CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
BREAKING GROUND
BREAKING GROUND: CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
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BREAKING GROUND
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CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
FOREWORD
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
BREAKING GROUND
“As a young man in 1970s London, I first discovered black writers when I joined the Black Panthers, reading African American writers such as W E B DuBois and poets including Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes. Through them, I learned that black people’s stories could be written by black people themselves. I was also lucky enough to be taken to New Beacon Books and met its co-founder John La Rose, the Trinidadian activist, poet and trade unionist. He and Jamaican writer Andrew Salkey became my two mentors as I tried to find my own voice through poetry. A little later, working at the Race Today Collective, I would meet C L R James, the Trinidadian intellectual and thinker, who became another mentor; and also start to find British black and Asian writers whose work, like mine, was articulating our experiences in the UK. I published many of the poets I came across then during my time as poetry editor at Race Today. Over 40 years later, it is heartening to see that many strides have been made in the fight for racial equality and social justice in British society and that the arts are more diverse than ever. Nonetheless, there is more to do, particularly in publishing, where there is insufficient diversity in the workplace and on booklists. Such work needs to build on the achievements of those early pioneers — New Beacon; my first publisher, Eric and Jessica Huntley at Bogle L’Ouverture; Allison & Busby and others. The Breaking Ground initiative does just that, working with people across the industry to provide support for British writers of colour. It enables those artists to concentrate on their work, knowing that they have not just individuals batting for them, but a whole network of committed professionals who will nurture and support them now and in the future.” Linton Kwesi Johnson, 2017
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CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
‘WHY IS SPEAKING VOLUMES BREAKING GROUND?’ These are times of change and challenge. As nations look to erect barriers and borders, intolerance of others grows and the diverse landscape that many people had taken for granted seems under threat. These are the circumstances which have given rise to Breaking Ground. Highlighting 200 contemporary British writers of colour, the Speaking Volumes Breaking Ground brochure is an indispensible guide to the wealth and depth of diverse writing talent on our doorstep. From crafted literary fiction to breathtakingly brilliant horror, fantastic futuristic sci-fi to powerful and lyrical poetry, striking graphic novels to humorous chick lit, the UK’s black, Asian and minority ethnic writers – of all ages and backgrounds – are writing the world, despite and because of the times. It marks a transformation within just four generations when Norman Samuda Smith’s pioneering 1982 book Bad Friday was the first novel published by a black writer born and raised in the UK. Today’s diverse British writers are backed by publishing houses, both new and established, which are committed to highlighting writers of colour — from Peepal Tree Press, formed 32 years ago, to more recent ventures such as Jacaranda, flipped eye and Hope Road Publishing to name but a few. So why is Breaking Ground needed? Back in 2013, Speaking Volumes curated a series of cultural events at the fourth AfroEuropes conference in London, bringing a range of Black British and European writers to the attention of international audiences, most of whom had never heard of the artists on stage. Particularly interesting were our American colleagues who, despite Obama’s US Presidency, had little knowledge or awareness of the artistic production of the UK’s minority ethnic populations. Our response was the first iteration of Breaking Ground. In 2015-16 we took ten Black British writers to America’s East and West coasts to perform in twenty events at various locations. The success of those – enthused and animated audiences, healthy book sales, the lasting relationships and networks which have been formed since – were testament to the need for this kind of active intervention abroad. In the UK, in 2016 we witnessed the 50th anniversaries of two pioneering organisations in Black British history: New Beacon Books, the UK’s first black bookshop and publisher, and the Caribbean Artists Movement. New Beacon has been a constant hub of black political and cultural activism in Britain since 1966 and paved the way for many other visionary independent grassroots structures to develop — whether black arts organisations like Creation for Liberation, publishers and publications from Bogle L’Ouverture and Hansib to Wasafiri magazine or theatre companies such as Talawa and Tara 4
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
BREAKING GROUND
Arts. Those endeavours undoubtedly contributed to the rise of subsequent generations of diverse British artists — actors, writers, filmmakers, photographers, dancers, poets. Yet 2016 also marked the moment when New Beacon announced plans to close, indicating the difficult current climate for UK independent bookshops and small presses. Add to this the 2015 Spread the Word report Writing the Future: Black and Asian Writers and Publishers in the UK Market Place, which reveals there is still a lot to be done to achieve parity with white writers and employees in the British publishing industry. Despite the great progress within four generations, the playing field is clearly not yet level. Our Breaking Ground brochure showcases some of the most exciting diverse writers around the UK today, but we have of course had to make difficult choices along the way. Missing are those whose work already has a global reach: Kazuo Ishiguro, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Hanif Kureishi, Ben Okri, Caryl Phillips, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, Benjamin Zephaniah. We have also omitted some writers who, though resident in the UK, may find it incongruous to be labelled ‘British’ as they came here as adults, for example, Kei Miller and Vahni Capildeo (whose recent major literary awards will no doubt propel them to greater international recognition than at present). And there were those - Aminatta Forna and Andrea Levy to name but two - whose writing careers are already so busy or established that they asked us to give newer writers a space instead. So who have we included? We have endeavoured to ensure a gender balance and a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, classes, ages. We have also included people at different stages of their careers, some of whom may be little known and who have yet to publish a book but who command serious attention through performance. All of the writers in the brochure, though, produce stimulating and quality work that should be seen and heard. Wherever you are, whether you are publishers or book lovers, programmers or festival directors, academics or students, translators or venues, the local or the global, our Breaking Ground booklet will enable you to discover the sparkling depth and breadth of today’s British black, Asian and minority ethnic writing talent — and to spread that knowledge far and wide. For, beyond these stylish pages, the Speaking Volumes Breaking Ground project is more than just reading material: we are putting these writers on the stage, onto the translated page, into bookshops and venues and universities around the world. Because Britain’s diverse writers speak volumes and, in these times of change and challenge, their voices need to be heard. Sharmilla Beezmohun, Sarah Sanders and Nicholas Chapman, Speaking Volumes Live Literature Productions 5
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CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
BREAKING GROUND
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CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Leila Aboulela
H Diran Adebayo
Leila Aboulela was born in Cairo and grew up
Diran Adebayo is a novelist, short fiction
in Khartoum. Her latest book, The Kindness
writer and cultural critic known for his stylish,
of Enemies, is an epic of love and betrayal,
inventive tales of London and the lives of
reconciliation and war moving between
African diasporans. His debut novel, Some
present-day Scotland to the court of the
Kind of Black, won the 1996 Saga Prize and
Russian Tsar. All three of her previous novels,
a Betty Trask Award. His second novel was
The Translator, Minaret and Lyrics Alley, were longlisted for the Orange Prize.
the ‘neo-noir fairytale’ My Once Upon a Time. He has written for television and
Lyrics Alley won Novel of the Year at the Scottish Book Awards and was
radio, including the 2005 documentary Out of Africa (BBC 2). Media appearances
shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, while Aboulela’s collection
include Newsnight, The Culture Show and the Today programme. He was a 2003
of short fiction, Coloured Lights, won the Caine Prize for African Writing. She
Times Literary Supplement Best Young British Novelist and is a Fellow of the
lives in Aberdeen.
Royal Society of Literature (2006). He is a lecturer in creative writing at Kingston
www.leila-aboulela.com
University and is working on a memoir, Random, and Cricket. www.diranadebayo.com/ Twitter @AdebayoDiran
H C C Adams
H Adisa
C C Adams is a native Londoner and author
Adisa is a London-based poet who has
of horror and dark fiction; work that leans
performed widely, from pubs and theatres
more towards pace and atmosphere rather
to Buckingham Palace and from festivals to
than shock and gore. On his first attempt
schools and day centres for senior citizens.
for National Novel Writing Month in 2009,
He has been a Hackney Poet Laureate and a
beating the challenge with a day to spare
winner of New Performance Poet of the Year.
gave him the confidence to take his writing further. While his stories are
He has toured England with his one-person show, 1968 - The Year That Never
primarily based in the capital, some are based in other locations such as
Ended, and has also performed in Switzerland, Botswana, Italy, Nigeria and
the USA and Canada. These stories have appeared in publications such as
Sweden. As a workshop facilitator he aims to make poetry and performance
the Crossroads In The Dark anthologies from Burning Willow Press and the
accessible to all. Adisa’s book Lip Hopping With The Fundi-Fu was published
eponymous weird/horror-zine Turn To Ash. A member of the Horror Writers’
in 2010 and his poetry has been featured in various anthologies.
Association, his work also garnered the 2015 Honourable Mention for Short
www.adisaworld.com/
Fiction from the Australian Horror Writers Association.
Twitter @Adisapoet
www.ccadams.com/ Twitter @MrAdamsWrites 8
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CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H John Agard
H Patience Agbabi
John Agard was born and educated in Guyana
Patience Agbabi was born in London in
and moved to the UK in 1977. His collections
1965 and educated at Oxford and Sussex
for young readers include The Young Inferno, a
Universities. She has performed her poetry
teenage spin on Dante’s Inferno and Goldilocks
live, on TV and radio all over the world.
On CCTV, inspired by fairy tales (both published
Her work has also appeared on the London
by Frances Lincoln Publishers); and Einstein,
Underground and human skin. She has
The Girl Who Hated Maths and Hello H20, both illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura
lectured in creative writing at several UK universities, including Greenwich,
(Hodder Children’s Books). His adult collections, published by Bloodaxe Books,
Cardiff and Kent, and is currently Fellow in Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes
include Alternative Anthem, Clever Backbone, Travel Light Travel Dark and his
University. She was Canterbury Laureate from 2009 to 2010. Telling Tales
latest, Playing The Ghost Of Maimonides. His first non-fiction, entitled BOOK,
is her fourth poetry collection. She lives in Kent with her husband and two
tells the history of the book in the voice of the book. His awards include the
children.
Casa de las Americas Poetry Prize, the Paul Hamlyn Award, the Guyana Prize
http://www.renaissanceone.co.uk/patience-agbabi
and the 2012 Queen’s Gold Medal for poetry. www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/category/john-agard Twitter @JohnAgard1
Twitter @PatienceAgbabi
H Dev Agarwal
H Tolu Agbelusi
Dev Agarwal is a science fiction and fantasy
Born and raised in Nigeria, Tolu is based in
writer. His work has been published online
London and is a poet, playwright, performer
and in magazines including Albedo One,
and lawyer known for tackling difficult topics.
Aofie’s Kiss, Hungur and Aeon. His fantasy
Tolu produced the highly acclaimed poetry
draws on ancient history, in particular the
and visual arts project Home Is in 2016 which
ancient Roman world, while his SF is set in
saw illustration, theatre, animation and dance
the near future and explores technology and its potential for radical change to
collaborating with poetry around the theme of home and displacement. Her
society and daily living. He has attended the Clarion West Writing Workshop
play Ilé la Wà, which also showcased her acting skills, was hailed a ‘searing
in Seattle and Arvon in Devon. Dev is also the editor of Focus, the magazine
soulful and scathing production’ and ‘a terrific debut’. Tolu facilitates poetry
for genre writers produced by the British Science Fiction Association, and has
workshops and has performed widely around the UK including as part of
used Focus to bring forward new voices to a genre audience. Dev’s writing
Theatre Royal Stratford’s Home Theatre UK 2015. She has been commissioned
seeks to explore different cultures and bring them to a wide audience.
by the IWM, Pathways etc and published internationally in Mourning Glory
Twitter @Dev_Agarwal
Publishing’s anthology, After Ferguson, In Solidarity. www.ToluAgbelusi.com Twitter @ToluAgbelusi 9
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Zainab Ahktar
H Ahsan Akbar
Zainab Akhtar is an Eisner award-nominated
Ahsan Akbar was born in London and grew up
writer based in West Yorkshire, UK. Her
in Dhaka before moving back to the UK at the
journalism and criticism, centred on the
age of 16. He studied at Exeter and has worked
medium and culture of comics, has been
as a vinyl record seller, bookseller and equities
published in The Guardian, Publisher’s
trader in the City and south-east Asia. His
Weekly, The AV Club and The Fader, in
debut poetry collection, The Devil’s Thumbprint,
addition to her own site, Comics & Cola. A former professional librarian, she
is on the English literature curriculum at SOAS, University of London. He has
is founder and curator of ShortBox, an independent, quarterly comics box
written for the Los Angeles Times, The Daily Telegraph and the Dhaka Tribune
that brings together diverse international artistic talent, and creator/editor of
and curated special issues for Granta and Wasafiri. Akbar is a director of Dhaka
Critical Chips, a contemporary collection of essays examining the many facets
Literary Festival, (previously Hay Festival Dhaka), co-founder and director of
of the medium. She is currently working on a longform guide to comics.
London-based PR boutique Zephyr: Media and a board member of Bengal Lights
www.comicsandcola.com/
in Bangladesh. He divides his time between London and Dhaka.
Twitter @comicsandcola
www.ahsanakbar.com/ Twitter @kobial
H Rukhsana Ahmad
H Monica Ali
Rukhsana Ahmad is a writer, translator and
Monica Ali has been named by Granta as one
playwright. She has written and adapted
of the 20 best young British novelists. She is
several plays for stage and the BBC, including:
the author of Brick Lane, an epic saga about
River on Fire (Finalist, Susan Smith Blackburn
a Bangladeshi family living in the UK, which
International Award); Wide Sargasso Sea
explores the British immigrant experience. It
(Finalist, Writers Guild Award for Best Radio
was shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize
Adaptation); and Song for a Sanctuary (Finalist, CRE Award, best original radio
and made into a film in 2007. Her second novel, Alentejo Blue, set in Portugal,
drama). Her publications are The Hope Chest (Virago) and The Gatekeeper’s Wife
was published in 2006, and her third, In the Kitchen, in 2009. Her latest novel
and other stories (ILQA). Her stories appear in: Right Of Way, The Inner Courtyard,
is Untold Story (2011). The daughter of English and Bangladeshi parents,
Flaming Spirit, Walking A Tight Rope (UK); Leaving Home, Dragonfly In The Sun
she came to England aged three, her first home being Bolton in Greater
(Pakistan); City Of Sin And Splendour (India); And The World Changed (USA);
Manchester, and later studied at Oxford University. Monica Ali lives in London.
Storywallah (Canada). Rukhsana co-founded and led Kali Theatre Company for
www.simonandschuster.co.uk/authors/Monica-Ali/18854757
several years. She is currently a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at QMUL. Twitter @Rukhsanamahmad 10
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CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Javaad Alipoor
H Muli Amaye
Javaad Alipoor is a writer, theatre maker and
Muli Amaye was born in Burnage,
political activist of Iranian and English heritage.
Manchester. She went to Manchester
He is Associate Director at Sheffield’s Crucible
Metropolitan University in 1998 to study
Theatre. His recent play, The Believers Are But
English, where she discovered a love of
Brothers, explores islamophobia, the crisis of
writing. An MA in creative writing followed
masculinity and the rise of ISIS in Syria, and
and, after a two-year break working in the
is touring nationally and internationally. Javaad writes spoken word poetry and
community, she began a PhD in creative writing at Lancaster University. She
has performed nationwide. His first pamphlet, The People Want (Arts In Unusual
teaches creative writing there and also runs workshops throughout Greater
Places), was based on the Arab Spring. Javaad’s writing on politics and artistic
Manchester, working in schools and community settings. Muli’s writing
and social theory regularly appears on his blog and in the media (The Stage, Arts
interests are centred around Manchester, migration, memory and notions of
Professional). His essays and short stories have been published in journals and
home, which she incorporates into her teaching. Muli’s short stories have
anthologies including Critical Muslim: Cities, Khiyana: The Unmaking of the Syrian
been published in Moving Worlds Journal. Her MA novel was shortlisted for
Revolution (UnKant) and Fear and Friendship (Continuum).
the 2014 SI Leeds Prize. She is currently editing her PhD novel for publication.
Twitter @javaadalipoor
www.muliamaye.wordpress.com/ Twitter @muliamaye
H Moniza Alvi
H Tahmima Anam
Moniza Alvi was born in Pakistan and grew
Tahmima Anam is an anthropologist and
up in Hertfordshire. Her first poetry collection,
novelist. Her debut novel, A Golden Age, was
The Country at My Shoulder (OUP, 1993), was
winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize
shortlisted for the T S Eliot and Whitbread
for Best First Book and her second novel, The
Poetry Prizes. Later titles include Split World:
Good Muslim, was nominated for the 2011
Poems 1990-2005 (Bloodaxe, 2008), Europa
Man Asian Prize. Her most recent book is The
(Bloodaxe, 2008) and At the Time of Partition (Bloodaxe, 2013); these last
Bones of Grace (2016). In 2013, she was named one of Granta’s Best Young
two were Poetry Book Society Choices and shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize.
British Novelists. She is a Contributing Opinion Writer for The New York
Homesick for the Earth (Bloodaxe, 2011) is a collection of her versions of the
Times and was a judge for the 2016 Man Booker International Prize. Born in
French/Uruguayan poet Jules Supervielle. Her Selected Poems are published
Dhaka, Bangladesh, she was educated at Mount Holyoke College and Harvard
in Holland (Het land aan mijn schouder, 2002) and Italy (Un Mondo Diviso, 2014).
University and now lives in Hackney, east London.
Moniza was a teacher in London for many years and currently tutors for The
http://www.canongate.tv/authors/tahmimaanam
Poetry School. She lives in Norfolk.
Twitter @tahmima
www.moniza.co.uk/ 11
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CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Anthony Anaxagorou
H Mona Arshi
Anthony Anaxagorou is an award-winning
Mona Arshi was born in west London, where
writer. He has published several volumes of
she still lives. She worked as a human rights
poems and essays, a spoken word EP and a
lawyer for a decade before she received a
short story collection. His poetry has appeared
Masters in Creative Writing from the University
variously in the media (national television, radio,
of East Anglia and won the inaugural Magma
magazines, anthologies). He has judged several
poetry competition in 2011. Mona went on
literary prizes, including the 2016 BBC Young Writers Award. Currently he is writer
to receive prizes in other competitions and she has been published widely,
in residence at several London schools; he also guest lectures on poetry, race/
including in The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Times of India. Her
identity politics and social inclusion. In 2012 he founded Out-Spoken, a poetry and
debut collection Small Hands was published in 2015 by Pavilion Poetry, part of
live music night. In 2013 he started the independent publisher Out-Spoken Press.
Liverpool University Press. George Szirtes commented that ‘It is rare to find a
He also hosts the monthly podcast series The Interlocutor. His writing has been
first book as beautiful as this’. Mona teaches poetry and was poetry mentor for
translated into Spanish, German, Greek, French and Japanese. In 2015 he won the
the Jerwood/Arvon scheme in 2016/2017.
Groucho Maverick Award for his writing.
www.monaarshi.com/
www.anthonyanaxagorou.com/ Twitter @Anthony1983
Twitter @arshi_mona
H Raymond Antrobus
H Dean Atta
Raymond Antrobus is one of the world’s
Dean Atta is a poet from London. His debut
first recipients of a Spoken Word MA from
collection, I Am Nobody’s Nigger (Westbourne
Goldsmith’s University, London. His poems
Press), was shortlisted for the Polari First
have appeared in POETRY magazine, The
Book Prize. He was named as one of the
Rialto, Magma and are forthcoming in Wasafiri
most influential LGBT people in the UK
and The Poetry Review. He is a Complete
by The Independent on Sunday Pink List.
