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Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize
The Queen Mary ''Wasafiri'' New Writing Prize (originally known as the ''Wasafiri'' New Writing Prize) is an annual award open to anyone worldwide who has not yet published a complete book. It was inaugurated in 2009 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of ''Wasafiri'' magazine, to support new writers, with no limits on age, gender, nationality or background. The prize is judged in three categories: Fiction, Poetry, and Life Writing; The winners are published in the print and online magazine. Award history 2009 The 2009 judges were: Susheila Nasta (Chair), Margaret Busby, Mimi Khalvati and Blake Morrison. The winners were announced by Mimi Khalvati on 31 October at the Purcell Room, South Bank Centre, London, with the winning entries subsequently published in ''Wasafiri'' 61, Spring 2010. Winners * Fiction: Ola Awonubi for "The Go Slow Journey" * Poetry: Rowyda Amin for "Monkey Daughter" * Life Writing: Bart Moore-Gilbert for "Prologue" 2010 The 2010 judges were Susheila Nasta ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wasafiri
''Wasafiri'' is a quarterly British literary magazine covering international contemporary writing. Founded in 1984, the magazine derives its name from a Swahili word meaning "travellers" that is etymologically linked with the Arabic word "safari". The magazine holds that many of those who created the literatures in which it is particularly interested "...have all in some sense been cultural travellers either through migration, transportation or else, in the more metaphorical sense of seeking an imagined cultural 'home'." Funded by the Arts Council England, ''Wasafiri'' is "a journal of post-colonial literature that pays attention to the wealth of Black and diasporic writers worldwide. It is Britain's only international magazine for Black British, African, Asian and Caribbean literatures." History ''Wasafiri'' magazine was established in 1984 by Susheila Nasta, who served as its editor-in-chief for 35 years. The magazine was originally developed to extend the activities of the Asso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin Grant (author)
Colin Grant (born 1961, Hitchin, England) is a British writer of Jamaican origin who is the author of several books, including a 2008 biography of Marcus Garvey entitled ''Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey and His Dream of Mother Africa''. Grant is also a historian, Associate Fellow in the Centre for Caribbean Studies and a BBC radio producer. Biography Early years Grant grew up on a council estate in Luton, had a brother Christopher and attended St Columba's College, St Albans. Career Grant joined the BBC in 1991, and has worked as a TV script editor and radio producer of arts and science programmes on Radio 4 and on the World Service. In 2009, a two-part documentary about ''Caribbean Voices'' (1943–1958) was produced by Grant. He has written and directed plays, including ''The Clinic'', based on the lives of the photojournalists Tim Page and Don McCullin. Among several radio drama-documentaries he has written and produced are ''African Man of Letters: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vesna Goldsworthy
Vesna Goldsworthy FRSL ( Bjelogrlic, sr, Bjelogrlić, pronounced: Byelogerlitch, is a Serbian writer and poet. She is from Belgrade and obtained her BA in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from Belgrade University in 1985. She has lived in England since 1986. As of 2023, Goldsworthy is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. She previously worked at Kingston University where she was Director of the Centre for Suburban Studies. Goldsworthy is a Professor Emeritus of the School of Literature, Drama, and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Her books include ''Inventing Ruritania'' (1998), the memoir ''Chernobyl Strawberries'' (2005),Lacey. and a collection of poems ''The Angel of Salonika'' (2011). Her first novel, ''Gorsky'', which updated the story of ''The Great Gatsby'', was published in 2015. Her second novel, ''Monsieur Ka'', which is a development of the story of ''Anna Karenina'', was published in 2018. Goldsworthy publis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imtiaz Dharker
Imtiaz Dharker (born 31 January 1954) is a Pakistan-born British full time poet, artist, and video film maker. She won the Queen's Gold Medal for her English poetry and was appointed Chancellor of Newcastle University from January 2020. In 2019, she was considered for the position of Poet Laureate following the tenure of Dame Carol Ann Duffy, but withdrew herself from contention in order, as she stated, to maintain focus on her writing."I had to weigh the privacy I need to write poems against the demands of a public role. The poems won," said Dharker. For many Dharker is seen as one of Britain's most inspirational contemporary poets. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2011. In the same year, she received the Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors. In 2016, she received an Honorary Doctorate from SOAS University of London. Dharker was born in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. She grew up in Glasgow where her family moved when she was less than one yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diran Adebayo
Oludiran "Diran" Adebayo FRSL (born 30 August 1968) is a British novelist, cultural critic and academic, best known for his tales of London and the lives of African diasporans. His work has been characterised by its interest in multiple cultural identities, subcultures, and its distinctive, "musical" use of language. His fans include the writer Zadie Smith, who has praised him for his "humanness", arguing that he is one of a few English writers who "trade in both knowledge and feeling". In 2002 ''The Times Literary Supplement'' named him as one of the Best Young British Novelists. Education and career Born Oludiran Adebayo in London in 1968, to Nigerian parents, Adebayo won a Major Scholarship when he was 12 to Malvern College, where he boarded as an adolescent, and is an Oxford University Law graduate. Among his friends at Wadham College, Oxford, were the writers Monica Ali and Hari Kunzru, while the Afro-Futurist critic and theorist Kodwo Eshun, whom Adebayo cites in his Ackn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akwaeke Emezi
