Nadifa Mohamed ( so, Nadiifa Maxamed, ar, نظيفة محمد) (born 1981) is a Somali-British novelist. She featured on ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

'' magazine's list "Best of Young British Novelists" in 2013, and in 2014 on the Africa39 list of writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature. Her 2021 novel, '' The Fortune Men'', was

shortlist A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

ed for the 2021

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

, making her the first British Somali novelist to get this honour. She has also written short stories, essays, memoirs and articles in outlets including ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', and contributed poetry to the anthology ''

New Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora, ...

'' (edited by

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let ...

, 2019). She was also a lecturer in Creative Writing in the Department of English at

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, ...

until 2021. She will be Distinguished Writer in Residence at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, t ...

in Spring 2022.

Personal life

Mohamed was born in 1981 in

Hargeisa Hargeisa (; so, Hargeysa, ar, هرجيسا) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Somaliland. It is located in the Maroodi Jeex region of the Horn of Africa. It succeeded Burco as the capital of the British Somaliland Protectora ...

, Somaliland.Nadifa Mohamed
HarperCollins Author Profile Her father was a sailor in the merchant navy and her mother was a local landlady.
''WardheerNews'', 21 April 2011. . In 1986, she moved with her family to London for what was intended to be a temporary stay. However, the

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policie ...

broke out shortly afterwards in Somalia, so they remained in the UK. Mohamed later attended the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, where she studied history and politics. In 2008, she visited Hargeisa for the first time in more than a decade. Mohamed resides in London.

Literary career

Mohamed's first novel, '' Black Mamba Boy'' (2010), described in ''The Guardian'' as "a significant, affecting book of the dispossessed", is a semi-biographical account of her father's life in

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and s ...

in the 1930s and '40s, during the colonial period. She has said that "the novel grew out of a desire to learn more about my roots, to elucidate Somali history for a wider audience and to tell a story that I found fascinating." A "fictionalized biography", it won critical and popular acclaim in countries as far away as

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and Sout ...

. The book won the 2010

Betty Trask Award The Betty Trask Prize and Awards are for first novels written by authors under the age of 35, who reside in a current or former Commonwealth nation. Each year the awards total £20,000, with one author receiving a larger prize amount, called the ...

, and was shortlisted for numerous awards, including the 2010 ''Guardian'' First Book Award, the 2010

Dylan Thomas Prize The Dylan Thomas Prize is a leading prize for young writers presented annually. The prize, named in honour of the Welsh writer and poet Dylan Thomas, brings international prestige and a remuneration of £30,000 (~$46,000). It is open to published w ...

, and the 2010

John Llewellyn Rhys Prize The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize was a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama) by an author from the Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political communi ...

. It was also long-listed for the 2010

Orange Prize for Fiction The Women's Prize for Fiction (previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction (1996–2006 and 2009–12), Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007–08) and Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (2014–2017)) is one of the United Kingdom's m ...

. In 2013, Mohamed released her second novel, '' The Orchard of Lost Souls''. Set in Somalia on the eve of the civil war, it was published by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...

. Reviewing it in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', Arifa Akbar said: "If Mohamed's first novel was about fathers and sons ... this one is essentially about mothers and daughters." In 2014 ''The Orchard of Lost Souls'' won the

Somerset Maugham Award The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each year by the Society of Authors. Set up by William Somerset Maugham in 1947 the awards enable young writers to enrich their work by gaining experience in foreign countries. The awa ...

and was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. In December 2013, Mohamed was one of 36 writer and translator participants at the Doha International Book Fair's Literary Translation Summit in

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it s ...

. She was chosen as one of ''

'' magazine's "Best of Young British Novelists" in 2013, and in April 2014 was selected for the

Hay Festival The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival ( cy, Gŵyl Y Gelli), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988 ...

's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature. Her writing has also been published in such outlets as ''The Guardian''Nadifa Mohamed page
at ''The Guardian''. and

Literary Hub Literary Hub is a daily literary website that launched in 2015 by Grove Atlantic president and publisher Morgan Entrekin, American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame editor Terry McDonell, and Electric Literature founder Andy Hunter. Con ...