Works fellow (2016-17) and is anthologised in the forthcoming Ten Anthology
He has performed at the Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and the
(Bloodaxe), Stairs & Whispers (Nine Arches Press) and Bare Lit (Jacaranda). His
Mediterranean (Italy) and also in Germany, Sweden, Canada and South Africa.
second pamphlet To Sweeten Bitter is just out (Outspoken Press) and his first full
He is a member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen and Point Blank Poets and an
collection is forthcoming (Penned In The Margins, 2018). Kwame Dawes says
Associate Artist at New Writing South. He has been commissioned to write
of Ray’s poetry: ‘His monologues are stunning studies of voice and substance’;
poems for BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, Dazed & Confused, The National
Imtiaz Dharker says ‘He makes the reader/listener experience the moment with
Portrait Gallery and Tate Modern. He is currently working on his second
all the senses and very skilfully sets that up against a harsher reality’.
collection, The Black Flamingo.
www.raymondantrobus.com/ Twitter @RaymondAntrobus
Twitter @DeanAtta
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CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Ola Awonubi
H Balvinder Singh Banga
Ola Awonubi studied for an MA in creative
Balvinder Singh Banga is the child of first
writing and Imaginative Practice at the
generation immigrants who settled in inner
University of East London. In 2008 her short
city Birmingham. He read law at Cambridge,
story ‘The Pink House’ won the National Words
the first in his family to go university. Since
of Colour Competition; another story, ‘The
then, he has worked at the London bar and in
Go-Slow Journey’, won the 2009 Wasafiri
post-war Bosnia with the army among others.
New Writing Prize. Some of her short stories feature on blogs and in journals
He is the author of an unpublished novel, Land Without Sorrow, and has been
and anthologies such as African writing.com, Story Time, The Ake Review,
published in various journals, including South Asian Popular Culture, Cha: An
TheSiren.co.uk, The Woven Tale Press and, more recently, Brittle Paper. Her
Asian Literary Journal, Litro and Wasafiri. Two of his short stories will soon
novel, Love’s Persuasion, was published by Ankara Press, the romance imprint
feature in anthologies by Cinnamon and Comma Press. His writing draws heavily
of Cassava Press. Her second book for the imprint, I love You Unconditionally,
on his family’s heritage and the places that refuse to leave him. He currently
was published recently. She is currently working on a collection of short stories
lives in London but soon intends to settle in a small town in India.
based on the African experience in the diaspora.
www.literaryconsultancy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/
www.olaawonubi.com/ Twitter @createandwrite
Balvinder-Banga-Showcase.pdf
H Biyi Bandele
H Francesca Beard
Biyi Bandele is a director, screenwriter,
Francesca Beard is a London-based,
playwright and novelist. He directed and
Malaysian-born writer who has been called
wrote the screenplay for the feature film Half
‘The Queen of British performance poetry’ by
of a Yellow Sun (2013), based on the novel by
London Metro. She performs and workshops
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Born in 1967 in
across the UK and represents the best of
Nigeria, Bandele left home at 14. He studied
British live literature around the world with
drama at the University of Ile-Ife, where his play Rain won him a scholarship to
the British Council. She’s been poet in residence at The Barbican, the BBC
London. In 1997, he adapted Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart for stage and in
White City, The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kingston Library,
1999 wrote an adaptation of Aphra Benn’s Oroonoko. Bandele’s novels The Man
the Natural history Museum and The Metropolitan Police and has written for
Who Came In From The Back of Beyond and The Sympathetic Undertaker and
The Royal Court, The Young Vic and BBC Radios 3 and 4. Her first solo show,
Other Dreams were published in 1991, followed by The Street (1999) and Burma
Chinese Whispers, produced by Apples and Snakes, was ground-breaking in its
Boy (2007). The Independent has named him one of Africa’s 50 greatest artists.
approach to performance poetry as a cross-arts form. She is currently working
He lives in London.
on a new one woman show, How to Survive a Post-Truth Apocalypse.
www.wylieagency.com/clients.html Twitter @biyibandele
www.francescabeard.com Twitter @FrancescaBeard 13
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CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Jay Bernard
H Kavita Bhanot
Jay Bernard is from London and is a writer
Kavita Bhanot is a writer, editor, teacher and
and film programmer at BFI Flare (London’s
activist based between India and England.
LGBT film festival). They are the author of
Her fiction, non-fiction and reviews have been
three pamphlets, The Red and Yellow Nothing
published widely in anthologies, magazines
(2016), English Breakfast (2013) and Your Sign is
and journals, including Media Diversified
Cuckoo, Girl (2008), and featured in anthologies
and The Independent; her short stories have
and magazines including TEN: The New Wave, Voice Recognition, Out of Bounds:
been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She is editor of the anthology Too Asian, Not
Black British Writers and Place and Flicker and Spark: A Contemporary Queer
Asian Enough (Tindal Street Press, 2011), the forthcoming Book of Birmingham
Anthology. Recent projects include The Sound and the State (an ongoing poem/
(Comma Press, 2017) and co-editor of the first Bare Lit anthology, literature
film/lecture premiered at the 2016 Document Human Rights Film Festival); 100,
by writers of colour (Brain Mill Press, 2017). She has a PhD from Manchester
a three-site poetry installation commissioned by Art on the Underground; the
University in Creative Writing and Literature, has taught at Manchester
Breaking Ground US tour 2015/16; and a 2016 residency at the George Padmore
University, Fordham University and Ashoka University and is a reader and
Institute, celebrating the 50th anniversary of New Beacon Books.
mentor with The Literary Consultancy.
www.jaybernard.co.uk/ Twitter @brrnrrd
www.mediadiversified.org/category/kavita-bhanot/
H Anita Bhagwandas
H Bidisha
Anita Bhagwandas is a multi-award-winning
Bidisha is a journalist, novelist, poet and radio
freelance journalist based in London. She has
and TV presenter specialising in social justice,
made her name creating thought-provoking,
human rights and the arts. She began writing
culturally relevant and agenda-setting journalism
for arts magazines at 14, published her debut
and has spent the last decade climbing the ranks
novel Seahorses (HarperCollins) at 16 and a
of the biggest UK fashion and lifestyle titles —
second novel, Too Fast To Live, at 21. She has
she was Senior Beauty Editor at Marie Claire and worked at Women’s Health and
published the travelogue Venetian Masters: Under the Skin of the City of Love
Stylist. Anita also writes on popular culture and diversity features focusing on race
(2008), the Middle Eastern reportage Beyond the Wall (2012) and Asylum and
and plus size fashion, including for The Guardian, Sunday Telegraph, The Pool, Red,
Exile: Hidden Voices (2015) based on her work with asylum seekers and refugees.
NME and Kerrang!. She works with trend forecasting agency The Future Laboratory
Her poetry has featured in Brave New Voices (English PEN) among others. She
and has been a commentator on Woman’s Hour, BBC’s Asian Network and ITV’s
has just finished Safe Journey Home: New Writing from Italy, India and China and
This Morning as a beauty expert. Currently, Anita is working on a book celebrating
is working on her debut poetry book and a short story collection.
and promoting a wider understanding of what constitutes being beautiful.
www.bidisha-online.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.anitabhagwandas.com/ Twitter @ItsMeAnitaB
Twitter @Bidisha_online
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CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Malorie Blackman
H Malika Booker
Malorie Blackman has written over 60 books
Malika Booker is a British writer, poet and
and is acknowledged as one of today’s most
multi-disciplinary artist of Guyanese and
imaginative and convincing writers for young
Grenadian parentage. She founded Malika’s
readers. She is particularly well known for
Poetry Kitchen. Her poetry collection Pepper
the Noughts & Crosses series. She has been
Seed was published by Peepal Tree Press
awarded many prizes for her work, including
(2013) and longlisted for the OCM Bocas 2014
the Red House Children’s Book Award and the Fantastic Fiction Award. Malorie
Prize; it was also shortlisted for the 2014 Seamus Heaney Centre Prize for first
has also been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. In 2005 she was honoured
full collection. Her 2017 publication is in The Penguin Modern Poet Series 3,
with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her contribution to children’s
Your Family: Your Body, where she is published with poets Sharon Olds and
books and in 2008 she received an OBE for her services to children’s literature.
Warsan Shire. Malika was inaugural Poet in Residence at the Royal Shakespeare
She has been described by The Times as ‘a national treasure’. Malorie was the
Company. She was the first British poet to be a fellow at Cave Canem, the
UK Children’s Laureate 2013-15.
prestigious African American poetry organisation. She is currently the Douglas
www.malorieblackman.co.uk/
Caster Cultural Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Leeds.
Twitter @malorieblackman
www.malikabooker.com/ Twitter @Malikabooker
H J J Bola
H Siddhartha Bose
A Kinshasa-born, London-raised writer, poet
Siddhartha Bose is a writer, poet and
and educator, J J Bola has published three
playwright based in London. His books
books of poetry: Elevate (2012), Daughter of
include two poetry collections, Kalagora and
the Sun (2014) and WORD (2015). His work
Digital Monsoon (Penned in the Margins,
is centred on a narrative of empowerment,
2010/13), a play, No Dogs, No Indians (Penned
humanisation and healing of trauma as well
in the Margins, 2017) and a monograph on
as discovery of self through art, literature and poetry. J J Bola reads regularly
the grotesque, Back and Forth (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015). Sid
at shows and festivals across the UK such as Tongue Fu, Vocals & Verses, Chill
has been dubbed one of the ‘ten rising stars of British poetry’ by The Times.
Pill, The Roundhouse, Ventnor Fringe, Glastonbury etc as well as at universities
His play, also called Kalagora, had an acclaimed run at Edinburgh Fringe
from SOAS to Oxford, Lincoln to the University of Birmingham. His US West
2011 and London’s Perverted Children was long-listed for an Oxford Samuel
Coast mini-tour in 2015/16 included performances at Da Poetry Lounge, UCLA,
Beckett Theatre Trust Award. He has made a film, Animal City, and co-edited a
Stanford University, Merrit College and in San Francisco and Oakland, where he
Special Issue of Wasafiri magazine on international urban writing. Sid was a
won the Oakland Poetry Slam.
Leverhulme Fellow in Drama at Queen Mary, University of London (2011-13).
www.jjbola.com/ Twitter @JJ_Bola
www.kalagora.com/ Twitter @kalagoraHQ 15
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Sita Brahmachari
H Victoria Adukwei Bulley
Sita Brahmachari’s career spans writing
Victoria Adukwei Bulley is a British-born
novels, plays and short stories. She has an
Ghanaian poet and writer from London. A
MA in Arts Education. In 2011 she won The
former Barbican Young Poet, her work has
Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for her
been commissioned by the Royal Academy
debut novel Artichoke Hearts. Three of her
of Arts in addition to being featured on BBC
novels for Macmillan Children’s Books –
Radio 4. She was shortlisted for the Brunel
Artichoke Hearts, Jasmine Skies and Red Leaves have been longlisted for The
University International African Poetry Prize 2016 and is one of ten poets on
Carnegie Prize; her novel Kite Spirit was nominated for UKLA Book Award. Red
the acclaimed UK mentorship programme, The Complete Works. Her debut
Leaves was endorsed by Amnesty International UK. Her own scripts include
pamphlet, Girl B, edited by Kwame Dawes, and is part of the New Generation
Lyrical MC and The Arrival (Tamasha Theatre Company, 2013). She was online
African Poets series 2017.
Writer in Residence for Book Trust (2015) and is currently Writer In Residence
www.victoriaadukwei.com/
at Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants. Sita’s fifth book for Macmillan
Twitter @victoriadukwei
Children’s Books Tender Earth will be published in summer 2017. www.sitabrahmachari.com/ Twitter @SitaBrahmachari
H Cecil Browne
H Elizabeth-Jane Burnett
Cecil Browne was born in St Vincent and the
Elizabeth-Jane Burnett is a poet and academic
Grenadines in 1957 and came to England in
with a focus on experimental writing. A poetry
1970. He has been a lecturer in maths for 25
collection on wild swimming, Swims (Penned
years and is passionate about cricket and The
in the Margins, 2017), and the monograph A
Sunday Times crossword. Creative writing is
Social Biography of Contemporary Innovative
a more recent interest and in 2010 his first
Poetry Communities - The Gift, the Wager, and
book, The Moon Is Following Me, was published by Matador. It is a collection
Poethics (Palgrave, 2017) are forthcoming. Poetry chapbooks include Rivering
of six short stories that ‘recall an era when the village was the centre of life
(Oystercatcher, 2017), oh-zones (Knives Forks and Spoons, 2012), Exotic Birds
in St Vincent and the Grenadines’. His second book, Feather Your Tingaling:
(Wordland, 2010), Her Body: The City (Wordland, 2009). A short film on poet John
Caribbean Short Stories, was published in 2012 by Matador.
Clare, M, by Brian Shields, features her poetry. Poetry has been anthologised
www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=1003
in Out of Everywhere 2 (Reality Street, 2015) and Dear World and Everyone In It (Bloodaxe, 2013). Her nature writing book/memoir is in progress. She is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Newman University in Birmingham. www.elizabethjaneburnett.com/ Twitter @ejbpoetry
16
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Season Butler
H Shruti Chauhan
Season Butler is a writer, artist, academic and
Shruti Chauhan is a British Indian poet and
activist. She undertook the MA in Creative
performer based in Leicester. She has won
Writing at Bath Spa University in 2007 and
slams internationally in Chicago and Mumbai
is currently reading for a PhD at Goldsmiths
and has performed at the Royal Albert Hall,
College. In 2014, Season won second place in
the US Embassy’s American Centre in New
the SI Leeds Prize for an early draft of Cygnet,
Delhi, the Green Mill in Chicago and at poetry
a coming-of-age novel told from the margins of society. Through three days in
festivals and events across the UK. In 2015 she toured Three the Hard Way
the life of a teenage girl abandoned in an old-age separatist community on an
– Part 2 nationally with Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze MBE and Lydia Towsey. She is a
island in the Atlantic, Cygnet is a black comedy about ageing and social value,
trustee of Writing East Midlands, the region’s writer development agency,
addiction, empathy and the lived experience of climate change. She is a member
an MGCfutures Bursary recipient and a participant on Curve Theatre’s BAME
of I’m With You, (a collective concerned with performance, queer domesticity
Cultural Leadership programme. Shruti is currently developing her debut solo
and gesturing towards wily future) and an associate artist of Somerset House
show, The Sky Diaries.
Studios.
www.shrutichauhan.com/
www.seasonbutler.com/ Twitter @season_butler
Twitter @shrutinotes
H Safeena Chaudhry
H Brian Chikwava
Safeena Chaudhry is a British Asian, London-
Brian Chikwava was born in Zimbabwe and
based novelist, events organiser, videographer
has been in the UK since 2004. He has been a
and editor. As the author of Companions of
Charles Pick Fellow at the University of East
Clay, her research took her into hospitals,
Anglia and lives in London. He won the Caine
clinics and into the depths of dreams. She
Prize in 2004 for the short story ‘Seventh
spent years researching lucid dreaming,
Street Alchemy’ and is the author of Harare
astral travel and went as far as the Huacachina desert, Peru. She is one of the
North, published by Jonathan Cape (English, 2009) and Editions Zoe (French
first independently published novelists to have a book launch at Foyles on the
translation, 2011). His short fiction has appeared in anthologies published
Southbank. Safeena is the founder of Novel London, a platform for emerging
by Picador, Granta, Weaver Press, Jacana and Umuzi and has also been
and established novelists. The platform is the only event of its kind that records
broadcast on BBC Radios 3 and 4 and the BBC World Service. He has been the
and uploads videos of novelists reading out their opening chapters. Whilst
judge of the Wasafiri New Writing Prize among others.
her writing explores the darkness within, she also works with light and runs
www.penguin.co.uk/authors/brian-chikwava/1062003/
Photography Meetups, which include workshops, seminars and photowalks.
Twitter @BrianChikwava
www.novellondon.co.uk Twitter @companionsclay 17
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Kayo Chingonyi
H Fran Clark
Kayo Chingonyi is a fellow of the Complete
London born singer/songwriter Fran Clark’s
Works programme and the author of two
first novel, Holding Paradise, was published
pamphlets, Some Bright Elegance (Salt, 2012)
by Indigo Dreams Publishing in 2014. During
and The Colour of James Brown’s Scream
that year, Fran passed her Creative Writing
(Akashic, 2016). His first full-length collection
MA with Distinction at Brunel University. She
is Kumukanda (Chatto & Windus, 2017). In 2012
then went on to complete a collection of short
he represented Zambia at Poetry Parnassus, a festival of world poets staged by
stories – a follow up to Holding Paradise – called The Long Way Home. Her
The Southbank Centre as part of London’s Cultural Olympiad. He was awarded
second novel, When Skies Are Grey, was shorlisted for the SI Leeds Literary
the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize and shortlisted for the inaugural Brunel University
Prize 2016 and she is currently seeking agent representation. Fran is a ghost
African Poetry Prize and has completed residencies with Kingston University,
writer of women’s fiction and articles for online magazines. She also writes
Cove Park, First Story, The Nuffield Council on Bioethics and Royal Holloway
commercial fiction under a pseudonym and has recently agreed a three book
University of London in partnership with Counterpoints Arts. He was Associate
deal with HQ Digital, an imprint of Harper Collins.
