The Tilt is here!
The Tilt is an illustrated collection of provocations, translations and reflections about publishing and belonging in post-Brexit Britain. Created by The Lit Platform, Stranger Collective and No Bindings, and co-produced by a team of emerging authors and publishers, each chapter centres around the work of a mentee from the Lit:Up 2020 mentoring programme. Industry-leading authors, editors and academics, from Sam Jordison of Galley Beggar Press to Booker-nominated Wyl Menmuir, introduce each new writer.
‘In Ojibwe a beach is in a state of being, alive.’
‘It was decay, a crumbling mask, threatening at any moment to break apart and reveal the true face within.’
‘Each second that passes, more blood drops.’
Each chapter in The Tilt is unique to the writer in genre, theme and form, but shares the same reflection – what does it mean to belong?
Featured in The Tilt:
Conscience. When is a prize not a prize? When it’s a stand. An interview with Jhalak Prize founder Sunny Singh
Room. A fist-clenching, furious story of female survival
Sacrifice. Writing by a publishing newcomer on the price we all pay for social capital
Longing. A lovingly rendered LGBTQ romance
Ecology. An essay on the new voices in nature writing keeping hope and change alive
Paint. A reflection on diverse heroines, with an exclusive short story by dystopian novelist Amy Lilwall
Writers:
Zoe King, Sam Jordison, Clare Howdle, Sofia Abasolo, Yara Rodrigues-Fowler, Akvile Peckyte, Emily Black, Anna Kiernan, Sarah Enamorado, Wyl Menmuir, Nicole Jashapara, Jessica J.Lee, Pratyusha, Amy Lilwall, April Roach, C.J. Flood.
The aim of The Tilt is to question traditional forms, language, representation and distribution models. As well as a limited edition risograph printed copy, readers can download an ‘at home’ version, designed to be accessible to all – whether viewed on-screen or printed. Each chapter has been translated into languages chosen by the mentees – Gujarati, Lithuanian and Spanish – and the audio can be ‘unlocked’ by scanning illustrations on the page using Grapevine.
Visuals:
Educator and cartoonist Esther McManus, illustrator Danielle Doobay and artist Miranda Latimer.
Lily Green, No Bindings director and Editorial Consultant for The Tilt, says:
“We are really excited to see the combination of audio and different languages in this publication. Readers will get to listen to The Tilt in Gujarati, Lithuanian, and Spanish, and find a warm familiarity upon hearing these languages that are spoken all over the UK.
“As editorial consultants on The Tilt, it was really important to us to ensure that the mentees were able to invite a person of their choosing to contribute to their chapter. By doing this, each mentee has a room of their own to play and collaborate but also position themselves in the literary landscape on their own terms.
“By bringing together different languages, we hope that The Tilt goes beyond the classification of 'translated fiction' as something coming from outside the UK and starts a conversation around what “global literature” really is.”
Anna Kiernan, Publisher, The Literary Platform, says:
“This book is the outcome of the labours of The Literary Platform’s 2020 mentees and mentors. These exceptional writers and publishers have been in dialogue with one another but also with publishing and the creative industries, and The Tilt is the outcome of that playful and ultimately optimistic process. Since the publication of the Goldsmiths Report on diversity in 2020, the systemic inequities in the publishing industry have been in the spotlight. As a fan of books as material objects, I am personally thrilled with the unique interplay of illustration, design, text and concept in these pages but am also excited about the possibilities for digital that this project pilots.”