Akwaeke Emezi is a Nigerian fiction writer and video artist, best known for their novels ''Freshwater'', '' Pet,'' and their ''New York Times'' bestselling novel ''The Death of Vivek Oji''. Emezi is a generalist who writes speculative fiction, romance, memoir and poetry for both young adults and adults with mostly LGBT themes. Their work has earned them several awards and nominations including the Otherwise Award and Commonwealth Short Story Prize. In 2021, ''Time'' featured them as a Next Generation Leader. Early life and education Akwaeke Emezi was born in Umuahia in 1987 to an Igbo Nigerian father, and a mother who was the daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants living in Malaysia. Emezi grew up in Aba. Emezi started reading fantasy books and with their sister Yagazie used storytelling to escape the riots, dictatorship, and dangerous reality of their childhoods. Emezi was a "voracious" reader during childhood and they began writing short stories when they were five years old. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Robinson (poet)
Roger Robinson is a British writer, musician and performer who lives between England and Trinidad."Roger Robinson" page at Literature, British Council. His book ''A Portable Paradise'' () won the prestigious 2019, announced in London in January 2020.Flood, Alison (17 October 1919) [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yasmin Alibhai Brown
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (''née'' Damji; born 10 December 1949) is a British journalist and author, who describes herself as "a leftie liberal, anti-racist, feminist, Muslim...person". A regular columnist for the ''i '' newspaper and the ''Evening Standard'', she is a well-known commentator on immigration, diversity, and multiculturalism issues. She is a founding member of British Muslims for Secular Democracy. She is also a patron of the SI Leeds Literary Prize. Early life and family Yasmin Damji was born in 1949 into the Indian community in Kampala. Her family belonged to the Nizari Ismaili branch of the Shia Islamic faith, and she regards herself as a Shia Muslim. Her mother was born in East Africa and her father moved there from British India in the 1920s. After graduating in English literature from Makerere University in 1972, Alibhai-Brown left Uganda for Britain, along with her niece, Farah Damji, shortly before the expulsion of Ugandan Asians by Idi Amin, and compl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toby Litt
Toby Litt is an English writer and academic in the Department of English and Humanities at Birkbeck, University of London. Life Litt was born in Ampthill in 1968. He was educated at Bedford Modern School, read English at Worcester College, Oxford and studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia where he was taught by Malcolm Bradbury. A short story by Toby Litt was included in the anthology ''All Hail the New Puritans'' (2000), edited by Matt Thorne and Nicholas Blincoe, and he has edited ''The Outcry'' (2001), Henry James's last completed novel, for Penguin in the UK. In 2003 he was nominated by Granta magazine as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists', although his work since then has met with mixed reviews, one reviewer in the Guardian writing that his novel ''I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay'' "goes on ... and on, and on. There is plenty of story here, but little plot, and no tension." He edited the 13th edition of ''New Writing'' (the British Cou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monique Roffey
Monique Roffey (born 1965) is a Trinidadian-born British writer and memoirist. Her novels have been much acclaimed, winning awards including the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, for ''Archipelago'', and the Costa Book of the Year award, for '' The Mermaid of Black Conch'' in 2021. Biography Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1965, to an English father and mother of French, Italian, Maltese and Lebanese descent. Roffey was educated at St Andrew's School in Maraval, Trinidad, and then in the UK at St Maur's Convent, and St George's College, Weybridge. She graduated with a BA in English and Film Studies from the University of East Anglia in 1987, and later completed an MA and PhD in Creative Writing at Lancaster University. Between 2002 and 2006 she was a Centre Director for the Arvon Foundation. Roffey is an experienced creative writing tutor and has taught for numerous creative writing providers and organisations, including The National Writers Centre, First S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inua Ellams
Inua M. M. Ellams (born 23 October 1984) is a UK-based poet, playwright and performer. Work Ellams has written for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre and the BBC. In June 2018, Ellams was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature as part of its ''40 Under 40'' initiative. Poetry * ''Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales'' ( flipped eye, 2005) * ''Candy Coated Unicorns and Converse All Stars'' ( flipped eye, 2011) * ''The Wire-Headed Heathen'' (Akashic Books, 2016) Featured in anthologies ''The Salt Book of Younger Poets'' (Salt, 2011) * ''The Valley Press Anthology of Prose Poetry'' (Valley Press, 2019) * ''Ten: The New Wave'' ( Bloodaxe, 2014) Performances and plays ''The 14th Tale'' Ellams's one-man show ''The 14th Tale'' was awarded an Edinburgh Fringe First at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2009 and later transferred to the Royal National Theatre, London. ''Untitled'' A one-man show staged at the Soho Theatre in 2010, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bidisha
Bidisha Mamata is a British broadcaster and journalist specialising in international affairs, social justice issues, arts and culture. Bidisha began writing professionally for style magazines such as '' i-D'', '' Dazed and Confused'', and the ''NME'', at the age of 14, and published her first novel at 18. She writes for ''The Guardian'' and ''The Observer'' and works as a TV and radio presenter for the BBC, presenting programmes including ''Woman's Hour''. She also does outreach work in UK detention centres and prisons, in affiliation with literary and human rights organisation English PEN. Early life and education Bidisha was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls, an independent school in Elstree in Hertfordshire, followed by St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford,List of famous graduates of St Edmund Hal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