Poet at the Institute of Contemporary Arts from autumn 2015 to spring 2016.
www.franclarkwriter.co.uk/
www.kayochingonyi.com/ Twitter @KayoChingonyi
Twitter @FranClarkAuthor
H Maya Chowdhry
H Tosin Coker
A poet and inTer-aCtive theatre-maker, Maya’s
Tosin Coker is celebrated as one of science
writing is infused and influenced through her
fiction’s most talented and refreshing players
work for radio, film and theatre. Her poetry
as well as the UK’s BAME voice of the
collections are Fossil (Peepal Tree Press, 2016)
genre. Calling upon her life experience as an
and The Seamstress and the Global Garment
inheritor of sickle cell anaemia, in between
(Crocus, 2009). She is published in anthologies
writing her five science fiction novels, Coker
including Out of Bounds (Bloodaxe) and Red (Peepal Tree Press, 2016) and in
penned an educational non-fiction title, Genetic Nemesis HbSS Sickle Cell
magazines such as Ambit. Her accolades include the Cardiff International Poetry
Anaemia, on the subject of the blood disorder. Additionally, an eagerness to
Competition and the BBC Young Playwrights Festival. Her collaboration Tales from
reconnect with her native tongue, as well as the birth of her third child, led
the Towpath at Manchester Literature Festival was shortlisted for the 2014 New
Coker to create a series of pre-schooler dual language books. Focusing on the
Media Writing Prize, and her recent digital poetic work Ripple was shortlisted for
Ghanaian and Nigerian languages, Twi and Yoruba respectively, the books
the 2015 Dot Award. She is currently working on the Peas on Earth project, which
were greatly welcomed by members of the diaspora.
explores food sovereignty using live art and augmented reality.
www.tosincoker.com/
http://interactiveartist.org/ Twitter @MayaChowdhry
Twitter @TheAfrofuturist
18
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Crisis
H Selma Dabbagh
Crisis is part of the London spoken word
Selma Dabbagh is a British Palestinian writer
scene, travelling to New York for the British
of fiction living in London. Her first novel, Out
Council to participate in the UK in NY festival
of It (Bloomsbury), set between Gaza, London
at the world-renowned Nuyorican Poets’
and the Gulf, was a Guardian Book of the Year
Cafe. He has performed on the growing
(2011, 2012). Her writing has appeared in
underground black comedy circuit, on radio,
numerous anthologies and many of her short
at a political conference and at numerous performance venues, including
stories have been shortlisted, nominated for or won awards. In 2014, her play,
the Southbank Centre, the Union Chapel and for Jamaican Liberation Day
The Brick, was produced by BBC Radio 4 and nominated for an Imison Award.
celebrations in Manchester. Crisis has been commissioned by Apples &
She regularly writes for The Electronic Intifada on Palestinian culture and for
Snakes, one of the UK’s leading spoken word organisations, to write for the
The Guardian, The London Review of Books and GQ among others. Out of It has
Writers on the Storm and Broken Word tours.
been translated into Arabic (Gaze Taht el Jild, Bloomsbury Qatar, 2015). French
Twitter @elcrisis
(Editions de L’aube) and Italian (Il Sirente) editions are out in 2017. www.selmadabbagh.com Twitter @SelmaDabbagh
H Jacqueline Crooks
H David Dabydeen
Jacqueline Crooks was born in Jamaica
David Dabydeen was born in Guyana and
of Jamaican, Indian and German ancestry.
read English at Cambridge, graduating with
She has a first-class degree in Social Policy
the Quiller Couch Prize in 1978. He did his
and an MA in Creative & Life Writing from
doctorate at University College London and
Goldsmiths University. She writes about
was then appointed a Junior Research Fellow
Caribbean migration and sub-cultures. The
at Oxford (Wolfson College), before becoming
first chapter of her novel in progress, ‘Follow the Smoke’, was published by
a Professor at the University of Warwick. He has published seven novels and
Granta. Her short stories have been published in Peepal Tree Press’s Closure
three collections of poetry. He was awarded the Commonwealth Prize for
anthology and she was shortlisted in the 2013 Wasafiri New Writing Prize and
Poetry in 1984. His novels have won the Sagba Award, the Raja Rao Prize and
Asham Award. Her collection of linked short stories, The Ice Migration, will be
the Guyana Prize and have been shortlisted for the Dublin Impac Prize, the
published by Peepal Tree Press in autumn 2017.
James Tait Black Prize and the John Llewlyn Rhys Prize. Between 2010 and
www.jacquelinecrooks.com/
2015 he was appointed Guyana’s Ambassador to China.
Twitter @Luidas
www.peepaltreepress.com/authors/david-dabydeen
19
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Rishi Dastidar
H Imtiaz Dharker
Rishi Dastidar’s poetry has appeared in
Imtiaz Dharker is a poet, artist and
The Financial Times and at Tate Modern
documentary film-maker. Awarded the
amongst others. His work has featured in the
Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2014,
anthologies Adventures in Form (Penned in the
recipient of the Cholmondeley Award from
Margins) and Ten: The New Wave (Bloodaxe).
the Society of Authors, she is also a Council
His debut collection Ticker-tape is published
member of the Royal Society of Literature and
by Nine Arches Press. In 2016 he was commissioned by the BBC to write and
on the Editorial Board of Poems on the Underground. Her latest collection is
perform a poem for National Poetry Day. He was a runner-up in the 2011 Cardiff
Over the Moon (Bloodaxe Books). With Poetry Live! she reads to over 25,000
International Poetry Competition and the 2014 Troubadour International Poetry
students a year. She has had 11 solo exhibitions of her drawings. She also
Prize; and in 2016 was long-listed in the UK’s National Poetry Competition. A
scripts and directs films, many of them for non-government organisations in
fellow of The Complete Works, he is a consulting editor at The Rialto magazine
India, working in the area of shelter, education and health for women and
and a member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen collective. He is chair of literature
children.
organisation Spread The Word and teaches for The Poetry School.
www.imtiazdharker.com/
Twitter @BetaRish
Twitter @Idharker
H A A Dhand
H Harkiran Dhindsa
A A Dhand was raised in Bradford and
Born in India, Harkiran Dhindsa was raised
spent his youth observing the city from
in London and much of her fiction is set
behind the counter of a small convenience
there. A qualified dentist, Harkiran worked in
store. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he
community dentistry, in particular providing
worked in London and travelled extensively
care for patients with mental health issues,
before returning to Bradford to start his own
but left this career to pursue writing. In 2014,
business and write. The history, diversity and darkness of the city inspired
she completed an MA in Creative Writing with Distinction at City University. Her
his Harry Virdee novels. He won a national script-writing competition in 2004
novel, Our Staggering Minds, was shortlisted in the SI Leeds Literary Prize 2016
and then began writing crime fiction, a 12-year journey of one million words
and longlisted in the Mslexia Novel Competition. This as yet unpublished novel
before he penned his debut novel, Street of Darkness (Transworld, 2016). TV
is a midlife-reckoning tale of thwarted ambition, obsessive love and troubled
rights to the book were sold prior to publication and the screen adaptation
minds. Among her shorter fiction, ‘Burying Your Life’ was shortlisted in the
is in early development. The novel has also been nominated for two Crime
Guardian Short Story Competition 2010. ‘The Mixing of Mendhi’ was published
Writers’ Association Awards.
in an Asham Award anthology of new writing by women.
www.aadhand.com/ Twitter @aadhand
Twitter @HarkiranDhindsa
20
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Sareeta Domingo
H Sharon Duggal
Sareeta Domingo wrote The Nearness of You
Sharon Duggal was born to parents who
(Little, Brown, 2016), a portrait of a young
immigrated to the UK from the Punjab, India
woman navigating love and friendship in
and grew up around Handsworth, Birmingham.
modern-day London, as well as numerous
She lived in London for many years and
published short stories and a novella. She
now lives in Brighton. Sharon is a writer,
was born in south-east London, but spent
campaigner and community radio producer/
her formative years in Bahrain when her family moved there. With over a
presenter amongst other things. She was a runner-up in the Decibel-Penguin
decade of experience in publishing, she works as a freelance editor and
Prize for Short Stories and received a Literary Consultancy bursary from New
blogs about contemporary romantic fiction at The Palate Cleanser [http://
Writing South for her writing-in-progress. She has a Master of Philosophy
thepalatecleanserblog.wordpress.com]. She is a keen advocate for greater
Creative Writing degree from the University of Sussex. The Handsworth Times
diversity in publishing and was a panellist at the inaugural Bare Lit Festival. She
is her first novel (Bluemoose Books, 2016). The Morning Star newspaper choose
has written for groundbreaking online and print magazine gal-dem, participating
it as their 2016 novel of the year and it was recently selected as Brighton City
in their take-over of the V&A Museum in October 2016.
Reads’ Adult Big Read choice as part of the 2017 Brighton Festival.
www.sareetadomingo.com/ Twitter @SareetaDomingo
www.Sharonduggal.com Twitter @MsSDuggal
H Afshan D’souza-Lodhi
H Yvvette Edwards
Afshan D’souza-Lodhi was born in Dubai
Yvvette Edwards is a British author
and is of Indian/Pakistani descent. She
of Montserratian origin. Her debut, A
writes plays, prose, performance pieces
Cupboard Full of Coats, was published in the
and occasionally passive aggressive
UK, USA and Greece and nominated for
tweets. Afshan has completed many writer
awards including the Man Booker Prize,
residencies and has also won numerous
Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and Impac
awards (including the Vinspired Award, The Big Issue in the North Award and
Dublin Literary Award. Its themes centre around the psychological impact on
a Community History Award). She has worked with Manchester Lit Festival,
the interior worlds of children who witness domestic violence. Her second
The Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Eclipse
novel, The Mother, was published in 2016 in the UK and USA. Narrated by
Theatre, Paul Burston’s Polari and one day hopes to take over the world. She
the mother of a 16 year-old who has been stabbed and killed, it is an emotive
is currently studying for her Masters at Manchester University and has been
exploration of grief and the root causes of teenage violence. She currently
commissioned by Random Acts North to write and direct a short film.
mentors for the Escalator scheme run by Writers’ Centre Norwich and is a
www.afshanlodhi.com/
judge for the Jhalak Prize for writers of colour.
Twitter @ashlodhi
www.yvvetteedwards.co.uk/ Twitter @YvvetteEdwards 21
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Zena Edwards
H Inua Ellams
Zena Edwards was raised in Tottenham, north
Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is a cross-art form
London and has been writing since she was a
practitioner, a poet, playwright & performer,
child. Since graduating from Middlesex
graphic artist & designer and founder of the
University in Drama and Communication Studies,
Midnight Run — an international, arts-filled,
Zena has been involved in poetry, theatre and
night-time, playful, urban, walking experience.
live literature performance for 24 years. She has
He is a Complete Works poet alumni and a
been nominated for the 2017 Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships Award, was
designer at White Space Creative Agency. Across his work, identity, displacement
nominated for the Arts Foundation Award for Performance Poetry 2013 and won
& destiny are recurring themes, which also mixes old and new: traditional
the Hidden Creatives Award 2012. Her writing for performance explores collective
African storytelling with contemporary poetry, pencil with pixel, texture with
and personal revolution, re-membering that which has been dismembered in
vector images. His three poetry pamphlets are published by flipped eye and
the continuum of the African diaspora pre- and postcolonial canon. Zena has is
Akashic Books and several plays came out with Oberon. In 2017 his latest book,
creative and educational director of Verse In Dialog (©CV:iD), which is a social
#Afterhours, will be published by Nine Arches and his Barber Shop Chronicles will
enterprise company focused on cross-art collaboration for social change.
have its world premier at the National Theatre, London.
www.goodnewzee.wordpress.com/ Twitter @ZenaEdwards
www.inuaellams.com/ Twitter @InuaEllams
H Asma Elbadawi
H Diana Evans
Asma Elbadawi is a poet and artist born in
Diana Evans is an award-winning novelist,
Sudan and raised in Bradford, Yorkshire from
journalist and critic. Her bestselling novel,
the age of one. Her writing expresses her
26a, won the inaugural Orange Award for
thoughts on global issues, including gender,
New Writers, a British Book Award and was
mental health and identity. She holds an MA
shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel and
in Visual Arts and a BA in photography, video
Commonwealth Best First Book Awards. The
and digital imaging. She also plays and coaches basketball. She was one of
Times described her second novel, The Wonder, as ‘the most dazzling depiction
the final six Words First poets, a national project from the Roundhouse and
of the world of dance since Ballet Shoes’. She is a graduate of the University
BBC Radio 1Xtra to highlight the existing spoken word scene and to nurture
of East Anglia’s MA in Creative Writing and has written extensively on music,
new and emerging talent across the UK. As a dyslexic poet, poetry helps her
dance and literature in the national press, including Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar,
make up her own rules for using words and she writes about the everyday,
Time Out, The Guardian, The Times and The Independent. She has taught writing
from conversations with a friend to nostalgia for her home country.
workshops for Arvon, Royal Holloway College and First Story and is currently a
Twitter @AsmaElbadawi
Royal Literary Fellow at the University of Kent. www.penguin.co.uk/authors/diana-evans/1016409/
22
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Bernardine Evaristo
H Caleb Femi
Bernardine Evaristo is the author of seven
Caleb Femi is the 2016-17 Young People’s
books of fiction and verse fiction exploring
Laureate for London and an English teacher,
aspects of the African diaspora, including
filmmaker, photographer and schools
her most recent novel, Mr Loverman, about
workshop leader. Caleb’s poetry commissions
a septuagenarian Antiguan-Londoner who is
include the Tate Modern, The Royal Society
closet homosexual (Penguin, 2013). Other books
for Literature and The Guardian. He has read
include Lara, Blonde Roots and The Emperor’s Babe. She also writes short stories,
at many London venues; he also opened up for Lianne La Havas and has
essays, literary criticism, poetry and BBC radio and theatre drama. She has held
performed at festivals including Latitude, Ed Fringe, Boomtown, Lovebox and
several international fellowships and was The 2015 Montgomery Fellow at
Greenbelt. Caleb won the Roundhouse Poetry and Genesis Poetry Slams and
Dartmouth College, USA. She is currently Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel
is currently working on a debut pamphlet. As a filmmaker, he has released two
University, London. She has won many awards, was elected a Fellow of the Royal
documentaries, What Did Love Taste Like In The 70s? and Heartbreak & Grime,
Society of Literature in 2004 and made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in
to good international reception, which has led him to give talks and panel
2006. She was honoured with an MBE in 2009.
discussions on the topic of grime music, road culture and masculinity.
www.bevaristo.com/ Twitter @BernardineEvari
www.calebfemi.com/ Twitter @CalebFemi5
H Roopa Farooki
H Kat Francois
Roopa Farooki has published six novels with
Kat Francois is a performance artist,
Headline and Macmillan, which have been
playwright and director. The first person to
listed for the Orange/Baileys Prize three times
win a televised poetry slam in the UK, a year
and translated into 13 languages. Her other
later Kat won the World Slam Championships.
award nominations include the Dublin Impac
She hosts a monthly poetry and music event,
Literary Award, the DSC Prize for South Asian
Word4Word, now in its 14th year at Theatre
Literature and the Muslim Writers’ Award. She is the recipient of an Arts
Royal Stratford East. Kat has written and performed two solo plays and three
Council Award and the John C Laurence Prize from the Authors’ Foundation for
comedy shows; her play Raising Lazarus, about the experiences of Caribbean
work that improves understanding between cultures. Her latest novel, The Good
soldiers in World War One, continues to tour globally. Kat has worked
Children, was named ‘outstanding novel of the year’ by The Daily Mail. She is a
with young people for many years as a youth worker. She is an established
lecturer for the Masters in Creative Writing at Oxford University and is currently
playwright and director of youth theatre, devising plays for theatres including
studying medicine at St George’s University of London. She lives with her
the Roundhouse Camden and Lyric Theatre Hammersmith. Kat has appeared
husband and four young children.
on BBC TV and radio, Sky and international media.
www.roopafarooki.com/ Twitter @RoopaFarooki
www.katfrancois.com Twitter @katfrancois 23
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Gabriel Gbadamosi
H Niven Govinden
Gabriel Gbadamosi is a poet, playwright and
Niven Govinden is the author of four novels:
essayist. His London novel Vauxhall (2013)
We Are The New Romantics (Bloomsbury,
won the Tibor Jones Pageturner Prize and
2004), Graffiti My Soul (Canongate, 2007),
Best International Novel at the Sharjah
Black Bread White Beer (The Friday Project/
Book Fair. He was AHRC Creative Fellow in
Harper Collins, 2012) and All The Days And
European and African Performance at the
Nights (The Friday Project/Harper Collins,
Pinter Centre, Goldsmiths, a Judith E Wilson Fellow for creative writing at
2014). He has been shortlisted twice for the Green Carnation Prize, shortlisted
Cambridge University and Royal Literary Fund Fellow at City & Guilds of
for the Bristol Short Story Prize and longlisted for both the Folio and
London Art School. Plays include Eshu’s Faust (Jesus College, Cambridge),
Crossword Prizes. His short stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 & 4
Hotel Orpheu (Schaubühne, Berlin) and, for radio, The Long, Hot Summer of ’76
and published in various publications and anthologies including Gorse, Time
(BBC Radio 3), which won the Richard Imison Award. He presented arts
Out, Pen Pusher and BUTT. He chaired the Green Carnation Prize in 2015 and is
and ideas on Night Waves for BBC Radio 3 and is a trustee of the Arcola
currently judging the 2017 4th Estate/Guardian BAME Short Story Prize.
Theatre, London.
www.canongate.tv/authors/nivengovinden
www.gabrielgbadamosi.com Twitter @vauxhallgabriel
Twitter @niven_govinden
H Salena Godden
H Colin Grant
Salena Godden is the author of the literary
Colin Grant is a historian, author and BBC
memoir Springfield Road and the poetry books
producer. His books include Negro with a
Fishing In The Aftermath and Under The Pier.
Hat, a biography of Marcus Garvey; I and I
She is a regular headliner at national and
The Natural Mystics Marley, Tosh and Wailer;
international literary and music festivals.
and his latest, A Smell of Burning; the Story of
Her short fiction ‘Blue Cornflowers’ was
Epilepsy. Grant’s memoir of growing up in a
shortlisted for the 2016 Guardian Short Story Prize and a performance of
Caribbean family in 1970s suburbia, Bageye at the Wheel, was shortlisted for
her poem ‘Titanic’ was aired on the BBC poetry programme We Belong Here
the PEN/Ackerley Prize. He has written numerous BBC radio documentaries
throughout October 2016. Salena’s essay ‘Shade’ was published in 2016
including A Fountain of Tears, focusing on the last days of Federico Garcia
bestseller and literary sensation The Good Immigrant (Unbound Books). Most
Lorca. He is a regular contributor to The Guardian and Granta Magazine and is a
recently, Salena’s new live spoken word album LIVEwire has attracted rave
tutor of Creative Writing at Arvon and City University.
reviews since its 2017 launch with indie poetry label Nymphs and Thugs.
www.colingrant.info/ Twitter @colincraiggrant
www.salenagodden.tumblr.com/ Twitter @salenagodden 24
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Romesh Gunesekera
H Rahila Gupta
Romesh Gunesekera is internationally
Rahila Gupta is a freelance journalist, writer and
acclaimed for his novels and short stories,
activist. Her books include: a collection of essays,
including the Booker-shortlisted Reef. He
From Homebreakers to Jailbreakers: Southall
explores key themes of our times – political,
Black Sisters (ed., 2003); Provoked, the story of a
environmental, economic – through stories
battered woman who killed her violent husband
of wide appeal. Noontide Toll, his most recent
(she also co-wrote the 2007 film screenplay);
book, captures a vital moment in the aftermath of civil war in Sri Lanka and
and Enslaved (2007). Her play, Don’t Wake Me: The Ballad of Nihal Armstrong,
was featured in The New Yorker. Romesh travels widely for festivals and has
ran in London, Edinburgh, New York and four Indian cities between 2012-14 and
run workshops for the British Council, Arvon and others to inspire new writers.
was nominated for numerous awards. Her articles are published in The Guardian,
Born in Sri Lanka, he also lived in the Philippines before coming to Britain.
New Humanist, New Internationalist and openDemocracy among others. She and
His awards include The New York Times Notable Books, the Premio Mondello
Beatrix Campbell are collaborating on a book, Why Doesn’t Patriarchy Die?, which
(Italy) and the BBC Asia Award. Romesh is a Fellow of the Royal Society of
investigates how patriarchy fits with diverse political systems. She is co-writing a
Literature.
play with her daughter on Indian Partition for Tara Arts.
www.romeshgunesekera.com Twitter @RomeshG
Twitter @RahilaG
H Xiaolu Guo
H Choman Hardi
Xiaolu Guo is a writer, academic and filmmaker.
Choman Hardi was born in Sulamani,
Her most notable novels are A Concise Chinese-
Kurdistan and lived in Iraq and Iran before
English Dictionary for Lovers (Orange Prize for
seeking asylum in the UK in 1993. She was
Fiction nomination) and Village of Stone as well
educated at Oxford, London and Kent. She
as a short story collection, Lovers in the Age of
was awarded a Leverhulme Trust scholarship
Indifference. Her recent novel, I Am China, was
to carry out post-doctoral research, which was
longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Guo’s feature films include
published as Gendered Experiences of Genocide: Anful Survivors in Kurdistan-Iraq
How is Your Fish Today (Sundance), UFO in her Eyes (TIFF), Once Upon a Time
in 2001. Hardi has published poetry collections in Kurdish and English. Her
Proletarian (Venice) and She a Chinese, which won the Golden Leopard Award
first English collection was Life for Us (Bloodaxe, 2004). Her latest English
at the 2009 Locarno Film Festival. Her memoir Once Upon a Time in the East was
collection, Considering the Women (Bloodaxe, 2015), was a Poetry Book
just out (Penguin Random House, 2017). She was a named as a 2013 Granta
Society Recommendation and shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best
Best Young British Novelist and lives in Berlin and London.
