Creative writing with the Sheba Feminist Publishers archive

Introduction

Charting the Journey is a project to explore and celebrate Sheba Feminist Publishers, a collective active in the 1980s and 90s, which was known for championing texts across a range of genres and feminist subjects.

The project will bring together a group of young poets to collectively explore this archive, create new work in response to it, and showcase that work, celebrating and deepening the original ethos that characterised Sheba Feminist Publishers.

About Sheba Feminist Publishers

Founded in London by a group of women active in the Women’s Liberation Movement, Sheba (1980-1994) was a racially mixed feminist publishing co-operative formed in 1980. They prioritised writing by Black women, working class women, new writers and lesbians. As well as publishing adult fiction, non-fiction and poetry, they also published anti-sexist and anti-racist books for children.

Although the original members were all white women, the collective quickly made it a priority to encourage Black women to join. Like many others in 1980s Britain, the Sheba collective subscribed to the concept of political Blackness and used the umbrella term Black women to include Black women and all women of colour. Sheba represents a significant and relatively under-explored chapter of feminist, queer, literary, and social history.

Learn more about Sheba Feminist Press on the LSE History blog or by visiting The Women’s Library at 100: Celebrating a Century of Collections exhibition at the LSE Library until 30 September.

Sheba Feminist Publishers creative writing project

Are you a young poet?

We are looking for eight people from the The Poetry Society’s programmes for young people, including Young Poets Network, the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, Young Poets Takeovers, the Young Critics Scheme, Camden Young Writers, and schools workshops, to take up a paid opportunity.

Participants will engage with the archive, explore its themes, and co-create a published zine, connecting the legacy of Sheba Feminist Publishers to the present day.

How to apply to become a project participant

This opportunity is open to 18-25-year-old poets who have taken part in The Poetry Society's programmes for young poets.

In keeping with the themes of the Sheba Feminist Publishers, we especially encourage applications from people who identify as queer, feminist, and/or Black and other racially minoritised backgrounds, as well as those from working-class or lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Chosen participants will be compensated with a one-off £350 stipend for taking part in the required workshops and contributing to the zine.

Date and deadlines

Deadline to apply: 31 July, 2026

Participants must be available to attend in person on the following dates:

• 17 October 2026, 10 am to 4pm: In this workshop, participants will spend the morning learning about the project and exploring the Sheba Feminist Publishers collection with Nazmia Jamal. The afternoon will include a writing workshop with The Poetry Society’s Cia Mangat, reflecting on the materials from the archive.
• 29 October 2026, 6 to 8 pm (Optional attendance): Additional archive visit.
• 14 November 2026, 11 am to 1 pm: In this workshop, participants will work with designer and publisher Kaiya Waerea to develop ideas for a group zine.
• 11 March 2027, 7 to 9 pm: This will be a showcase of the participants' work, including the launch of the zine and opportunities to share written creative work alongside original members of Sheba Feminist Publishers.

See our AccessAble guide for LSE Library

Project partners

LSE Library (The British Library of Political and Economic Science) was founded in 1896, a year after the London School of Economics and Political Science. It has been based in the Lionel Robbins Building since 1978 and houses many world-class collections, including The Women's Library and the Hall-Carpenter Archives.

The Poetry Society is the UK's leading poetry organisation. For over 100 years it has been a lively and passionate source of energy and ideas, opening up and promoting poetry to an ever-growing community of people. The Society runs international poetry competitions for adults and young people, talent development schemes such as Young Poets Network, and publishes The Poetry Review. The Poetry Society champions poetry for all ages.

Meet the project team

Chelsea Collison is the Learning & Participation Programmes Producer for LSE Library. She works closely with the archive curators to tell the stories of the collections to a wider audience.

Nazmia Jamal is based at UCL and is the Paul Mellon Centre’s New Narratives Doctoral Scholar for 2025-2028. Her PhD research explores Sheba Feminist Publishers in relation to the Black Arts movement and the evolution of Black and queer feminisms in Britain.

Cia Mangat is a poet from London. She works as an Education Officer at The Poetry Society, curating Young Poets Network, facilitating the Young Critics Scheme, and managing poets visits into schools across England.

Kaiya Waerea is a writer, designer and publisher from Aotearoa, now living in London. His current research is exploring insurgent residues in print, approaching publishing as a mode of complicit study. Kaiya is the author of Access Questions for Self-Publishing (PageMasters, 2024), and alongside Sophie Paul, founder of intradependant feminist press Sticky Fingers Publishing.

Project funders

This project supports institutional and sector-wide priorities to improve the discoverability of diverse histories in our archive collections, support research into communities whose contributions have not been fully explored, and foster wider public engagement with our archives. The project has received generous support as part of the Archives Revealed programme

Archives Revealed is the only grant programme in the United Kingdom dedicated to cataloguing and unlocking archival collections. The programme is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Pilgrim Trust, the Wolfson Foundation and The National Archives. Its goal is to ensure that significant archive collections—representing the lives and perspectives of people across the UK—are made accessible for public research and enjoyment.