Yes it’s that time of year again…
Greetings! I join you from the bonnie Scottish Borders where I am currently reading Douglas Stuart’s Young Mungo. I’m enjoying it more than Shuggie Bain, it’s like the neverending misery has enough little respites in it to come crashing down much harder than the endless sort that was in Stuart’s first novel. But I’m only halfway through, so maybe it’s not review time yet.
As in 2021 and 2022 I’m going to be doing some counting, and looking at percentages, which I’m sure I thought was boring when we did them at school – who knew that shit could be useful?
I’m using the same ‘rules’ as I did last year – Only counting keynote / panel type events (excluding music and comedy, unless the comedian’s written a book, wellbeing sessions and the children’s festival). People listed as being on-stage are counted, including writers, guests, presenters. I’m using the festival’s website to gather info today.
I’m basing the numbers on gender and ethnicity based on my knowledge, some assumptions and a few quick online searches. I might get one or two wrong, but there’s a decent number of speakers, so it shouldn’t skew the stats much if there are any mixups. This year I’m making my notes digitally, so I can share the list if you’d like to see it and tell me if I’ve misrepresented anyone. I’d be more worried about the occasional mixup, but it’s not like I’m being paid to do this, there’s just a righteous anger in my head forcing me to do it.
A special new addition to this year’s post is a ✨graph✨! I made it in excel, and it’s a bit easier to make sense of then the table:
So. This year in the programme, 31% of speakers are women. There don’t seem to be any trans / non-binary folks, although I’ve not searched specifically for them.
That’s fewer than last year’s 47%, which was almost on the verge of being acceptable. This sounds like piss poor programming to me.
The percentage of people of the Global Majority (I’m using this term because non-white feels like it implies people that aren’t white are missing something) is up to a whopping(sarcasm) 7%. It’s an increase, but a pretty crap one.
Just realised I’m swearing a lot today. I think I’d take my time to write a longer, more eloquent post if I hadn’t already done it in 2021 and 22, and if I had much hope for Borders Book Festival becoming the kind of event that actually entrances, encourages and embraces the Borders and our surprisingly not 69% male population. Maybe If I were more optimistic and jolly they’d listen, and maybe even change things? Hmm… I’ll stick with the mood I’m in today for the tone of this post. Maybe I should go for a walk in the sunshine.
In previous years I’ve chatted about the programme a bit, about who I’d like to go see if I could justify it, but with a limited budget, I probably won’t get to much, but we’ll see. I might be there with the Borders Writers Forum. I wrote an essay for the anthology, so you can read it in there. Once I’ve dug the info out of my inbox I’ll do a thing to promote it a bit, and hopefully get some copies I can sell directly.
Okay maybe I’ll go see Paterson Joseph, and maybe Douglas Stuart, but they’re probably already sold out to people more organised and with more money than me.
Jessie x
p.s. If you’ve enjoyed me being obnoxious on the internet, please do consider buying me a coffee or joining my Patreon – links at the top! If I get enough, maybe I’ll be able to afford to see more than one thing at a Borders Book Festival one day…
You can see the official website for Borders Book Festival and count for yourself here.
Jessie Growden 