Collection. In 2014 she moved back to her birth city of Sulamani to become
www.guoxiaolu.com/
chair of the department of English at the American University of Iraq.
Twitter @XiaoluGuo
www.chomanhardi.com/ Twitter @chomahardi 25
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Maggie Harris
H Michelle Hubbard
Maggie Harris is a Guyana-born poet and
Michelle ‘Mother’ Hubbard is a performance
prose writer who has lived in the UK since
poet, storyteller/creator, script writer, African
1971. She has BA in African/Caribbean
drummer, cultural arts practitioner and
Studies and an MA in Post-Colonial Studies
workshop facilitator based in Nottingham. She
from The University of Kent, winning the
regularly performs on the UK open mic circuit
T S Eliot Poetry Student Prize there, and
and is a founder member of the spoken word
has taught at Kent and Southampton Universities. As a freelance literature
event BlackDrop. Michelle has been developing her one woman show, Cutting
promoter, she organised a live literature festival, Inscribing the Island, in Thanet
Edge, which is an honest exploration of FGM and other violations bestowed
(2002-4). Her memoir, Kiskadee Girl, was a prize-winner in Kingston University’s
upon women around the world. Michelle’s poetry is published in various
Life Writing Competition. She has won the Guyana Prize twice for her poetry:
anthologies including Poets in the Pink, Edinburgh Review, Caribbean Logic, Hair
Limbolands (2000) and Sixty Years of Loving (2014); and was the Caribbean
Power Skin Revolution and Sweat Beats For Keats. Her work has featured on the
Winner of the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for ‘Sending for Chantal’.
BBC’s website among others. She successfully self-published two books, The
Her latest collection of stories is Writing on Water (Seren, 2017).
Tapestry Of A Black Woman (2005) and The Irish-Jamaican (2007).
Twitter @kaiteurfalls
Twitter @THEmotherH
H Abdullahi Botan Hassan
H Isaiah Hull
Abdullahi Botan Hassan is a Somali poet,
Isaiah Hull is a 19-year-old writer and
writer and researcher. He came to London as a
performer from Old Trafford, Manchester. He
refugee in 1998. Abdullahi plays a crucial role to
was a Roundhouse/BBC Radio 1Xtra’s Words
continue Somali oral traditions in the diaspora,
First finalist. Isaiah has been a member of
adapting traditional poetic forms to make them
Manchester’s young writer’s collective Young
relevant and engaging to Somalis and the
Identity since 2010. Formed in Moss Side,
wider London community. In 2003 he founded Soohan Somali Arts, which works
Young Identity supports teenagers and young adults by using poetry as a means
in primary schools. In 2012 he represented Somalia at Poetry Parnassus, part of
of expressing and exploring both local and global issues through workshops at
the Cultural Olympiad at the Southbank Centre, London, which poets from every
Manchester’s charity-run Contact theatre. Isaiah’s first slam poetry performance
country attended. He translated Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet XII’ for the Globe Theatre’s
was at WORDCUP by Apples and Snakes, where he competed alongside artists
2012 Sonnet Sunday; his poems have appeared in The World Record, Rain Poems
from London, Leeds and Birmingham. His influences include poet Saul Williams,
and The Red Anthology among others and have been translated into English,
author Philip Larkin and Greek tragedies. His performances have taken him up
Arabic and Turkish.
and down the country, from London to the Beatnik Festival in Glasgow.
Twitter @AbdullahiBotan
www.makingcontactmcr.com/about
26
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Aamer Hussein
H Joshua Idehen
Born in 1955 in Karachi, Aamer Hussein moved
Joshua Idehen is a poet, teacher and musician.
to London in 1970. After graduating from
A British-born Nigerian, Joshua founded one
SOAS, he read psychology and philosophy at
of the most successful London poetry events,
Regents College. Aamer’s first story collection
Poejazzi, and also created London’s first app
was Mirror to the Sun (1993); This Other Salt
focused on UK spoken word for IOS and Android.
(1999), Turquoise (2002) and Insomnia (2007)
He has performed alongside Saul Williams and
followed. After two novels, Another Gulmohar Tree (2009) and The Cloud
Ed Sheeran among others. He has produced three critically acclaimed albums:
Messenger (2011), he returned to short stories with The Swan’s Wife (2014);
Benin City’s Fires In The Park (4 Stars, Q Mag) and LV’s Routes and Islands (among
an Indian edition, 37 Bridges, won the 2016 French Embassy/Karachi Literature
FactMag’s best albums of the 2000s). He recently collaborated with The Comet
Festival Prize. Multilingual, he also writes in Urdu and collaborates with his
Is Coming on their debut album, Channel The Spirits, which was nominated for a
Italian translators. He is a Contributing Editor of Asymptote, a Senior Editor of
Mercury Award. He is working on a gig/theatre show with Benin City on London’s
Critical Muslim and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of English Studies.
nightlife, a third album with LV and an electronic R&B album with the band Hugh.
Hussein became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2004.
Twitter @BeninCitizen
www.aamerhussein.com/
H Khadijah Ibrahiim
H Amina Jama
Khadijah Ibrahiim was born in Leeds and is
Amina is a 19-year old Somali-British writer
of Jamaican parentage. She was educated
and a Roundhouse/BBC Radio 1Xtra’s Words
at the University of Leeds, where she gained
First London finalist. Amina was raised
a BA Honours in Arabic and Middle Eastern
in Bow, east London and is a member of
Studies and a MA in Theatre Studies. She is
collectives Octavia, Spit the Atom and
a published poet, live artist, theatre maker,
Barbican Young Poets. As Amina grew up
producer and the Artistic Director of Leeds Young Authors. Hailed as one
in the birthplace of grime, music heavily influences her work. She revisits
of Yorkshire’s most prolific poets by BBC Radio, she has appeared on many
themes relating to displacement, negotiation of dual cultural, identity and
international stages. Her recent collection, Another Crossing, was published by
family. It has been said that her work is brave and humble with a warm
Peepal Tree Press in 2014 and launched at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
intimacy both on stage and page. She is a co-host of Boxpark Shoreditch’s
www.peepaltreepress.com/authors/khadijah-ibrahiim
spoken word night, BoxedIN. Her work will be featured in an upcoming Saqi Books anthology. She has also been commissioned from the likes of the BBC to the Queens Gallery. Twitter @amxnawrites 27
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Keith Jarrett
H Anjali Joseph
Keith Jarrett writes poetry and short fiction.
Anjali Joseph was born in Bombay and
In 2010, he was simultaneously London and
educated at Trinity College, Cambridge,
UK Poetry Slam Champion. In 2013, his five-
and the University of East Anglia. Saraswati
star reviewed show Identity Mix-Up debuted
Park, her first novel, was published in 2010
at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. In 2014,
and won the Betty Trask Prize, the Desmond
he completed the pioneering Spoken Word
Elliott Prize and the Vodafone Crossword Book
Educators programme, teaching at a secondary school while studying for an
Award for Fiction in India. Another Country, published in 2012, was longlisted
MA at Goldsmiths University; he also won the Rio International Poetry Slam
for the Man Asian Literary Prize. The Living, a tale of two shoemakers, one
championship at the FLUPP favela literary festival. His stories have appeared
in India, one in England, was published in 2016. An extract from the novel
in Attitude and Tell Tales IV among others. Keith’s poetry pamphlet, I Speak
appeared in Granta’s India issue in 2016.
Home, was published last year. He is a PhD scholar at Birkbeck University of
www.anjalijoseph.com
London and completing his first novel. His first full poetry collection, Selah,
Twitter @anjalij
will be published this spring by Burning Eye. www.zoneonetosix.blogspot.com Twitter: @keithjlondon
H Catherine Johnson
H Anthony Joseph
Catherine Johnson was born in London and
Anthony Joseph is a poet, novelist, musician
is of Jamaican-Welsh heritage. She has
and academic described as ‘the leader of
published over 15 books for young readers in
the black avant-garde in Britain’. He has
a writing career of over 20 years, including
published four poetry collections and a
Sawbones and The Curious Tale of The Lady
novel, The African Origins of UFOs. In 2005 he
Caraboo (Random House), both of which were
was selected by the Arts Council of England
nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Sawbones was also the winner of the
and Renaissance One as one of 50 Black and Asian writers who have made
Young Quills Award for historical fiction. She also writes for film, television
major contributions to contemporary British literature. As a musician he has
and radio, including the 2007 film Bullet Boy, as well as for BBC drama Holby
released six critically acclaimed albums and has collaborated with Archie
City and the Prix Italia nominated radio play Fresh Berries. Her latest book,
Shepp, Jerry Dammers, Joseph Bowie, Keziah Jones, David Rudder and
Blade and Bone, was published in 2016.
Meshell Ndgeocello, who produced his 2014 album, Time. His sixth album,
www.catherinejohnson.co.uk/
Caribbean Roots, was released in 2016. He lectures in creative writing at
Twitter @catwrote
Birkbeck College, London. www.anthonyjoseph.co.uk/ Twitter @adjoseph
28
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Peter Kalu
H Omar El-Khairy
Peter Kalu is the son of Nigerian and Danish
Omar El-Khairy is a playwright, screenwriter
migrants and grew up in Manchester. He
and essayist. His plays include Burst, Sour
began writing at Moss Side Write, a local black
Lips, The Keepers of Infinite Space and The
writing group, and has written eight books to
Chaplain: or, a short tale of how we learned to
date, two radio plays broadcast on the BBC and
love good Muslims whilst torturing bad ones
several works for theatre. His series of young
(Oberon Books). His last play, Homegrown,
adult novels highlight the experience of young Black Britons: The Silent Striker
was commissioned as part of the National Youth Theatre’s 2015 season. It will
(now being filmed), Being Me and Zombie XI (all Hope Road Publishing). His most
be published by fly π rates in 2017. Omar is a founding member of Paper Tiger
recent crime novel is Little Jack Horner (Suitcase Books). Over 30,000 people have borrowed his books from UK libraries and he was Winner of a 2003 BBC Dangerous
(www.papertiger.org.uk), a theatre and filmmakers’ collective; and of Shade (www.collectiveshade.com), a digital magazine covering art, culture and
Comedy Award. He works occasionally as a French and Spanish translator and is a
politics. His first short film, No Exit, received its world premiere at the 2016
PhD student in creative writing at Lancaster University.
Dubai International Film Festival and screened nationally and internationally.
www.peterkalu.com/
Omar holds a PhD in Sociology from the LSE.
Twitter @peterkalu
www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/omar-el-khairy Twitter @TheloniousO
H Jackie Kay
H Farhana Khalique
Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh in 1961 and
Farhana Khalique is a writer, voiceover and
has written all her life. Her poetry collections
teacher. She was born in south-west London
have won or been shortlisted for awards
and is of Bangladeshi heritage. Her first
across the board. Her first novel, Trumpet,
published short story appeared in The Asian
won the Author’s Club First Novel Award and
Writer’s celebration-themed debut anthology
The Guardian Fiction Prize. Her first novel
Happy Birthday to Me in 2010; further stories
for children, Strawgirl, a lyrical slice of magical realism, was a huge critical
have appeared in The Asian Writer and Carillon magazines. Farhana has also
success. In 2006 Jackie was awarded an MBE. Her book, Red Dust Road,
been teaching English for over ten years and can be heard on TV as a Channel
about the search for her biological parents, won the 2011 Scottish Investment
4 continuity announcer. Her next story will appear in The Asian Writer’s Dividing
Mortgage Trust Book of the Year. Her novel, Reality, Reality, was published in
Lines, an anthology on the theme of borders, boundaries and belonging. The
2012 by Pan Macmillan. She is Chancellor of the University of Salford.
collection celebrates ten years of the magazine and the 70th anniversary of
In March 2016, Kay was appointed the Makar or National Poet for Scotland
Indian independence, and will be published by Dahlia Publishing in April 2017.
for a five year term.
Farhana lives in south-west London with her family.
Twitter @JackieKayPoet
Twitter @HanaKhalique 29
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Mimi Khalvati
H Vanessa Kisuule
Mimi Khalvati was born in Tehran, Iran, and
Vanessa Kisuule is a writer, performer and spoken
grew up in England. She has published eight
word artist based in Bristol. She has won several
collections with Carcanet Press, including
slam titles including, most recently, Hammer and
The Meanest Flower, shortlisted for the 2007
Tongue National Slam 2014 and the Nuoryican
T S Eliot Prize, and Child: New and Selected
Poetry Slam in New York. She has worked with
Poems 1991-2011, a Poetry Book Society
the Southbank Centre, RADA, Bristol City Council
Special Commendation. She was poet in residence at the Royal Mail and
and had her work featured by the BBC, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Dazed and
has held fellowships with the Royal Literary Fund at City University and at
Confused, Sky TV and TEDx in Vienna. She represented the UK in two European Slam
the International Writing Program in Iowa. She is the founder of The Poetry
Championships in Sweden and Belgium, completed a ten-day tour of Germany in 2015
School, where she teaches in London. Her awards include a Cholmondeley
and spoke at the 2016 Global Forum of Migration and Development in Bangladesh.
Award from the Society of Authors. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of
Her debut poetry collection, Joyriding The Storm, was published in 2014. She has
Literature and of The English Society. Her most recent collection, The Weather
performed at festivals including Shambala, WOMAD and Glastonbury.
Wheel, is a Poetry Book Society recommendation.
www.burningeyebooks.wordpress.com/tag/vanessa-kisuule
www.mimikhalvati.co.uk/
Twitter @Vanessa_Kisuule
H Shamshad Khan
H Chanje Kunda
Shamshad Khan is a poet and coach in
Chanje Kunda is a Manchester-based poet,
creative writing, resilience and inspired living.
playwright and performance artist. She has
She works with individuals and organisations
performed at the Calabash Literature Festival
using writing as a tool to empower and
Jamaica and Rise London Unite Music
develop communities. Her poetry collection
Festival among others. In 2012 she had a
Megalomaniac published by Salt Publishing
year- long artist residency in the Netherlands.
was a set text on the English Literature degree at Lancaster University.
Her collection of poetry Amsterdam (Crocus Books, 2013), was dramatised
Shamshad has edited poetry anthologies; collaborated with musicians, deaf
for the stage and has been touring since 2014. It was part of 2015’s Talawa
signers and beatboxers; been featured on BBC’s The Verb and at international
Firsts Season, which celebrates the best in new work by Black British theatre
literature festivals. She is currently working on a show, the moon watcher, with
artists. In 2015 she won the BBC’s Verb New Voices Award. Chanje toured
the Horse and Bamboo puppet theatre.
South Africa in 2016, including The National Arts Festival, Grahamstown and
www.shamshadkhan27.wordpress.com
the 969 Festival, Johannesburg. In 2017 she was given a creative fellowship at the Manchester International Festival. www.chanjekunda.com/ Twitter @ChanjeKunda
30
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Zaffar Kunial
H Nikita Lalwani
Zaffar Kunial was born in Birmingham and
Nikita Lalwani is a novelist born in Rajasthan,
lives in Hebden Bridge. His first collection of
India and raised in Cardiff, Wales. Her work
verse was published as part of the Faber New
has been translated into 16 languages. Her
Poets series. Choosing it as one of her 2014
first book, Gifted, was longlisted for the
books of the year for The Herald, Jackie Kay
Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa
announced: ‘His poems are precise, startling
First Novel Award, The Sunday Times Young
in their originality, full of grace. Kunial traces the roots in language to then
Writer of the Year Award and won the Desmond Elliot Prize for Fiction; her
track the roots in his mixed race identity, effortlessly transporting the reader
second, The Village (2012), won the 2013 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award.
from one place to another’. His poem ‘Hill Speak’ was a National Poetry
Lalwani has written for The Guardian, The New Statesman and The Observer
Competition prize-winner; and ‘Us’ was included in The Map and the Clock
and contributed to AIDS Sutra, an anthology exploring the lives of people
(ed. Carol Ann Duffy; Faber, 2016). Zaffar was the 2014 Poet-in-Residence for
living with HIV/AIDS in India. She is a trustee of the British human rights
the Wordsworth Trust and, before this, he worked as a ‘Creative Writer’ for
organisation Liberty and in 2013 was a book judge for the Orwell Prize,
Hallmark Cards.
Britain’s most prestigious prize for political writing.
Twitter @ZaffarKunial
www.nikitalalwani.com/
H Hari Kunzru
H Tariq Latif
Born in London, Hari Kunzru is the author of
Tariq Latif was born in a small village outside
the novels The Impressionist, Transmission, My
Lahore in Pakistan. He graduated from
Revolutions and Gods Without Men, as well as
Sheffield University with a degree in physics
a short story collection, Noise, and a novella,
and worked in Manchester for 15 years in
Memory Palace. His novel White Tears will be
a family printing business. He has recently
published in spring 2017 by Hamish Hamilton
moved to the outback of Argyll and Bute
in the UK and Knopf in the USA. He was a 2008 Cullman Fellow at the New
where he works part-time as a telephone sales person and spends his free
York Public Library, a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2016 Fellow of the
time roaming the Scottish Highlands and writing occasional verse. He was the
American Academy in Berlin. He lives in New York City.
First Prize winner of The Daily Mail National Poetry Competition 2004 and his
www.harikunzru.com/
work has been featured on BBC2 television and BBC Radio 4. His most recent
Twitter @harikunzru
pamphlet, Smithereens (2015), was the fourth collection of his work to be published by Arc Publications. www.arcpublications.co.uk/writers/tariq-latif
31
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Patrice Lawrence
H V H Leslie
Patrice Lawrence was born in Brighton and brought
V H Leslie’s short stories have appeared
up in an Italian-Trinidadian household in mid-Sussex.
in a range of speculative publications and
She lives in London. Her short stories for children
anthologies including Black Static, Interzone
and adults have been published in anthologies
and Shadows and Tall Trees. Her short story
by Hamish Hamilton, Scholastic and Peepal Tree
collection Skein and Bone (Undertow Books)
Press. Her first young adult novel, Orangeboy, was
was a finalist for both the 2016 British Fantasy
published in 2016 (Hodder Children’s) and was shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book
Award and World Fantasy Award for Best Collection. Leslie was a finalist for
Award 2016, nominated for the 2017 Carnegie Award and longlisted for the inaugural
the 2014 Shirley Jackson Award for her novelette, ‘The Quiet Room’, and won
Jhalak Prize. Her second novel, Indigo Donut, is out in July 2017. Patrice has an MA
the 2013 International Lightship First Chapter Prize. She has been awarded
(Distinction) in Creative Writing for Film and TV and is the programme manager for
Fellowships at Hawthornden Castle and the Saari Institute, Finland, where she
Spread The Word, London’s Writer Development Agency. In the last 20 years, Patrice has
was researching Nordic water myths for her PhD. Her non-fiction has appeared
worked and delivered training in equality, social justice and cultural competence.
in History Today, The English Review, Emag, Thresholds and This is Horror.
www.carolinesheldon.co.uk/?clients=patrice-lawrence
Her debut novel, Bodies of Water, was published in 2016 (Salt Publishing).
