Nikesh Shukla (born 8 July 1980) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

author and screenwriter. His writing focuses on race, racism, identity, and immigration. He is the editor of the 2016 collection of essays '' The Good Immigrant'', which features contributions from

Riz Ahmed Rizwan Ahmed (; ; born ) is a British actor and rapper. As an actor, he has won an Emmy Award and has received nominations for a Golden Globe and three British Independent Film Awards, and as a rapper he has won an Academy Award for the short ...

, Musa Okwonga, Bim Adewunmi, and Reni Eddo-Lodge, among others. With Chimène Suleyman, he co-edited the 2019 follow-up collection called ''The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect On America''.

Early life and career

Shukla was born to Indian immigrants in the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

suburb Harrow. He attended Merchant Taylors' school in Northwood, leaving in 1996.

Career

Literature

Shukla is the author of three novels: ''Coconut Unlimited'' (2010), ''Meatspace'' (2014) and ''The One Who Wrote Destiny'' (2018). He is also the author of two books for Young Adults: ''Run, Riot'' (2018) and ''The Boxer'' (2019). In 2017 he one of was one of the co-founders of the Jhalak Prize awarded annually to British or British resident writers of colour. In 2019 he was made a 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 ...

. He was a Rathbones Folio Prize Mentor in 2019–2020. ''Brown Baby'', a memoir addressed to his young daughter, was published in 2021. He hosts a podcast of the same name.

Film

Shukla co-wrote the short film ''Two Dosas'' with Sarmad Masud. It starred

Himesh Patel Himesh Jitendra Patel (born 13 October 1990) is a British actor, musician, and singer. He is known for portraying Tamwar Masood on the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' from 2007 to 2016, for starring in the 2019 musical romantic comedy film '' Y ...

. After

Danny Boyle Daniel Francis Boyle (born 20 October 1956) is an English director and producer. He is known for his work on films including '' Shallow Grave'', '' Trainspotting'' and its sequel '' T2 Trainspotting'', '' The Beach'', ''28 Days Later'', '' S ...

awarded the film Best Short at the 2017 Shuffle Festival, Boyle cast Patel in the title role of Jack in '' Yesterday'' (2019).

Journalism

Shukla has been a columnist for ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

''s magazine supplement and ''The Pool''.

Radio and podcasts

In January 2019, Shukla appeared in series 47 of the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

show ''

Great Lives ''Great Lives'' is a BBC Radio 4 biography series, produced in Bristol. It has been presented by Joan Bakewell, Humphrey Carpenter, Francine Stock and currently (since April 2006) Matthew Parris. A distinguished guest is asked to nominate th ...

'', nominating Pakistani wrestler

The Great Gama Ghulam Mohammad Baksh Butt (22 May 1878 – 23 May 1960), commonly known as ''Rustam-e-Hind'' (Hindi-Urdu for ''Rostam of Hindostan'') and by the ring name The Great Gama, was a pehlwani wrestler and strongman in British India. In the ea ...

(1878–1960). Shukla hosted a podcast called ''The Subaltern podcast'', in which he has conversations with writers about writing. He also co-hosted a podcast called ''Meat Up, Hulk Out'' with sci-fi writer James Smythe.

Selected works and publications

Books

* * * * * * *

Collections

* * *

Other work

* * *

Filmography

* 2014: ''Two Dosas'' (short film) - co-writer * 2011: ''Kabadasses'' (TV series)

Honours

* 2010:

Costa Book Awards The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...

, first novel, short-list for ''Coconut Unlimited'' * 2010:

Desmond Elliott Prize The Desmond Elliott Prize is an annual award for the best debut novel written in English and published in the UK. The winning novel can be from any genre of fiction and must exhibit depth and breadth with a compelling narrative. The winner receiv ...

, long-list for ''Coconut Unlimited'' * 2014: Aspen Shortsfest's "Best Comedy" Short Film for ''Two Dosas'' * 2013: Sabotage Awards, Best Novella for ''The Time Machine'' * 2014: London Calling Plus "Jury Award" for ''Two Dosas'' * 2014: Shuffle Festival, Best Short for ''Two Dosas'' * 2016:

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

Human Rights Award, shortlist * 2016:

Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards The Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards are annual literary awards presented by the Booksellers Association in the UK and Ireland since 2016. They are sponsored by National Book Tokens. History and administration The awards were launched at the 201 ...

, reader's choice for ''The Good Immigrant'' * 2016: British Book Awards, Book of the Year short-list for ''The Good Immigrant'' * 2016: ''

The Bookseller ''The Bookseller'' is a British magazine reporting news on the publishing industry. Philip Jones is editor-in-chief of the weekly print edition of the magazine and the website. The magazine is home to the ''Bookseller''/Diagram Prize for Oddest ...

''s 100 most influential people in publishing * 2016: ''

Foreign Policy A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through mu ...

''s 100 Global Thinkers * 2019: ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

'' magazine, one of the twelve leaders shaping the next generation of artists * 2019: CrimeFest Awards, Best YA for ''Run, Riot'' * 2019:

National Book Awards The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Na ...

, short-list for ''Run, Riot'' * 2019:

, Fellow * 2021: Declined offer of

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language of t ...

for services to literature in the Queen's birthday honours list.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shukla, Nikesh 1980 births Living people Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature People from Harrow, London British male novelists British people of Indian descent