Onjali Raúf at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature

Onjali Qatara Raúf (born February 1981) is a best-selling British author and the founder of the

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

Making Herstory, a woman's rights organisation tackling the abuse and trafficking of women and girls in the UK.

Background

Raúf is of British

Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( bn, বাংলাদেশী ) are the citizens of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centered on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the eponymous bay. Bangladeshi citizenship was formed in 1971, when the ...

heritage. Her work is informed in part by her experiences of racism in childhood. "When I started being called Paki, I started to feel y difference I wondered: why is there no one who looks like me in the books? So I wanted to write those characters,” she said in a 2019 interview with ''

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 ...

''. Raúf was raised in London.

Career

Raúf's début children's novel published by

Orion Children's Books Orion Publishing Group Ltd. is a UK-based book publisher. It was founded in 1991 and acquired Weidenfeld & Nicolson the following year. The group has published numerous bestselling books by notable authors including Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, ...

, ''The Boy at the Back of the Class'' won numerous awards, drawing on her own experience delivering emergency aid convoys for

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

families surviving in

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

and

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Blue Peter Book Award The Blue Peter Book Awards were a set of literary awards for children's books conferred by the BBC television programme '' Blue Peter''. They were inaugurated in 2000 for books published in 1999. The Awards have been managed by reading charity, ...

for Best Story, overall winner of the 2019

Waterstones Children's Book Prize The Waterstones Children's Book Prize is an annual award given to a work of children's literature published during the previous year. First awarded in 2005, the purpose of the prize is "to uncover hidden talent in children's writing" and is there ...

, and nominated for the Carnegie Medal Children's Book Award. In the same year she was also shortlisted for the

Jhalak Prize The Jhalak Prize for Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour is an annual literary prize awarded to British or British-resident BAME writers. £1,000 is awarded to the sole winner. The Jhalak Prize launched in 2016 and was created by writers Sunn ...

, awarded to the book of the year by a writer of colour and for breakthrough author in the BAMB (Books Are My Bag) Readers' Awards. Her second book ''The Star Outside My Window'' covered hope and resilience in the face of domestic violence through the innocent eyes of 10-year-old girl. This was shortlisted for the inaugural Diverse Book Awards, and 2020

British Book Awards The British Book Awards or Nibbies are literary awards for the best UK writers and their works, administered by ''The Bookseller''. The awards have had several previous names, owners and sponsors since being launched in 1990, including the National ...

: Books of the Year. It also made the longlist of the UK Literacy Association Book awards. She was named as one of the

BBC 100 Women ''100 Women'' is a BBC multi-format series established in 2013. The annual series examines the role of women in the 21st century and has included events in London and Mexico. Announcement of the list is the start of an international "BBC's women ...

, a list and multi-format series of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world, for 2019. In December 2019 she talked about "Why children are our most powerful hope for change" at

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

LondonWomen event. Her 2021

Barrington Stoke Barrington Stoke is a children's book publisher based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company was founded in 1998 and publishes fiction and non-fiction adapted to different reading ages for reluctant, under-confident and dyslexic children and teens. ...

publication, ''The Great (Food) Bank Heist'' (illustrations by Elisa Paganelli), was a child's perspective on food poverty in the UK. In addition to writing for publications such as ''

'', Raúf is also a contributor to the

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

program ''

Pause For Thought ''Wake Up to Wogan'' (''WUTW'') was the incarnation of ''The Radio 2 Breakfast Show'' that aired each weekday morning from 4 January 1993 to 18 December 2009. It was the most-listened-to radio show in the United Kingdom, and the flagship breakfa ...

''. Raúf was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2022 New Year Honours The 2022 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrations ...

for services to literature and women's rights.

List of works

* ''The Boy at the Back of the Class'' (2018) * ''The Star Outside My Window'' (2019) * ''The Day We Met the Queen'' (2020) * ''The Night Bus Hero'' (2020) * ''The Great (Food) Bank Heist'' (2021) * ''The Lion Above the Door'' (2021) * ''Hope on the Horizon: A children's handbook on empathy, kindness and making a better world'' (2022)

Awards

* 2019

Blue Peter Book Award The Blue Peter Book Awards were a set of literary awards for children's books conferred by the BBC television programme '' Blue Peter''. They were inaugurated in 2000 for books published in 1999. The Awards have been managed by reading charity, ...

, Best Story: ''The Boy at the Back of the Class'' * 2019

, Younger Fiction and Overall Winner: ''The Boy at the Back of the Class'' *She was appointed a

(MBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours.

References

She wrote 11 books

External links

MAKING HERSTORY
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raúf, Onjali 1981 births 21st-century English writers English children's writers British women's rights activists Living people Founders of charities BBC 100 Women Members of the Order of the British Empire Writers from London English people of Bangladeshi descent