Twitter @lawrencepatrice
www.vhleslie.wordpress.com/
H Segun Lee-French
H Winnie M Li
Segun has worked as a singer, poet, composer,
Winnie M Li is a writer and producer who
playwright, film-maker & club promoter. As
has worked in the creative industries on
singer for triphop band Earthling, he toured
three continents. A Harvard graduate, she
across Europe, performing on MTV, BBC1, VH1
has written for travel guide books, produced
& Canal 5. As a poet and playwright, Segun’s
independent feature films, programmed for
work has been commissioned for broadcast on
film festivals and developed eco-tourism
BBC Radio. Segun’s debut solo show, Bro 9 at Contact Theatre, won Best Fringe
projects. After completing her MA with Distinction in Creative Writing at
Performer & Best Design in the 2003 Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards.
Goldsmiths, she now writes and speaks across a range of media, runs arts
Segun has been nominated for the Arts Foundation Performance Poetry Award
festivals and is a PhD researcher in media and communications at the London
and his first poetry collection, Praise Songs for Aliens, was published in 2009. His
School of Economics. She was Highly Commended for the CWA Debut Dagger
most recent play, Palm Wine & Stout, featured on Radio 4 Midweek and toured
2015 and won second place in the SI Leeds Literary Prize 2016. She lives in
the UK in 2014. He is currently writing Jimmy Jimmy, a musical psychodrama
London yet is somewhat addicted to travel. Dark Chapter is her first novel.
about legendary jazz singer Jimmy Scott.
www.WinnieMLi.com
www.segunleefrench.wordpress.com/ Twitter @Shegelu
Twitter @WinnieMLi
32
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Theresa Lola
H Hannah Lowe
Theresa Lola is a British Nigerian poet. She
Hannah Lowe’s first poetry collection Chick
was shortlisted for the 2016 Bridport Poetry
(Bloodaxe, 2013) won the Michael Murphy
Prize, 2016 London Magazine Poetry Prize and
Memorial Award for Best First Collection and
was one of the winners of the 2016 Magic
was shortlisted for the Forward, Aldeburgh
Oxygen Poetry Prize. Her poem ‘Portrait of
and Seamus Heaney Best First Collection
Us as Snow White’ was selected as a highly
Prizes. In September 2014, she was named
commended winner in the 2016 Charles Causley International Poetry Prize.
as one of 20 Next Generation poets. She has also published three chapbooks,
She is a Barbican Young Poet Alumni, a programme led by Jacob Sam-La
including Ormonde (Hercules Editions, 2014), a cycle of poems and archive
Rose. She is a part of the Octavia Women of Colour Collective led by Rachel
material exploring the 1947 arrival of the S S Ormonde, which carried some
Long and is a part of the creative collective SXWKS. Theresa Lola is the 2017
of the first post-war Caribbean migrants to Britain in 1947. Her memoir is
Hammer and Tongue National Slam Champion.
Long Time No See (Periscope, 2015) and her latest poetry collection is Chan
Twitter @theresa_lola
(Bloodaxe, 2016). www.hannahlowe.org/ Twitter @hannahlowepoet
H Rachel Long
H Sabrina Mahfouz
Rachel Long is a poet and facilitator. She is
Sabrina Mahfouz was raised in London and
an alumni of the Jerwood/Arvon Mentorship
Cairo. Her work includes: the plays Chef, With
scheme (2015-16) and current assistant tutor
a Little Bit of Luck, Clean, Battleface and the
to Jacob Sam-La Rose on the Barbican Young
love i feel is red; the poetry collection How You
Poets programme. Her poems have featured
Might Know Me; the literary anthology The
in Magma, The London Magazine and The
Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women
Honest Ulsterman. She is the leader of Octavia, a poetry collective for women
Write; and the BBC shows Breaking the Code, Railway Nation: A Journey In Verse
of colour at the Southbank Centre, London. Octavia have been commissioned
and We Are Here. She received a Fringe First Award for Chef and won a Sky
by the BBC World Service, have run poetry workshops for The Serpentine
Arts Academy Poetry Award.
Galleries and performed at Women of the World and the 2016 London
www.sabrinamahfouz.com/
Literature Festival. Inspired by Octavia, she has curated Telling Her Story, an
Twitter @SabrinaMahfouz
open workshop series for women of colour, hosted and in partnership with the Southbank Centre. www.writesrachell.com/ Twitter @rachelnalong 33
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Nick Makoha
H Anjum Malik
Nick Makoha is a Cave Canem Graduate Fellow
Anjum Malik has written several original radio
who represented Uganda at Poetry Parnassus
plays as well as two series of an original BBC
as part of the Cultural Olympiad held in
Radio 4 Woman’s Hour drama, The Interpreter.
London. His one-man-Show My Father & Other
She also adapted Napoleon Rising, based on
Superheroes debuted to sold-out performances
an unperformed Anthony Burgess play, for
at the 2013 London Literature Festival. In 2005
BBC Radio 3. She is currently developing an
award-winning publisher flipped eye launched its pamphlet series with his The
original pilot script, Groom, following participation in LFS’ Bootcamp. Anjum
Lost Collection of an Invisible Man. Part of his forthcoming first full collection, The
has also written for the stage and was writer in residence for the Kali Theatre
Kingdom Of Gravity, is in the Seven New Generation African Poets anthology. He
Company. She is an honorary writing fellow of Manchester Metropolitan
is the 2016 winner of the Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize for his
University and a published poet. Before working as a writer, Anjum worked as
manuscript Resurrection Man (Jai-Alai Books, Spring 2017). He won the 2015
a policewoman and a police interpreter.
Brunel University International African Poetry prize and has poems in The Poetry
www.davidhigham.co.uk/filmclients/anjum-malik/
Review, Rialto, Boston Review, Callaloo and Wasafiri.
Twitter @anjummalik
www.nickmakoha.com Twitter @NickMakoha
H Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
H Gautam Malkani
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is a Ugandan
first novel, Londonstani (4th Estate, 2006), was
novelist and short story writer living in
described by The Observer as ‘A bold debut,
Manchester. She has a PhD from Lancaster
brimming with energy and authenticity, verve
University. Jennifer has taught creative writing
and nerve’. The Independent on Sunday called
and English for ten years in British universities.
it ‘Enthralling, addictive, bold and vigorous’.
Gautam Malkani is a London-based writer. His
Her novel, Kintu, won the Kwani Manuscript Project in 2013, came out in 2014
His second novel, A Story Distorted, is about the hidden and twisted lives
and was longlisted for the 2014 Etisalat Prize. Jennifer’s short story, ‘Let’s Tell
of teenagers who are the primary carers for sick, incapacitated or addicted
This Story Properly’, won the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. In 2015
parents. Its publication is currently being crowdfunded by Unbound. He was
she won an Arts Council Grant to research her second novel, The First Woman
a journalist for The Financial Times for 19 years, most recently as associate
was Fish. Her short story ‘Malik’s Door’ came out in Closure: Contemporary Black
editor of FT Weekend Magazine. His journalism has also appeared in the New
British Short Stories; ‘The Nod’, will be published in the Bare Lit ’16 Anthology in
York Times and The Guardian.
2017. Jennifer is currently working on a short story collection set in Manchester.
www.gautam-malkani.squarespace.com/
www.jennifermakumbi.net/
Twitter @GautamMalkani
34
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Femi Martin
H James Massiah
Femi Martin is a writer and performer
James Massiah is a poet and DJ from south
from London, based in Surrey. She began
London who shares his work via The A & The
performing flash fiction on London’s spoken
E, a philosophy and arts project founded in
word scene before becoming the 2012 Dickens
2012 to explore ideas about sexuality and
Young Writer in Residence. The Achalasia
ethics through performance, writing and
Diaries, a documentary about the development
visual media. He has been commissioned to
of Femi’s chronic illness and her decision to pursue her writing, aired on BBC
produce work for the BBC, The Guardian, Britvic and Nike, as well as featuring
Radio 4 in 2015 and was a selected BBC Radio 4 Highlight of the Week; she
in campaigns for Levi’s and Dr Martens. He has performed readings of his
then hosted the BBC Radio 4 podcast, Seriously (Feb.-Oct. 2016). Femi’s solo
work at the Southbank Centre, Tate Modern, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
theatre show, How to Die of a Broken Heart, premiered in 2016, developed
and the Houses of Parliament among others.
with support from Battersea Arts Centre and Talawa Theatre Company. She
www.jamesmassiah.com/
is currently writing her first full-length play, I Am Not There, with support from
Twitter @JamesMassiah
Soho Theatre, Talawa Theatre Company and The Carne Trust. www.femimartin.com Twitter @FemiMartin
H S I Martin
H Irfan Master
Specialising in the fields of Black British
Irfan Master is the author of A Beautiful
history and literature, S I Martin is a writer
Lie (Bloomsbury), which was shortlisted
and researcher who has undertaken black
for Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize and
history projects for numerous organisations
Branford Boase Award for debut authors.
including English Heritage, Black Cultural
Recently he has been published in an anthology
Archives, National Maritime Museum,
of diverse stories by Leicestershire writers, Lost
Museum of London, the London boroughs of Lambeth, Wandsworth, Tower
and Found, on the theme of home (Dahlia Publishing, 2016); a story for a graphic
Hamlets, Camden and the BBC. He is the author of Incomparable World and
novel anthology about Partition, This Side, That Side (Yoda Press); a radio play,
Britain’s Slave Trade and is the founder of the 500 Years of Black London
For the Love of Something, commissioned by Leicester University; and a short
walking and boat tours. His historical novels for younger readers are Jupiter
story, ‘Once Upon a Time’, for Booktrust, which was adapted into a touring show
Williams and Jupiter Amidships.
aimed at Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Somali families to encourage and celebrate
www.simartin.org.uk
storytelling. His forthcoming novel for young adults, Out of Heart (Hot Key Books)
Twitter @simartin
is out in 2017. www.irfanmaster.com Twitter @irfan_master 35
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Marc Matthews
H Karen McCarthy Woolf
Marc Matthews was born in Guyana. He
Karen McCarthy Woolf is a writer, editor and
worked for Radio Demerara, as a scriptwriter
critic whose debut collection An Aviary of Small
and researcher/presenter for the Guyana
Birds was selected as a Guardian/Observer
Broadcasting Service and as a tutor in
Book of the Year, shortlisted for the Forward and
drama at Cyril Potter Teachers Training
Fenton Aldeburgh Prizes and described in The
College. In the 1960s he came to London as a
Poetry Review as ‘extraordinarily moving’. Karen
freelance reporter and became involved with the UK Black Power movement
was 2015 writer-in-residence at the National Maritime Museum, responding to
and alternative theatre productions. He was part of the Caribbean Artists
an exhibit on migration. Her work appears in numerous literary journals and is
Movement and had a pioneering role as a nation language performance poet.
translated into Swedish, Turkish and Spanish and she has read in Europe, Mexico
An unbound pamphlet of his poems, Eleven O’Clock Goods, came out in Trinidad
City, Singapore, the USA and the Caribbean. She has edited four anthologies
(Kairi, 1974) and he released the record Marc-Up in 1987. In 1988, he won
including Ten: The New Wave (Bloodaxe, 2014) and Ten: The Next Generation
the Guyana Prize for his first collection of poetry Guyana My Altar (Karnak
(Bloodaxe, 2017). Recent commissions include new work for BBC Radio. She
House, 1987).
currently teaches at the Faber Academy and the University of London.
www.peepaltreepress.com/authors/marc-matthews
www.mccarthywoolf.com/ Twitter @KMcCarthyWoolf
H Ali May
H Roy McFarlane
Ali May was born in Iran and his childhood
Roy McFarlane was born in Birmingham of
was consumed by the eight-year war with
Jamaican parentage and spent most of his
Iraq. War, as a result, is one of the focal
years living in Wolverhampton. He has held
points of his writing. Having grown up
the roles of Birmingham’s Poet Laureate,
amidst stifling repression, the concepts of
Starbucks’ and the Shakespeare Birthplace
liberty, choice and individualism shaped his
Trust Poet in Residence. Roy was highly
intellectual framework. These are subjects that he writes about, alongside
commended by the Forward Prize for his poem ‘Papers’, published in the
sex. Geography of Attraction, his collection of short stories about sex and
Forward Book of Poetry 2017. His work has appeared in other anthologies,
travel, was published in 2015. One of his stories was published in the
including Out of Bounds (Bloodaxe, 2012) and he is the writer and editor
anthology Desire: 100 of Literature’s Sexiest Stories (2016), alongside Anaïs
of Celebrate Wha? Ten Black British Poets from the Midlands (Smokestack,
Nin, D H Lawrence and James Joyce. He was a recipient of the 2007 Decibel
2011). His first full collection of poems, Beginning With Your Last Breath, was
Penguin Prize. He works in TV as a creator and presenter.
published by Nine Arches Press in 2016.
www.ali-may.com
www.roymcfarlane.com
Twitter @alimaytv
Twitter @RoyPoetryinBrum
36
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Jamal Mehmood
H Frances Mensah Williams
The winner of Poetry Rivals 2015, Jamal
Frances Mensah Williams was born in Ghana
Mehmood has had poetry and essays
and as a child lived in the USA and Austria
published on various online and offline
before settling in London. Following her
platforms including Media Diversified and
successful non-fiction books Everyday Heroes
BBC Asian Network. In 2016, his essay
– Learning from the Careers of Successful Black
‘Language, Life and Love: Our Immigrant
Professionals and I Want to Work in Africa:
Parents’ was published in Media Diversified’s From the Lines of Dissent
How to Move Your Career to the World’s Most Exciting Continent, Frances’s first
(Out-spoken Press). The collection of essays by 14 BAME writers in the UK
novel, From Pasta to Pigfoot, was published in 2015 by Jacaranda Books and
touches on a numerous topics around what it means to be a person of colour
selected as one of W H Smith Travel’s Top 30 bestsellers. The sequel, From
in modern Britain. His debut collection of poetry, Little Boy Blue (Burning Eye
Pasta to Pigfoot: Second Helpings, was published in 2016. A busy entrepreneur
Books), is an eclectic mix that looks at family, nostalgia and social pain as
and career consultant, Frances is CEO of Interims for Development Ltd and
well as personal stories of identity and belonging. He is looking to write for
Managing Editor of online careers and business portal, ReConnectAfrica.com.
film in the near future.
www.francesmensahwilliams.com/
www.jamalbhai.com/
H Tariq Mehmood
H Emily Midorikawa
Tariq Mehmood grew up in Bradford and is
Emily Midorikawa is the author of A Secret
currently Assistant Professor in the English
Sisterhood: the Hidden Friendships of Austen,
Department at the American University in
Brontё, Eliot and Woolf, co-written with Emma
Beirut, Lebanon. He is co-director of the
Claire Sweeney and with a foreword by
documentary Injustice. His latest novel is Song
Margaret Atwood (Aurum Press,UK; June 2017;
of Gulzarina (Daraja, 2016). His first novel,
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, USA, autumn 2017).
Hand on the Sun, was published in 1983, much of it written in jail or on bail on
Emma and Emily also run the website SomethingRhymed.com, which profiles
charges of terrorism during a case which was known as the Bradford 12. He
the literary friendships of female writers. Emily won the 2015 Lucy Cavendish
was acquitted. His second novel, While There Is Light, was published in 2003.
Fiction Prize and her work has been published in The Daily Telegraph, The
Tariq has also published several illustrated books and one novel, Courageous
Independent on Sunday, The Times and Mslexia. Her short memoir ‘The Memory
Ali and the Heartless King, for children. He writes in two languages, English
Album’ appears in Tangled Roots, an anthology edited by Katy Massey which
and Pothowari, his mother tongue. Tariq won the 2013 Frances Lincoln Diverse
celebrates the experiences of mixed-race families. Emily is a graduate of UEA’s
Voices Children’s Book Award for You’re Not Proper.
MA in creative writing and she now teaches at NYU London.
www.darajapress.com/authors/tariq-mehmood
www.emilymidorikawa.com/ Twitter @EmilyMidorikawa 37
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Bridget Minamore
H Abir Mukherjee
Bridget Minamore is a writer and journalist
Abir Mukherjee grew up in the west of
from south-east London. Having started writing
Scotland and has been a fan of crime
with the National Theatre, she has been
fiction since his teenage years. The child of
commissioned by the Royal Opera House and
immigrants from India, his debut novel, A
Historic England, performed at the Roundhouse
Rising Man, was inspired by a desire to learn
and the Southbank Centre and been a guest
more about this crucial period in Anglo-Indian
on BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour. With Point Blank Poets she has performed in
history that seems to have been almost forgotten. It has been shortlisted
Rome and Vancouver, and was shortlisted to be London’s first Young People's
for the Jhalak Prize, won the Harvill Secker/Daily Telegraph Crime Writing
Laureate. In 2015 Bridget was chosen as one of The Hospital Club’s Emerging
Competition and upon launch was Crime Book of the Month in both The Times
Creatives. She has an English degree from UCL, regularly teaches drama and
and The Sunday Times. His second novel, A Necessary Evil, will be published in
poetry workshops and is part of the creative team behind Brainchild Festival.
June 2017. Abir lives in London with his wife and two sons.
Bridget has written for The Guardian, Pitchfork, The Pool and Newsweek. Her first
www.rcwlitagency.com/authors/mukherjee-abir/
poetry pamphlet, Titanic (Out-Spoken Press), came out in 2016.
Twitter @radiomukhers
www.bridgetminamore.com/ Twitter @bridgetminamore
H Avaes Mohammad
H Raman Mundair
Avaes Mohammad is a poet, playwright and
Raman Mundair is the award-winning author
essayist born in Blackburn. Works for theatre
of Lovers, Liars, Conjurers and Thieves, A
and radio include In God We Trust, The Student,
Choreographer’s Cartography, The Algebra
Fields of Grey and his double bill on the two
of Freedom and is the editor of Incoming:
faces of British extremism: Hurling Rubble at
Some Shetland Voices. Her writing is bold,
the Sun and Hurling Rubble at the Moon. Avaes’s
mischievous, cutting edge and potent with
scripts have chronicled the changing landscape of multicultural Britain in a post-
poetic imagery and integrity. Her writing plays with the intersections of race,
9/11 landscape for over a decade. As a poet his influences range from the Sufi
gender, sexuality and class and challenges notions of British and colonial
Saints of South Asia to the dub poets of Jamaica. He regularly performs across
histories and identities. She has published poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction
the UK and was recipient of the Amnesty International Media Award for his
and has performed her work around the world from Aberdeen to Zimbabwe.
poem ‘Bhopal’. Writing mainly on themes of integration, Avaes’s essays can be
Raman was awarded a Leverhulme Artists Residency, a Robert Louis Stevenson
found across the national press as examples of critical thought leadership.
Award and is a Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative nominee. She regards
www.avaesmohammad.com/ Twitter @AvaesMohammad
herself as an outsider writer artist who writes, makes art, film and installation. www.shetlandamenity.org/the-artist
38
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Amita Murray
H Daljit Nagra
Amita Murray is a writer based in London.