, as well as in the anthology ''

'' (edited by

, 2019), which includes poetry by Mohamed. In June 2018 Mohamed was elected Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elec ...

in its "40 Under 40" initiative. She joined the English Creative Writing faculty of

, in 2018. Her 2021 novel, '' The Fortune Men'', is based on the true story of Mahmood Mattan, whom her father knew. The book is about a petty criminal in Cardiff who becomes the last man to be hanged there, wrongfully convicted of murder in 1952. In ''The Guardian'', Ashish Ghadiali wrote of Mohamed that the novel "confirms her as a literary star of her generation", while Michael Donkor described the book as a "determined, nuanced and compassionate exposure of injustice". The book was shortlisted for the 2021

, and at the 2022

Wales Book of the Year The Wales Book of the Year is a Welsh literary award given annually to the best Welsh and English language works in the fields of fiction and literary criticism by Welsh or Welsh interest authors. Established in 1992, the awards are currently a ...

Awards won the 'triple crown': taking the Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award, the ''

Wales Arts Review ''Wales Arts Review'' is a critical writing hub for Wales. Originally published fortnightly, the site has published daily since 2016. It offers a critique, by Welsh and Wales-based writers, of various social and cultural aspects of Wales. Histor ...

'' People's Choice Award and the overall prize for Wales Book of the Year. Mohamed has said that her next book will be "a contemporary novel set in the world of Somali women in London".

Awards

*2010: Betty Trask Prize for ''Black Mamba Boy'' *2013: ''

'' "Best of Young British Novelists" *2014: Africa39 list of the most promising writers under the age of 40 from Sub-Saharan Africa *2014:

for ''The Orchard of Lost Souls''Yusuf M. Hassan (2 July 2014)
"Somaliland: Author Nadifa Mohamed Wins the Somerset Maugham Awards 2014"
''Somaliland Sun''. *2022:

for ''The Fortune Men''

Works

Novels

*'' Black Mamba Boy'' (2010) *'' The Orchard of Lost Souls'' (2013) *'' The Fortune Men'' (2021)

Selected shorter writings

"Filsan"
''Granta 123: Best of Young British Novelists 4'', 16 April 2013.
"Migrants for whom the Sahara proved a graveyard started out in hope"
''The Guardian'', 1 November 2013.
"Sasayama"
''Granta 127: Japan'', 25 June 2014.
"Somalis returning to the motherland are finding their foreign ways out of favour"
''The Guardian'', 11 September 2015.
"Britain’s clampdown on FGM is leaving young girls traumatised"
''The Guardian'', 7 September 2017.
"How many dead Somalis does it take for us to care?"
''The Guardian'', 23 October 2017.
"What We Lost in the Grenfell Tower Fire"
''LitHub'', 24 October 2017.

References

External links

''WardheerNews'', 21 April 2011.
"Black Mamba Boy – Nadifa Mohamed"
on YouTube.
Nadifa Mohamed on Somali Writers
Asymptote.
Nadifa Mohamed interviewed by Stacey Knecht
for www.the-ledge.com * Magnus Taylor
"An interview with Nadifa Mohamed: 'I don’t feel bound by Somalia…but the stories that have really motivated me are from there'"
African Arguments, 1 November 2013.
"Nadifa Mohamed: The Granta Podcast, Ep. 71"
''Granta'', 22 May 2013.
''Granta'' Video: Nadifa Mohamed
11 June 2013. *

Sameer Rahim Sameer Rahim is a British literary journalist and novelist. He became Managing Editor (Arts and Books) at '' Prospect'' magazine, having previously worked at the ''London Review of Books'' and at ''The Daily Telegraph'', and his reviews of both fi ...

"Nadifa Mohamed's Somali journey"
'' The Telegraph'', 16 August 2013. * Annasue McCleave Wilson
"The Only Seeds Being Sown Were Bullets: PW Talks with Nadifa Mohamed"
''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'', 6 December 2013. * John Freeman
"Novelist Nadifa Mohamed on the Impact of Trump's Muslim Ban"
''LitHub'', 31 January 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mohamed, Nadifa 1981 births Living people 21st-century British novelists 21st-century British women writers 21st-century Somalian women writers 21st-century Somalian writers Alumni of the University of Oxford Black British women writers British women novelists English people of Somali descent Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature People from Hargeisa Somalian emigrants to the United Kingdom Somalian Muslims Somalian women novelists Writers from London