Exploring the development of British Asian women's literature

The Mummyji and the Asian Women Writers Collective (AWWC) is a pioneering, nationwide organisation. It provided a unique platform for young Asian women writers, many of who are now household names in the mainstream TV, film and theatre industries such as Meera Syal and Gurinder Chadha.

Through a diverse programme of learning and participation activities, the project focused on documenting the untold story of the development of British Asian Women’s literature, focusing on the defining period in the 1970’s and early 1980’s – a time when women writers of South Asian descent began challenging Asian women stereotypes in society and the media.

This project used the SALIDAA (South Asian Diaspora Literature and Arts Archive) owned archive of the AWWC, housed at the Brunel University Library as part of its Special Collections. This archive acted as a catalyst to explore and chart the history and development of British Asian women’s writing from the 1970’s to the present day.

The project had many outputs including a series of oral history interviews, interpretation workshops, specialist research and an engaging schools project.  A programme of talks was also organised with special guest speakers.  The popularity of the project highlighted the significance and impact of the archive on contemporary UK literature.

“For me, everything was new – I learnt so much about collections!”