Daljit Nagra is from a Sikh background and
In 2016, her short story collection Marmite
was born and grew up in west London, then
and Mango Chutney won the SI Leeds Literary
Sheffield. His poem ‘Look We Have Coming
Award. The collection was partly written
to Dover!’ won the 2004 Forward Prize for
during a Leverhulme Artist-in-Residence grant
Best Individual Poem; his collection of the
at University College London. Having lived in
same name won the 2007 Forward Prize for
and around London, Delhi and California, Amita plays with the love stories
Best First Collection and the 2008 South Bank Show Decibel Award. Tippoo
that crawl out of the woodwork when cultures collide. Her stories about
Sultan’s Incredible White-Man Eating Tiger-Toy Machine!!! and his version of the
immigrants, tourists and restless inhabitants have been published in Wasafiri,
Ramayana were nominated for the T S Eliot Prize. Daljit is the inaugural Poet
J-Journal, SAND, Brand, the Berkeley Fiction Review and others. In her novel
in Residence for BBC Radio 4/4 Extra and teaches at Brunel University London.
Paper Boats two characters meet in the American Midwest and try to figure
He has judged awards including the David Cohen Prize. His poems have been
out if, in the midst of social turmoil, we can ever find a place in the world to
published in The New Yorker and The New Statesman among others and he has
call home.
performed internationally.
Tiwtter @AmitaMurray
www.daljitnagra.com/
H André Naffis-Sahely
H Beverley Naidoo
André Naffis-Sahely was born in Venice in 1985 to
Beverley Naidoo joined the resistance to
an Iranian father and an Italian mother, but raised
apartheid as a student in South Africa, leading
in Abu Dhabi. His poetry has been featured in
to detention without trial and exile. She began
Ambit, Areté, The Best British Poetry 2014 (Salt),
writing in Britain while working as a teacher.
New Poetries VI (Carcanet, 2015) and Swimmers
Her award-winning Journey to Jo’burg was
among others. His non-fiction writing has appeared
banned in South Africa until 1991. Many
in such publications as Poetry, The Nation, Times Literary Supplement, New Statesman
awards include the Carnegie Medal for The Other Side of Truth about young
and The Independent. He has been awarded fellowships from bodies including the
refugees, and the African Studies Association Children’s Book Award for No
MacDowell Colony and the Dar al-Ma’mûn Foundation. He is also a literary translator
Turning Back, Out of Bounds and Burn My Heart. Death of an Idealist: In Search of
from the Italian and the French; his Beyond The Barbed Wire: Selected Poems of
Neil Aggett is her biography of the young medical doctor and trade unionist who
Abdellatif Laâbi (Carcanet, 2016) received a PEN Translates Award. His debut collection
died in apartheid detention. Widely translated, she has been nominated for the
of poetry, The Promised Land, will be published by Penguin in 2017.
Hans Christian Andersen and Astrid Lindgren Memorial Awards and has three
www.penguin.co.uk/authors/andre-naffis-sahely/129377/
honorary doctorates for her work.
Twitter @anaffissahely
www.beverleynaidoo.com Twitter @DeathofIdealist 39
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Bobby Nayyar
H Selina Nwulu
Bobby Nayyar was born in Handsworth,
Selina Nwulu is a writer, poet and essayist
Birmingham in 1979. He read French and
based in London. She was 2015-16 Young
Italian at Trinity College, Cambridge and
People's Laureate for London. Her first
Comparative Literature at the University
chapbook collection, The Secrets I Let Slip
of Chicago. He has been published in the
(Burning Eye Books, 2015), is a Poetry Book
Mango Shake and Too Asian, Not Asian Enough
Society recommendation. She writes for
anthologies and journals including Wasafiri, Aesthetica and The Woven Tale
online outlets such as The Guardian and Red Pepper. She has toured nationally
Press. He founded Limehouse Books in 2009, publishing his debut novel,
with Apples and Snakes as part of the Public Address II tour; and at festivals
West of No East, in 2011 and The No Salaryman two years later. In 2016, he
including Glastonbury, Edinburgh Fringe, Cúirt Festival (Eire) and Fiery Tongues
published his debut poetry collection, Glass Scissors, which received a Word
Festival (Holland). She has just returned from a British Council literary tour
Masala Award; Debjani Chatterjee MBE said, ‘Rarely does a debut poetry
in India. She is currently Writer and Creator in Residence at the Free Word
collection show such remarkable promise’.
Centre and Wellcome Trust, looking creatively at food and connections
www.bobbynayyar.com/
between our health and matters of social justice.
Twitter @bobbynayyar
www.selinanwulu.com/ Twitter @SelinaNwulu
H Grace Nichols
H Solomon OB
Grace Nichols was born and educated in
Solomon OB is an artist, musician and poet
Guyana. She came to Britain in 1977. Her first
who was born in London and now lives in
poetry collection, I Is A Long Memoried Woman,
Bristol. He was crowned Hammer and Tongue
won the 1983 Commonwealth Poetry Prize.
Slam Champion in 2016 and has gone from
Other books include The Fat Black Woman’s
strength to strength ever since. Featured
Poems; Sunris, winner of the Guyana Poetry
on BBC Radio 1Xtra, BBC Radio 5Live and
Prize; and Startling The Flying Fish, all published by Virago who also published
The Guardian online, he is a lover of dynamic displays of lyricism, delivering
her novel, Whole of a Morning Sky. Her more recent books are Picasso, I Want My
passionate and engaging performances and constantly looking to push his
Face Back and I Have Crossed an Ocean (Bloodaxe). She was poet-in-residence at
own boundaries. Armed with a new live band supporting the likes of Chali
The Tate Gallery, London 1999-2000, received a 2001 Cholmondeley Award and
2na, 2017 serves as his arrival as a solo artist, with his forthcoming debut EP
an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Hull and is a Fellow of The Royal
The Writing is Real coming later in the year.
Society of Literature. Her latest collection for young people is Cosmic Disco
Twitter @SolomonConcepts
(Frances Lincoln, 2013). www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/grace-nichols 40
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Sanjida O’Connell
H Musa Okwonga
Dr Sanjida O’Connell has published six novels
Musa Okwonga is a poet, journalist and
and four works of non-fiction. Her first novel,
musician who studied law at Oxford
Theory of Mind, won a Betty Trask Award;
University and is a City-trained solicitor. He
her second, Angel Bird, was shortlisted for
has written one poetry collection, Eating Roses
the Asian Award for Literature; and her
For Dinner, and two football books: A Cultured
fifth, Bone by Bone (a Sanjida Kay thriller),
Left Foot (nominated for the 2008 William
was longlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award. Sanjida is also a wildlife
Hill Sports Book of the Year Award) and Will You Manage?. He contributed
television presenter and has directed documentaries and written features for
to The Good Immigrant, an award-winning collection of essays on race and
national media. She mentors at the University of Bristol; runs creative writing
immigration, and has written regularly for, among others, The Economist, The
workshops for First Story; and is writing her third Sanjida Kay thriller. Sanjida
New Statesman and ESPN. In 2014 he co-wrote and presented The Burden of
has a PhD on how chimpanzees think; her fiction often features nature, as well
Beauty, the BBC World Service’s flagship World Cup documentary. Described
as tackling complex issues surrounding race. She is a Royal Literary Fellow.
by Q Magazine as ‘a globe-trotting Mike Skinner’, his music has been featured
www.sanjida.co.uk/
by BBC Radio 6 and Okayafrica. He lives in Berlin.
Twitter @SanjidaKay
www.okwonga.com/ Twitter @Okwonga
H Irenosen Okojie
H David Olusoga
Irenosen Okojie is a writer and arts project
David Olusoga is a writer and TV presenter
manager. Her debut novel, Butterfly Fish, won
and producer. Born in Nigeria, he is the
a Betty Trask Award. Her work has been
author of The Kaiser’s Holocaust: Germany’s
featured in The Observer, The Guardian and The
Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of
Huffington Post amongst other publications,
Nazism (2010), The World’s War (2014), which
as well as on the BBC. Her short stories have
won First World War Book of the Year at the
been published internationally. She was presented at the London Short Story
2015 Political Book Awards, and Black & British: A Forgotten History (2016),
Festival by Ben Okri as a dynamic writing talent to watch and was featured in
nominated for the 2017 Jhalak Prize. His TV series Britain’s Forgotten Slave
the Evening Standard Magazine as one of London’s exciting new authors. Her
Owners (BBC 2) won a BAFTA, the Screen Nation Factual Award and the Royal
short story collection Speak Gigantular published by Jacaranda Books has been
Historical Society Public History Prize. The World’s War: Forgotten Soldiers
longlisted for the Jhalak Prize.
of Empire (BBC 2) won two CDN Awards. David writes for The Guardian, The
www.jacarandabooksartmusic.co.uk/writer/irenosen-okojie-2/
Observer and BBC History Magazine among others. He will be presenting the
Twitter @IrenosenOkojie
forthcoming BBC 2 series Civilisations. www.unitedagents.co.uk/david-olusoga Twitter @DavidOlusoga 41
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Chibundu Onuzo
H Diriye Osman
Chibundu Onuzo was born in Lagos, Nigeria
Diriye Osman was born in 1983 and is a
in 1991. Her first novel, The Spider King’s
British-Somali author, essayist, critic and
Daughter, won a Betty Trask Award; it was
visual artist. His debut collection of short
shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the
stories, Fairytales For Lost Children, won the
Commonwealth Book Prize and was longlisted
Polari Prize for Fiction and was acclaimed
for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Etisalat
by The Guardian, The Independent, Dazed and
Prize for Literature. Her second novel, Welcome to Lagos, was published in
Confused and Elle amongst others. His first novel, We Once Belonged to the Sea,
2016. Onuzo is completing a PhD on the West African Students’ Union at
will be published in autumn 2018.
King’s College, London.
www.diriyeosman.com
www.faber.co.uk/tutors/chibundu-onuzo/ Twitter @ChibunduOnuzo
H Tobi Oredein
H Helen Oyeyemi
Tobi Oredein is a writer, entrepreneur and
Helen Oyeyemi is the author of several highly
public speaker from London. A graduate of
acclaimed novels, including White is for
Kings College London, in 2014 she launched the
Witching (which won a Somerset Maugham
online publication Black Ballad, which tells the
Award), Mr Fox and Boy, Snow, Bird. She wrote
stories of Black British women’s experiences.
her first novel, The Icarus Girl, while still at
It has positioned itself as the leading lifestyle
school studying for her A levels at Cardinal
website for Black British women, covering issues such as disability, politics,
Vaughan Memorial School. While studying social and political sciences at
beauty, Brexit, mental health and more. Tobi is also a prominent voice in
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, two of her plays, Juniper’s Whitening
mainstream women’s lifestyle media, writing about race, feminism, beauty
and Victimese, were performed by fellow students to critical acclaim and
politics and popular culture. She has written for British Glamour, Buzzfeed, Elle,
subsequently published by Methuen. She has been included in Granta’s Best
The Debrief, The Independent, The Pool, Vice and more. She was part of BBC’s
Young British Novelists. Her latest book, the story collection What Is Not Yours
2016 Black and British Season, appearing as a panellist on BBC 1Xtra’s big
Is Not Yours, was published in 2016.
debate. She is currently working on a book about Black British feminism.
www.helenoyeyemi.com/
www.blackballad.co.uk/ Twitter: IamTobiOredein 42
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Shereen Pandit
H Nii Ayikwei Parkes
Shereen Pandit was born in Cape Town, South
A 2007 recipient of Ghana’s ACRAG award,
Africa in the apartheid era. She became a
Nii Ayikwei Parkes is a writer, editor and
lawyer, lecturer, political activist and trade
socio-cultural commentator. He wrote the
unionist. Having attracted the adverse
hybrid novel, Tail of the Blue Bird, which is
attention of the apartheid authorities, Pandit
translated into Dutch, German, Spanish,
became a political exile in the UK, completing
French, Italian, Catalan and Japanese.
a PhD in law, while continuing her activism and writing. Her work, published
Shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Prize, it won the Prix Baudelaire,
in the UK and elsewhere, includes A Burnt Child (novel), Waiting for Fidel in the
Prix Mahogany and Prix Laure Bataillon. Nii serves on the editorial board
Springtime (short story collection) and Trafalgar, The Golden Years, a centenary
of World Literature Today and in 2014 was named as one of Africa’s 39 most
collection written by alumni of South Africa’s oldest high school for oppressed
promising authors of the new generation. He wrote The Makings of You
students (edited by Pandit and her brother). She has been translated into
(poetry), is curator of the African Writers’ Evening and director of the Ama
German and Chinese among others; and her work has been read on stage in
Ata Aidoo Centre for Creative Writing at the African University College of
New York and broadcast on US National Public Radio.
Communications in Accra, the first of its kind in West Africa.
www.shereenpandit.bookslive.co.za/about/
www.niiparkes.com/ Twitter @BlueBirdTail
H Louisa Adjoa Parker
H Sandeep Parmar
Louisa is a writer of Ghanaian and English
Sandeep Parmar is Senior Lecturer in English
heritage based in the West Country, England.
Literature at the University of Liverpool. She
She writes poetry, fiction, black history and
holds a PhD from University College London
articles to explore her experiences of racism
and a Creative Writing MA from the University
and domestic violence. Her first poetry
of East Anglia. Her books include Reading Mina
collection, Salt-sweat and Tears, and recent
Loy’s Autobiographies: Myth of the Modern, an
pamphlet, Blinking in the Light, have been published by Cinnamon Press. Her
edition of the Collected Poems of Hope Mirrlees (Carcanet, 2011), and two poetry
work has appeared in Envoi, Wasafiri, Bare Fiction, And Other Poems, Under
collections published by Shearsman: The Marble Orchard and Eidolon. She edited
the Radar, Out of Bounds (Bloodaxe), Ink, Sweat and Tears and Closure (Peepal
the Collected Poems of Nancy Cunard (Carcanet, 2016). Her essays and reviews
Tree Press). She has written for Gal-dem magazine and will be writing for The
have appeared in The Guardian, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Financial
F-Word later this year. Louisa has been highly commended by the Forward
Times and the Times Literary Supplement. She is currently writing a novel about
Prize and shortlisted by the Bridport Prize. She is currently completing her first
wheat, partly set during India’s Green Revolution in the 1960s. She is a BBC
short story collection, a novel and second poetry collection.
New Generation Thinker.
Twitter @LouisaAdjoa
Twitter @SandeepKParmar 43
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Yovanka Paquete Perdigao
H Johny Pitts
Yovanka Paquete Perdigao is a Bissau-
Johny Pitts is an award-winning writer,
Guinean writer and editor based in London.
photographer, and broadcast journalist. Johny
Born in Lisbon and raised in Ivory Coast
founded the online journal Afropean.com, part of
and Senegal, her work is inspired by her
The Guardian’s Africa Network. As a presenter
experiences as a child refugee. Her poetry
he has appeared on MTV, BBC and ITV. He wrote
has been published in Brittle Paper, her
and presented Something Old, Something New,
translations in Jalada and her writing in The Guardian. Yovanka’s work was
a BBC Radio 4 documentary exploring black identity through music and his father,
shortlisted for Penguin’s WriteNow competition in 2016 and she is currently
a member of Northern Soul group The Fantastics. His photography has featured
working on a historical novel on a Luso-Ghanaian family whose roots trace
on The New York Times Lens Blog and will appear in the forthcoming Reporters
back to the colonial massacre of Batepá in São Tomé and Príncipe. When she
Without Borders (2017). He collaborated with author Caryl Phillips and Artangel
is not writing, she is translating, editing or managing communications for
on a photographic essay about London and immigration. Johny has written Le
London’s largest African literary festival, Africa Writes.
Manifeste de la Jeunesse (Les Arenes, 2017) and Afropean (Penguin Random
www.africaresearchinstitute.org/newsite/yovanka-paquete-perdigao/
House, 2018). He divides his time between London and Marseille.
Twitter @yova_nka
www.afropean.com/about/ Twitter @johnypitts
H Shyama Perera
H Aarathi Prasad
Shyama Perera is a novelist and essayist.
Aarathi Prasad was born in London to an
She also curates and edits publications and
Indian mother and a Trinidadian father, and
produces and voices audio output. Born in
was educated in the Caribbean and the
Moscow to Sri Lankan parents and domiciled
UK. After a PhD in genetics she worked in
in Paddington since the 1960s, the hopes and
research, science policy and communication,
aspirations of the early immigrants inspired her
presenting documentaries for the BBC,
first novel, Haven’t Stopped Dancing Yet. Her book, Bitter Sweet Symphony, is an
Channel 4, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel. Her writing
upbeat tale of surviving divorce. Her third novel, Do the Right Thing, updated the
has appeared in publications including Prospect Magazine, The Guardian, The
Rama/Sita myth. She has written a history of contraception, Taking Precautions,
Telegraph, Vogue India and Wired UK. She is the author of Like A Virgin: How
and a short play, Shit Happens (2012). Aged 23, she was the youngest reporter
Science is Redesigning the Rules of Sex and In the Bonesetter’s Waiting Room:
at The Guardian and went on to build a name in TV and radio current affairs. She
Travels through Indian Medicine. She works at University College London.
currently provides social commentary and communications consultancy, teaches
www.aarathiprasad.com/
creative writing and blogs.
Twitter @aarathiprasad
www.tricyclereaders.com/ Twitter @PortfolioWoman 44
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Shazea Quraishi
H Madhvi Ramani
Shazea Quraishi is a Pakistani-born Canadian
Madhvi Ramani was born and raised in
poet, playwright and translator based in the
London, where she gained an MA in creative
UK. Her poems have been published widely in
writing. She has published three children’s
the UK and USA in publications including The
books with Penguin Random House: Nina and
Financial Times, Poetry Review, Modern Poetry
the Travelling Spice Shed, Nina and the Kung Fu
in Translation and Ploughshares, and she is the
Adventure and Nina and the Magical Carnival.
author of two poetry collections: The Courtesans Reply (flipped eye publishing, 2012)
Her short fiction, articles and essays have been published in The New York
and The Art of Scratching (Bloodaxe Books, 2015). In 2015, she was the recipient of
Times, The Washington Post, Stand Magazine, Asia Literary Review and others.
a Brooklease Grant from the Royal Society of Literature and an Artists International
She also writes plays and screenplays. Currently, she lives a thoroughly
Development Fund Award. Shazea facilitates creative writing/reading and translation
bohemian lifestyle in Berlin.
workshops in the UK and abroad in museums, prisons, refugee centres, festivals,
www.madhviramani.com/
schools and universities. She teaches with English PEN, Translators in Schools and
Twitter @madhviramani
The Poetry School and is an artist in residence with Living Words. www.shazea.wordpress.com/
H Bali Rai
H Ravinder Randhawa
Bali Rai is the multi-award-winning author
Ravinder Randhawa is the acclaimed author
of over 30 young adult, teen and children’s
of A Wicked Old Woman (regarded as the first
books. His edgy and boundary-pushing writing
intrinsically British-Asian novel), The Coral
style has made him extremely popular on the
Strand, Beauty and the Beast (YA, originally
school visit circuit across the world and his
titled Hari-jan) and Dynamite (short stories)
books are widely taught. Passionate about
and is working on her next novel. Her blogs on
promoting reading and literacy for young people, he is an ambassador for The
the arts, politics and justice often appear on The Huffington Post and her work
Reading Agency’s Reading Ahead project; was involved in the BBC’s Love To
has been broadcast on BBC radio. She founded The Asian Women Writers
Read campaign; and also speaks about issues around diversity, representation
Workshop (later called the Asian Women Writers Collective), which published
and in defence of multiculturalism. Bali Rai is also patron of an arts charity
two major collections: Right of Way (1989) and Flaming Spirit (1994). The
and a literature festival. His first novel, (un)arranged marriage, was published
Collective’s work has been archived by the South Asian Diaspora Arts Archive.
in 2001 and in 2016 Amnesty UK invited him to write a story for their Here I
Ravinder was the RLF Fellow at Toynbee Hall, St Mary’s University and Queen
Stand anthology.
