The study of texts has increasingly occupied centre-stage within the study of empires. Large numbers of scholars have explored the representations of peoples and places in travel writing, novels and many other textual forms. The written word has thus been acknowledged as a key technology of power. However, while considerable attention has been paid to the ways in which gender shaped such texts, less attention has been paid to other forms of difference and inequality. We invite papers that address this gap by exploring how less powerful and less privileged actors in empire made use of the written word.