On Thursday 22nd of March Write Away attended the launch of Malorie Blackman’s edited collection of short stories Unheard Voices. Alice Reedy was Write Away’s representative and these were her thoughts about it:

'All in all it was a good night- both mini pizzas and intellectual enlightenment! I have come to accept that as a girl of 14, I still possess a lot of my childhood naivety. However, during the night my eyes were opened to the tragedy of slavery, and the continuing scandal that the stories and accounts written by slaves themselves, and collected together by Malorie Blackman in Unheard Voices are being neglected in matters of history. Rather than the obligatory talk by an impersonal publisher, the main section of the evening was a forum- type interview, with the discussants answering questions posed by the host and the attentive audience. The panel were expressing real opinions- not reeling off pre- prepared publisher approved answers, and this made it ever more interesting to listen to. The participants of the forum were three women, Malorie Blackman; the author/editor, who was a passionate advocate for these voices to be heard loud and clear, Catherine Johnson and Sandra Agard. One of the highlights of the evening was Grace Quesnah one of  the winners of  the Unheard Voices competition reading out her poem to an enraptured and inspired audience. I would recommend this book to anyone based on that evening alone. An essential read. '