Mary’s College, University of London. .
www.balirai.co.uk/home Twitter @balirai
www.ravinderrandhawa.com Twitter @RealRavs 45
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Vidyan Ravinthiran
H Maureen Roberts
Born in Leeds to Sri Lankan parents, Vidyan
Maureen Roberts is a published author and teacher
Ravinthiran is a Lecturer at Durham University.
with an MA in creative writing (Goldsmiths,
He was awarded a DPhil for his thesis on
University of London) and an MA in Education/
Elizabeth Bishop from Oxford in 2010 and
Language Arts (Western Carolina University).
was poetry editor of the Oxonian Review. He
She is widely anthologised, with poems on the
reviews frequently for publications including
Caribbean O level exam syllabus. She is currently
Poetry Review, The Times Literary Supplement, PN Review and others and is
Senior Development Officer at London Metropolitan Archives. She was Manager of
currently working on a novel, as well as a book about Elizabeth Bishop. His
Keats House Museum, initiating and curating the Keats Festival (2010-13). Maureen
pamphlet, At Home or Nowhere, was published in 2008 by Tall-Lighthouse.
has taught creative writing at University of Luton and Mary Ward Centre and was
His first book-length collection, Grun-tu-molani (Bloodaxe Books, 2014), was
an Administrator and Lecturer for the University of Wisconsin Multi-Cultural Britain
shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Seamus Heaney
Programme. She has also been Curator of the Ithaca College Martin Luther King
Centre Poetry Prize and the 2015 Michael Murphy Memorial Prize.
Scholars London Programme. In 2012 She was the poet for Grenada at London
www.dur.ac.uk/english.studies/academicstaff/?id=12999
Southbank Centre’s Poetry Parnassus, part of the Cultural Olympiad.
www.creativeislington.com/blog/directory/maureen_roberts/
H Akila Richards
H Roger Robinson
Akila Richards is a writer and spoken word
Roger Robinson was born in Trinidad and
artist. Some of her writing gives voice to the
has lived in the UK for over 20 years. Decibel
Black German experience. Her collaborations
named him as one of 50 writers influencing the
include film, digital, theatre and visual art. Her
Black British writing canon. His commissions
latest spoken word performance and visual
include The National Trust, The National
exhibition took place in 2016 as part of the
Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert
Fabrica cultural programme. Akila’s first short story ‘Eleven Years’ appeared in
Museum. Roger’s books include the fiction Adventures in 3D and poetry
a 2008 Penguin anthology of mixed race stories. Her poem ‘Red Saviour’ was
collections Suitcase, Suckle – Winner of the Peoples Book Prize – and The
in Red: Contemporary Black British Poetry (Peepal Tree Press, 2010). Her work
Butterfly Hotel, from which the poem ‘Trinidad Gothic’ was Highly Commended
with diverse women writers resulted in an anthology, Ink On My Lips (Waterloo
by the Forward Prize and shortlisted for the OCM Bocas Poetry Prize. He is a
Press, 2013). Most recently she contributed to Closure: Contemporary Black
co-founder of Spoke Lab and the writing collective Malika’s Kitchen. He released
British Short Stories (Peepal Tree Press, 2015) and received an award for her
a solo album, Illclectica, and is lead vocalist for King Midas Sound, whose debut
poem, ‘Stifled Life’.
album, Waiting for You (Hyperdub Records), was critically acclaimed.
www.akilarichards.com/ Twitter @akilalive
www.rogerrobinsononline.com/ Twitter @rrobinson72
46
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Deanna Rodger
H Jacob Ross
Deanna is an international writer, performer and
Jacob Ross is a poet, playwright, journalist,
facilitator. She co-curates two leading spoken word
short story writer and novelist. He edited
events – Chill Pill and Come Rhyme With Me – and
Artrage, Britain’s leading intercultural arts
is on the board of Safe Ground. Commissions include:
magazine and now is Associate Editor for
Under The Skin (St Paul’s Cathedral), Women Who
Fiction (Peepal Tree Press). He has published
Spit (BBC IPlayer) and Buckingham Palace (NYT).
the short story collections Song for Simone and
Accolades include: Elle UK’s ‘30 inspirational women under 30’, Cosmopolitan’s ‘No.1
A Way to Catch the Dust; co-edited anthologies including Voice, Memory, Ashes
trailblazing woman’ and youngest UK Poetry Slam Champion (2007/8). Previous international
and Ridin’ n Rising; co-authored Behind the Masquerade: The Story of Notting
appearances include: Mexico, Canada (British Council/Shakespeare lives), Beirut
Hill Carnival; and edited Closure: Contemporary Black British short stories. Ross’s
(Roundhouse), South Africa (Connect ZA and Roundhouse), and Sudan (British Council). She
novel, Pynter Bender, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer’s Regional
teaches the Writing Poetry for Performance module with Benjamin Zephaniah at Brunel
Prize, The Society of Authors Best First Novel and Caribbean Review of Books
University and is a tutor at School of Communication Arts. She is currently in development
Book of the Year. His current novel, The Bone Readers, was published in 2016.
with EARTH: The Show (written with Gemma Rogers).
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
www.deannarodger.co.uk/ Twitter @deannarodger
www.peepaltresspress.com/authors/jacob-ross
H Amali Rodrigo
H Leone Ross
Amali Rodrigo is Sri Lankan born and lives in
Leone Ross writes magic realism, horror
London. She has won numerous awards for her
fiction, erotica and psychological drama. She
work and is currently an Associate Lecturer and
has published two critically praised novels, All
PhD candidate at Lancaster University. John
The Blood Is Red (ARP/Actes Sud) and Orange
Glenday remarks on her poetry collection, Lotus
Laughter (Anchor/Farrar Straus & Giroux/
Gatherers published by Bloodaxe: ‘This is a
Picador), which was shortlisted for the UK
world of paradoxes – exotic and familiar, a deeply spiritual world which delights
Orange Prize. Ross’s short fiction has been shortlisted for the V S Pritchett Prize
in passion; that celebrates love, but does not hesitate to focus on unsettling
and Salt Publishing’s Scott Prize. She has judged the Manchester Fiction Prize
histories of gender violence. [...] these are poems we can feel; poems we can
and the Wimbledon Bookfest Short Story Competition. She is a Senior Lecturer
hear resonating on the page, aromatic poems, laced with breathtaking imagery;
in creative writing at Roehampton University, and a Senior Fellow of the UK
poems we can hold up to our lips and taste’. The collection includes a sequence of
Higher Education Academy. Leone Ross’s short story collection, Come Let Us
translations of the medieval graffiti song-poems from Sigiriya, Sri Lanka.
Sing Anyway, will be published in June 2017 by Peepal Tree Press. She lives in
www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/category/amali-rodrigo
London and is working on a third novel.
Twitter @arodrigo
www.leoneross.com Twitter @leoneross 47
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Minoli Salgado
H Norman Samuda Smith
Minoli Salgado won the first SI Leeds Literary
Norman Samuda Smith was born in Birmingham,
Prize and was longlisted for the DSC Prize in
England (1958) of Jamaican parents who came
South Asian Literature for her novel, A Little
to Britain in the early 1950s. He was the first
Dust on the Eyes. Described as ‘an impressive
British-born black novelist published in the UK
exploration of traumatic loss’ (Romesh
with his novel Bad Friday (Trinity Arts, 1982;
Gunesekera), the novel is taught alongside
republished New Beacon Books, 1985), which
her critically acclaimed study, Writing Sri Lanka. Her work considers human
was shortlisted for the 1982 Young Observer Fiction Prize. His short stories have
rights issues and has been translated into Spanish, Slovenian and Russian. In
featured in award-winning anthologies Whispers in the Walls (Tindal Street Press,
2012 she was selected as the poet for Sri Lanka at London’s Poetry Parnassus,
2001) and The Heart of Our Community; (Timeless Avatar Press, 2006); his poems
part of the Cultural Olympiad. She has read in Sri Lanka, Nicaragua, Portugal,
are included in the collection, Songs of Hope (Timeless Avatar Press, 2006). In 2013
Canada, the USA and Denmark. She has spoken on censorship at PEN events
he self-published three of his books: Britannia’s Children, Freedom Street and, to
and served as a literary judge for Amnesty International. She teaches English
celebrate its 30th anniversary, Bad Friday. He currently writes and publishes the
literature at the University of Sussex.
online cultural review Panther Newsletter.
www.minolisalgado.com/
www.samudasmithpublications.wordpress.com/
H Jacob Sam-La Rose
H Sathnam Sanghera
Jacob Sam-La Rose’s collection Breaking Silence
Sathnam Sanghera is a journalist with The
(Bloodaxe) was shortlisted for a Forward Poetry
Times and has been shortlisted for the Costa
Prize and the Aldeburgh Fenton Award. He runs the
Book Awards twice: for his memoir, The Boy
Barbican Young Poets programme and Spoken Word
With The Topknot, and his novel, Marriage
Educators (Goldsmiths University) and is recognised
Material. He was awarded an honorary degree
as an indefatigable facilitator and supporter of young
of Doctor of Letters for services to journalism
and emerging writers. His poetry explores and experiments with Black British/African
by The University of Wolverhampton in September 2009 and a President’s
Caribbean culture, ritual and tradition, hybridity, coding and other aspects of popular
Medal by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2010. In 2016 he was elected a
culture. His work has featured in Ploughshares, Wasafiri, In Their Own Words (Salt,
Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature, while writer Jonathan Coe named
2012), Poetry by Heart (Penguin, 2014) and more. He has produced commissioned work
him one of ‘The Men of Next 25 years’ in GQ magazine in 2013, saying that
for institutions including the National Gallery, the BBC and Nitro (Black Music Theatre Co-
‘whether he’s writing autobiography or fiction, Sathnam is busy carving out his
Operative). His practice includes cross-disciplinary collaboration, exploring the possibilities
own literary niche – in the multicultural British Midlands – which he explores
for poetic text with technology, physical theatre and conceptual art. He lives in London.
with incredible grace, generosity and humour’.
www.jsamlarose.com/ Twitter @jsamlarose
www.sathnam.com/ Twitter @Sathnam
48
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Taiye Selasi
H Kamila Shamsie
Taiye Selasi is an author and photographer. Born
Kamila Shamsie is the author of six novels,
in London and raised in Boston, she holds a BA
which have been translated into more than
in American Studies from Yale and an MPhil in
25 languages. Three of her novels have won
International Relations from Oxford. In 2005 she
awards from Pakistan’s Academy of Letters.
published the seminal essay ‘Bye-Bye, Babar (Or:
Burnt Shadows was shortlisted for the Orange
What is an Afropolitan?)’, sparking a movement
Prize for Fiction and won the Anisfield-Wolf
among transnational Africans. In 2013 Selasi’s debut novel, The New York Times
award. She was one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2013. She
bestseller Ghana Must Go, was selected as one of the Ten Best Books of 2013 by
grew up in Karachi, went to university in the USA and now lives in London.
The Wall Street Journal and The Economist. The same year Selasi was named in
www.bloomsbury.com/author/kamila-shamsie
Granta’s once-in-a-decade list of Best Young British Novelists. Her 2015 TED talk,
Twitter @kamilashamsie
‘Don’t Ask Where I’m From; Ask Where I’m a Local’, has reached over two million viewers, redefining the way a global society conceives of personal identity. www.taiyeselasi.com/ Twitter @taiyeselasi
H Seni Seneviratne
H Priya Sharma
Seni is a writer, poet, performer and
Priya Sharma’s horror and speculative fiction
multidisciplinary creative artist of English and Sri
has appeared in venues like Albedo One,
Lankan heritage. She has performed in the UK,
Interzone, Black Static and on Tor.com. Her work
USA, Canada, South Africa, Egypt and Kuwait.
has been published in Ellen Datlow’s Best
She has collaborated with filmmakers, visual and
Horror of the Year series (Night Shade Books),
digital artists and musicians; Lady of Situations
Paula Guran’s Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror
combined poetry, theatre, digital art and music and was performed at Off the Shelf
series (Prime Books), Jonathan Strahan’s The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy
Literature Festival in 2016. Her poetry collections are published by Peepal Tree
2014 (Solaris), Steve Haynes’s Best British Fantasy 2014 (Salt) and Johnny
Press: Wild Cinnamon and Winter Skin (2007), includes a poem which was Highly
Main’s Best British Horror 2015 (Salt). She has also been on several of Locus
Commended in the Forward Poetry Prize; The Heart of It (2012), includes her poem
magazine’s Recommended Reading Lists. Her short story ‘Fabulous Beasts’
‘Operation Cast Lead’ which was shortlisted in the 2010 Arvon International Poetry
originally appeared on Tor.com in 2015 and won the 2016 British Fantasy
Competition. She is currently working on a manuscript, Unknown Soldiers, based
Award for Short Fiction. A collection of her work will be available in 2018. She
on her father’s experiences in the Second World War.
is a doctor who lives in northwest England.
www.seniseneviratne.com Twitter @SeniSeneviratne
www.pritasharmafiction.wordpress.com 49
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Hanan al-Shaykh
H Nikesh Shukla
Hanan al-Shaykh is one of the most acclaimed
Nikesh Shukla is the editor of Rife Magazine,
writers in the contemporary Arab world. She
an online magazine for young people, and
is the author of seven novels, including The
the author of the novels Coconut Unlimited
Story of Zahra, Women of Sand & Myrrh, Beirut
(Quartet), which was shortlisted for the Costa
Blues, Only in London, as well as a collection
First Novel Award, and Meatspace (Friday
of stories, I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops, and
Project). He is the editor of the acclaimed
her much praised memoir of her mother’s life: The Locust and the Bird. She has
collection of essays about race and immigration by 21 writers of colour, The
written two plays, Dark Afternoon Tea and Paper Husband. Most recently she
Good Immigrant (Unbound), which was shortlisted for the Liberty Human Rights
published One Thousand and One Nights, an adaptation and re-imagining of
Arts Award and won the Reader’s Choice at the Books Are My Bag Awards.
some of the stories from the legendary Alf Layla Wa Layla – The Arabian Nights
His short stories have featured in, among others, Best British Short Stories
– commissioned by the director Tim Supple for the theatre and performed
2013, Five Dials, The Moth Magazine, The Sunday Times, BBC Radio 4 and Teller
in Toronto and Edinburgh in 2011. Her work has been translated into 28
Magazine. He has, in the past, been writer in residence for BBC Asian Network
languages. She lives in London.
and the Royal Festival Hall.
www.rcwlitagency.com/authors/al-shaykh-hanan-2/
www.nikesh-shukla.com/ Twitter @nikeshshukla
H Warsan Shire
H John Siddique
Warsan Shire is a Kenyan-born Somali poet,
John Siddique is a British poet who draws
writer, editor and educator named London’s
on his Irish and Indian heritage to straddle
first Young People's Laureate in 2014. Her
the complications of modern society. He is
debut book, Teaching My Mother How to Give
the author of The Prize (Rialto) and Poems
Birth, was published in 2012 (flipped eye).
from a Northern Soul, co-author of Four Fathers
Her poems have been published in Wasafiri,
(ROUTE) and editor of Transparency (Crocus
Magma and Poetry Review and in the anthology The Salt Book of Younger Poets
Books). His work has also appeared in various anthologies including The Fire
(2011) and Bloodaxe’s Ten: The New Wave (2014). In 2012 she represented
People (Canongate) and VELOCITY (Black Spring), as well as in magazines.
Somalia at Poetry Parnassus, the festival of the world poets at the Southbank
Among others, he has held residencies and commissions at Commonword,
Centre, London, part of the Cultural Olympiad. Her poetry has been translated
BBC Manchester and Ilkley Literature Festival; Wetherby Prison won two
into Italian, Danish, Estonian, Spanish and Portuguese. Warsan was the winner
Koestler Awards for his work during his three years as a writer there, leading
of the 2013 inaugural Brunel University African Poetry Prize. Most recently her
to a commendation by the Prime Minister for John’s radical and innovative
poetry featured on Beyonce’s album Lemonade. She now lives in the USA.
work with young people. He continues to mentor in schools and elsewhere.
www.warsanshire.bandcamp.com/ Twitter @warsan_shire
www.johnsiddique.co.uk/ Twitter @johnsiddique
50
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Jenneba Sie-Jalloh
H Dorothea Smartt
Jenneba Sie-Jalloh left formal teaching
Dorothea Smartt, born and raised in London,
to work in the arts. She has worked as
is of Barbadian heritage. Dubbed ‘Brit born
project manager, programmer and workshop
Bajan international’ by Kamau Brathwaithe,
facilitator and as a consultant for the British
her poetry appears in several journals and
Council. Jenneba has had poetry, essays and
groundbreaking anthologies, including IC3:
fiction published in a number of anthologies.
The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in
In 2008 she completed an MA in writing and finished her first novel. She has
Britain. Her first collection, Connecting Medium, features a Forward Prize
a deep interest in oral history and edited All Saints and Sinners, a collection
award-winning poem. Her video/poetry installation was part of LandFall, a
of interviews capturing the experiences of a group of teenage boys (including
2009 exhibition exploring the Atlantic Ocean as natural phenomenon and
her father) who stowed away from Sierra Leone in the 1940s and settled in
transporter of dreams and peoples at the Museum of London Docklands.
Notting Hill, London.
Dorothea regularly facilitates poetry workshops and has read and performed
Twitter @jennebasie
in Wales, Hungary, Denmark, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Jamaica, Bahrain, Egypt and the USA. www.dorotheasmartt.wordpress.com/ Twitter @britbornbajan1
H Lemn Sissay
H Rommi Smith
Lemn Sissay is a poet who is presently
Rommi Smith is a poet and playwright. BBC Poet
published by Canongate Books. His
in Residence for the Commonwealth Games,
installation poem what if was exhibited at The
Manchester and for BBC Music Live, Rommi has
Royal Academy. His landmarks poems can
written and performed across BBC radio. She
be seen everywhere from The Royal Festival
was Parliamentary Writer in Residence, the first
Hall to The British Council in Addis Ababa. He
in British parliamentary history. Rommi’s play,
was Artist in Residence at the Southbank Centre London from 2006 to 2012.
Mountain Knows Me, received a Southbank Show Award nomination. She teaches
His latest book, Gold From The Stone (Selected Poems), came out in 2016. He
creative writing and has mentored students at The Royal Central School of Speech
is a presenter on BBC Radio. His play Something Dark has been performed
and Drama. In the multi-award winning film-documentary, We Are Poets, Rommi
around the world and is published in 2017 by Oberon Books. His extraordinary
was poet coach for young poets competing in the US Brave New Voices poetry slam
life story was made into a BBC Television documentary entitled Internal Flight.
championships. Rommi was a consultant/advisor to Yemeni civil rights campaigner
He is Chancellor of the University of Manchester and received an MBE for
and Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakul Karman for her Parliamentary speech. She is
services to literature.
currently working on a PhD celebrating the politics of jazz and blues..
www.lemnsissay.com/ Twitter @lemnsissay
www.rommi-smith.co.uk/ Twitter @rommismith 51
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Mahsuda Snaith
H Saradha Soobrayen
Mahsuda Snaith is a writer of short stories,
Saradha Soobrayen was born in London and
novels and plays. She is the winner of the SI
studied Live Art, Visual Art and Creative Writing.
