ore experienced this first-hand and wrote Taking Up Space as a guide and a
manifesto for change.FOR BLACK GIRLS:Understand that your journey is unique. Use this book as a
guide. Our wish for you is that you read this and feel empowered comforted and validated in
every emotion you experience or decision that you make.FOR EVERYONE ELSE:We can only hope that
reading this helps you to be a better friend parent sibling or teacher to black girls living
through what we did. It's time we stepped away from seeing this as a problem that black people
are charged with solving on their own.It's a collective effort.And everyone has a role to
play.Featuring honest conversations with students past and present Taking Up Space goes beyond
the buzzwords of diversity and inclusion and explores what those words truly mean for young
black girls today.____________________________#Merky Books was set up by publishers Penguin
Random House and Stormzy in June 2018 to find and publish the best writers of a new generation
and to publish the stories that are not being heard. #Merky Books aims to open up the world of
publishing and this year has launched a New Writer's Prize and will soon be launching a #Merky
Books traineeship. 'I know too many talented writers that don't always have an outlet or a
means to get their work seen and hopefully #Merky Books can now be a reference point for them
to say I can be an author and for that to be a realistic and achievable goal... Reading and
writing as a kid were integral to where I am today and I from the bottom of my heart cannot
wait to hear your stories and get them out into the big wide world.'STORMZY