Leeds Literary Prize 2014 and Bristol Short
She is Poet in Residence for CHAGOS: Cultural
Story Prize 2014 as well as being a finalist
Heritage Across Generations and is writing
in the Mslexia Novel Competition 2013. Her
a poetic inquiry, Sounds Like Root Shock, a
short stories have been anthologised by The
melange of activism, cultural transmission,
Asian Writer, Words with Jam and Closure: Contemporary Black British Stories.
Kreol dialect, political rhetoric and song lyrics that chronicle the forced removal of
As well as working as a supply teacher, Mahsuda has led creative writing
Chagossians from the Chagos Archipelago and their fight for the ‘right of return’.
workshops and performed her work at literary festivals. Her debut novel, The
Saradha received an Eric Gregory Award in 2004 and was named in The Guardian
Things We Thought We Knew, is due be published by Transworld in June 2017.
as one of ‘12 to watch’, up-and-coming young poets. She represented Mauritius
She has been chosen as an Observer New Face of Fiction 2017.
at the Southbank Centre’s Parnassus Poetry Festival and won the 2015-16 Pacuare
www.mahsudasnaith.com/
Reserve’s Poet Laureate residency. Saradha’s critical texts, experimental short
Twitter @mahsudasnaith
fiction and poetry are widely published in journals and anthologies. www.saradhasoobrayen.com Twitter @thewritingsofa
H Yomi Sode
H Ahdaf Soueif
Once long-listed as one of MTV’s Brand New
Ahdaf Soueif is the author of the bestselling
Artists, writer/poet Yomi Sode balances the
The Map of Love (shortlisted for the Booker
fine line between both Nigerian and British
Prize in 1999 and translated into more than
cultures, which can be, at times, humorous,
30 languages), In the Eye of the Sun (1992),
loving, self-reflective and uncomfortable.
I Think of You and Cairo: a City Transformed,
Over the past nine years, he’s had work
her account of the 2011 Egyptian revolution
commissioned by The Mayor’s Office, BBC World Service/Africa, Channel 4,
(2014). She is also a political and cultural commentator. Her collection of
charities and for the UN Humanitarian Summit. He won a place on Nimble
essays, Mezzaterra (2004), has been influential and her articles for The
Fish’s RE: Play programme to develop his show COAT, the scratch of which has
Guardian are published in the European and American press. Her translation
since been programmed by the Southbank Centre and Camden Roundhouse to
from Arabic into English of I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti is widely
sold-out audiences. Last year Yomi was chosen to be a part of The Complete
acclaimed. In 2007 she founded the Palestine Festival of Literature which
Works and travelled to the USA as part of British Council’s Shakespeare Lives
takes place in the cities of occupied Palestine and Gaza.
initiative, where he read at New York Public Library.
www.ahdafsoueif.com
www.iamgreeds.com/ Twitter @YomiSode
Twitter @asoueif
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BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Chimene Suleyman
H Meera Syal
Chimene Suleyman, of Turkish-Cypriot descent,
Meera Syal is an actress and writer. Her first
is a writer from London now based in New York.
novel, Anita And Me, won the Betty Trask
She has written on race politics for publications
Award and is on the UK school curriculum.
including The Independent, IB Times, The
She has written two other critically acclaimed
Quietus, The Debrief, The Pool and a regular spot
novels, Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee and The
for Media Diversified. She has appeared on
House Of Hidden Mothers, both of which she
Newsnight and BBC radio. She is a contributor to the award-winning book, The
adapted for television. She wrote the screenplays for the films Bhaji On The
Good Immigrant (Unbound, 2016), a collection of essays on race and identity. Her
Beach, Anita And Me and My Sister Wife. She was writer/performer in the
poetry collection, Outside Looking On (Influx, 2014) is an exploration of London
multi-award-winning comedy series Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars At
streets, heartbreak and wine, and was included in a Guardian Best Books list. She
Number 42. Meera has won numerous awards including two British Comedy
started as a spoken-word artist, representing the UK at the International Biennale
Awards, two international EMMYS and two AFA awards for her screenplay
in Rome 2011, and has performed internationally. Chimene has taught poetry and
and performance in My Sister Wife. In 2015, she received a CBE for Services to
creative writing at schools and universities.
Drama and Literature.
www.chimenesuleyman.com/ Twitter @chimenesuleyman
www.rcwlitagency.com/authors/syal-meera/ Twitter @MeeraSyal
H Radhika Dogra Swarup
H Levi Tafari
Radhika Dogra Swarup spent a nomadic
Levi Tafari was born in Liverpool. He is the
childhood growing up in India, Italy, Qatar,
author of a number of poetry collections
Pakistan, Romania and England, which
including Duboetry (1987), Liverpool Experience
gave her a keen sense of place and for the
(1989), Rhyme Don’t Pay (1998) and From
dispossessed. She studied at Cambridge
the Page to the Stage (2006). His plays have
University and worked in finance before
been performed at the Unity Theatre and the
turning to writing. Her debut novel, Where the River Parts, was published by
Playhouse in Liverpool, as well as at the Blackheath Theatre in Stafford. He
Sandstone Press in 2016. It was selected for the Sainsbury’s Summer Book
has run creative writing workshops in schools, colleges, universities, youth
Club and was chosen by Amazon India as one of its Memorable Books of
centres, prisons and libraries nationally and internationally. Levi Tafari is a
2016. She also blogs for Huffington Post India. Radhika lives in London with her
crucial, rhythmic, poetic consciousness-raiser and urban griot who has made
husband and two young children.
many television and radio appearances. Henry Normal says of Levi, ‘His style is
www.sandstonepress.com/books/where-the-river-parts
rhythmic and lyrical and has the ability to make you smile and to make you think’.
Twitter @rdswarup
www.windowsproject.net/writers/tafari.htm Twitter @levitafari 53
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Shagufta S Tania
H Stephen Thompson
Bangladeshi-born Shagufta S Tania was an
Stephen Thompson was born in London. His latest
architect and designer before she became a
novel is No More Heroes, about the 7/7 bombings.
writer. Her fiction and non-fiction have been
His first novel, Toy Soldiers (2000), a semi-
published in the Bengali-speaking areas of both
autobiographical account of his adolescence, was
Bangladesh and India. She is the author of two
described by Hanif Kureishi as ‘painfully honest
novels and two short story collections and her
and deeply affecting’. His second novel, Missing
work has appeared in Wasafiri and the Asia Literary Review. Another notable
Joe (2001), concerns the generation of West Indians who arrived in Britain in the
passion project is her English-Bengali translation of Susan Fletcher’s Whitbread
post-war years. Meet Me Under The Westway (2007) is a satirical account of
award-winning novel Eve Green. Her impressionistic writing style inhabits a
life in London’s theatreland, drawn extensively from his experiences as a member of
dream-like space between prose and poetry, and displays her love of language
The Royal Court Young People’s Theatre. He currently teaches creative writing at the
and imagery — and their power to transport readers. Currently, Shagufta is
University of Winchester. He is editor and publisher of the online literary journal,
writing a historical novel set during the failed Bengal Partition of 1905 and also
The Colverstone Review.
a series of adult fairytales based on old tales of Bengal.
www.jacarandabooksartmusic.co.uk/writer/stephen-thompson/
www.immigrantsofspitalfields.org.uk/speakers/
Twitter @ss_thompson
H Testament
H Robyn Travis
Testament is a hip-hop MC, poet, theatre maker
Robyn Travis is currently working on his
and world record breaking human beatboxer.
next novel as well as a screenplay. His
A critically acclaimed lyricist, his work ties
first book Prisoner to the Streets – a real life
together strands of rap, song and spoken word.
account of his journey from London ‘gangs’
Testament’s work includes: the celebrated album
to author – has received widespread praise.
Homecut: No Freedom Without; spoken word
He is a passionate speaker and advocate for
performances for BBC radio (1xtra, Radio 4 and 6Music); and his acclaimed play
young people and uses his own life experiences to teach and inspire younger
Blake Remixed, a personal response to the work of William Blake. His work has
generations to believe in a brighter future for themselves. He regularly gives
been performed at The Roundhouse, The Globe, West Yorkshire Playhouse and The
talks at youth centres and schools and is a firm believer in the power of
National Theatre Studio. Testament’s writing has published been in anthologies
literature as a means to positively change people’s lives.
and used a teaching resource internationally. He is also a workshop facilitator,
www.ownit.london/tag/robyn-travis/
leading workshops in venues ranging from schools and stadiums to prisons and park
Twitter @OfficialRTravis
benches. Testament is a currently a supported artist at Manchester’s Royal Exchange. www.hiphopclinic.co.uk/about/ Twitter @homecut 54
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Yemisi Turner-Blake
H Stephanie Victoire
Yemisi Turner-Blake is a British writer and
Stephanie Victoire was born in London to a Mauritian
photographer based in London. His work
family. She has a BA in creative writing from London
is concerned with narratives of place and
Metropolitan University. In 2014 she completed her
urban life, often featuring collaborations with
collection of fairy and folk tales, The Other World,
individuals and communities in cities. Using
It Whispers (Salt, 2016), whilst on The Almasi
literature, photography and performance, his
League Writers’ Programme. With strands of
work includes productions, publications, installations and exhibitions in the
classic fairy and folklore weaved through, the unknown – the silent and dark – is
UK and internationally. He has been commissioned by organisations including
explored. These stories tell of what happens when passion, desire, loneliness and
Art on the Underground, the British Council, Southbank Centre, Tate and
imprisonment leads to a search for freedom and empowerment. Stephanie has
Delfina Foundation. His work has appeared in various publications including
also published stories in the anthologies, Flamingo Land and Other Stories and
Wasafiri, Poetry Review and a collection from flipped eye books.
An Unreliable Guide to London and has written for the Oh Comely Magazine blog.
www.yemisiblake.co.uk/
Stephanie is now working on her novel, The Heart Note.
Twitter @yemisi_tb
www.saltpublishing.com/collections/author-stephanie-victoire Twitter @StephySunkisser
H Paula Varjack
H Kit de Waal
Paula Varjack is a writer, filmmaker and
Kit de Waal was born in Birmingham to an
theatre maker. Her work explores identity,
Irish mother and Caribbean father and worked
the unsaid and making the invisible visible.
for 15 years in criminal and family law. She
Her debut prose & poetry publication, Letters
was awarded the Bridport Flash Fiction Prize
I Never Sent to You, published by Burning Eye
in both 2014 and 2015, the SI Leeds Literary
Books, explores how love and heartbreak
Reader’s Choice Prize 2014 and second place
can be felt just as strongly for a place as for a person. Her most recent show,
in both the Costa Short Story Award 2014 and the Bath Short Story Award
Show Me The Money, explores the reality of making a living as an artist and is
2014. Her short stories, ‘The Beautiful Thing’ and ‘Adrift at the Athena’, have
based on interviews with artists across the UK. In addition to performing, she
also been produced for BBC Radio 4. My Name is Leon is her first novel and
facilitates workshops with a wide range of age groups, using writing prompts
was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award.
and drama games to unblock creativity.
www.kitdewaal.com/
www.paulavarjack.com
Twitter @KitdeWaal
Twitter @paulavarjack
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BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Jocelyn Watson
H Ruel White
The Asian Women’s Writers Collective was
Ruel White was born in Montserrat, coming
Jocelyn Watson’s first writing home. In
to England when he was four. During the
2016 her story ‘Suha’ about a female Syrian
1970s-80s he was active in Rock Against
refugee was published in Gender and Race
Racism, contributing both musically and
Matter: Global Perspectives on Being a Woman.
organisationally. After a life-changing meeting
Among her awards are: two Jane Austen
with John La Rose, Sarah White and Michael
Short Story Awards (2011, 2015), the UK Asian Writer Short Story Competition
La Rose of New Beacon Books, he began writing. He has had several short
(2013); and the 2012 Freedom From Torture Short Story Competition. Her play,
stories and a novel, Heroes Through the Day, published by New Beacon and
Cornelia Calling, was part of the Kali Talkback 2013 at Tristan Bates Theatre.
also wrote stories for broadcast by the BBC. Ruel gained a degree in Literature
Her story, ‘X’, was published in an anthology of new writing by British Asian
and Third World Studies and has taught at various schools in London. He has
women, Beyond the Border (Dahlia, 2014). In 2015 her autobiographical piece,
recently been writing full time on the Chapter and Verse programme run by
‘Words’, was included in Tangled Roots and her short story, ‘Nana’s Navartan
The Literary Consultancy, working on his latest novel Astronauts, which will be
Set’, was published by Momaya Press in their Treasure anthology.
completed by autumn 2017.
www.theasianwriter.co.uk/2014/01/the-gardener-jocelyn-watson/
www.erea.revues.org/3524?lang=en
H Gemma Weekes
H Indigo Williams
Touted in The Independent as ‘a name to watch’,
Indigo Williams is a dynamic poet from
Gemma Weekes is author of Love Me (Chatto
south London. She is passionate about the
& Windus), described in The Telegraph as a
ways art can transform the way we perceive
‘fresh take on modern love [that] hits you where
the world and its ability to facilitate critical
you feel it most’. She is also a screenwriter,
consciousness. She uses her work to explore
published poet, an established performance/
these concepts on stage and on the page.
spoken word artist and a musicmaker who has scored work at The Place Theatre,
Her work has been featured on both national television and radio shows. She
Sadlers Wells and for film. As a singer/songwriter, she has appeared with Cody
has performed at events and venues such as Glastonbury, iTunes Festival,
Chesnutt (opening for Black-Eyed Peas) and collaborated with Nitin Sawhney.
BBC Radio 4’s Bespoken word, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal
She’s devised pieces and performed nationally and internationally including the
Festival Hall and many more. She is co-founder of I Shape Beauty, an art
Royal Festival Hall, MC Theatre (Netherlands), New Jersey Performing Arts Centre
collective that creates art around the narratives of women of colour and
(USA) and Bestival. She is currently working on a live art piece with accompanying
facilitates workshops and healing spaces for women of colour.
chapbook/EP and her second novel.
www.indigowilliamspoetry.com/poetry/
www.gemmaweekes.blogspot.co.uk/ Twitter @gemmaweekes
Twitter @Indigowilliams
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BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
H Jennifer Wong
H Caasha Lul Mohamud Yusuf
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Jennifer Wong
Caasha Lul Mohamud Yusuf is a poet from
is the author of Goldfish (Chameleon Press), a
Somalia/Somaliland who writes in Somali.
narrative of childhood memories, myths and
She grew up in a culture steeped in poetry
taboos in Hong Kong. She studied English in
and started to compose poems from an early
Oxford and has an MA in creative writing from
age. Her work began getting published on
the University of East Anglia. She is working
Somali websites in 2008 and has garnered
on a PhD on place and identity in contemporary Chinese diaspora poetry at Oxford
praise for her ability to infuse poetry with fresh imagery enlivened by telling
Brookes, where she also teaches creative writing. She has performed nationally and
details. Caasha has lived in exile in the UK for 20 years, but is fast emerging
internationally; her poems have been published in The Rialto, Morning Star, Oxford
as one of the most outstanding Somali poets, as well as a powerful woman
Poetry, And Other Poems, Cha and The World Record anthology (Bloodaxe Books)
poet in a literary tradition still largely dominated by men. The Sea Migrations
among others. In 2014, she received the Young Artist Award (Literary Arts) from the
(Somali title: Tahriib), her first full-length book of poems, is published by
Hong Kong Arts Development Council. She is a tutor at The Poetry School.
Bloodaxe Books with The Poetry Translation Centre in November 2017.
www.jennigerwong.co.uk
www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/category/caasha-lul-mohamud-yusuf
Twitter @jennywcreative
H Kerry Young
H Rafeef Ziadah
Kerry Young was born in Kingston, Jamaica to
Rafeef Ziadah is a Palestinian-Canadian
a Chinese father and mother of mixed Chinese-
spoken word artist and human rights activist
African heritage. She has written three novels:
based in London. She released her first
Pao (Bloomsbury, 2011) shortlisted for the
spoken word album, Hadeel, in 2009. In 2012
Costa First Novel Award, the Commonwealth
she was chosen to represent Palestine at
Book Prize and the East Midlands Book Award;
Poetry Parnassus at London’s Southbank
Gloria (Bloomsbury, 2013) longlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean
Centre. Her performances of poems like ‘We Teach Life, Sir’ and ‘Shades of
Literature, shortlisted for the East Midlands Book Award and nominated for
Anger’ went viral online within days of their release and have been viewed
the 2015 International Impac Dublin Literary Award; and Show Me A Mountain
over a million times and translated into multiple languages. Rafeef’s poems
(Bloomsbury, 2016). Kerry is a Reader and Mentor for The Literary Consultancy
continue to be a rally cry for action against injustice and a potent rendition
and an Arvon Foundation tutor. She is a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund,
of the everyday lives of ordinary people in the Middle East, often seen only
Honorary Assistant Professor in the School of English at The University of
through the lens of news statistics.
Nottingham and Honorary Creative Writing Fellow at the University of Leicester.
www.rafeefziadah.net/
www.kerryyoung.co.uk/ Twitter @KerryYoungWrite
Twitter @RafeefZiadah 57
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
ABOUT SPEAKING VOLUMES Speaking Volumes Live Literature Productions is a not-for-profit, producer-led independent organisation, which promotes the very best of the UK’s rich diversity of literature and international writing. Formed in 2010 by Sharmilla Beezmohun and Sarah Sanders, the agency has, along with Nick Chapman, produced numerous literary festivals, tours, events series and showcases in the UK and internationally. This includes: two tours of Black British writers to the East and West Coasts of the USA; a London and UK-wide series of Stand Up And Spit events celebrating political poetry; four editions of European Literature Night at the British Library; programmes for the European Commission; and the 2012 UK tour of Poetry Parnassus, the Southbank Centre’s festival for the Cultural Olympiad. In 2017-18, Speaking Volumes will be taking British writers to four European countries as part of Breaking Ground Europe as well as producing events in London, Birmingham and at Bradford Lit Fest for the series. Other projects include Writers of the World Unite!, a new festival celebrating revolutionary writing in partnership with Waterstones and Little Atoms, and the UK launch series of The Golden Shovel Anthology celebrating the centenary of the birth of Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African American Poet Laureate who became a civil rights icon.
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CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
FOR MORE INFORMATION on Breaking Ground writers, event and tour bookings or Speaking Volumes and our work, please contact us directly at: SHARMILLA BEEZMOHUN: sharmilla.beezmohun@speaking-volumes.org.uk SARAH SANDERS: sarah.sanders@speaking-volumes.org.uk NICK CHAPMAN: nicholas.chapman@speaking-volumes.org.uk
FOLLOW the Breaking Ground story via Speaking Volumes digital platforms: @speak_volumes SpeakingVolumesLiveLiteratureProductions @speaking.volumes
www.speaking-volumes.org.uk 59
BREAKING GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS OF COLOUR
CONCEPT + DESIGN: JON-DANIEL.COM
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