LATEST
“I define justice as something we give ourselves”: A conversation with Leila Mottley
Leila Mottley bounces into the hotel waiting room to meet me. I waste no time with my questions on Nightcrawling, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022, making this twenty-year-old the youngest author ever to have been nominated.
Carefree Black Girls: Black Women are popular culture
The truth is no matter how often the media attempts to mute our voices and discredit our influence, pop culture is irrelevant without black women.
“She wrote exactly how it was to live, love, and be in endz”: A conversation with Lemara Lindsay-Prince
“For so many of us Black Brits, the anonymous writer of Keisha The Sket—Jade LB—is as fundamental to the canon as Shakespeare or Dickens.”
A rapid-fire Q&A with Abi Daré
In her latest conversation with her favourite author, literary influencer Hena J. Bryan (some know her as Bookish Babe) asks the questions we’ve all been wanting answered.
“Children’s books should be for all children”: A conversation with Jasmine Richards
Storymix is an inclusive fiction studio with social purpose that creates high-quality, original concept series with inclusive casts of characters, putting children of colour at the centre of the action.
How to Manage Your Relationship’s Relationship with Social Media
The Hive opens with a confession: Charlotte has killed her ex-boyfriend's partner, and now invites you to vote on whether he should live or die via Instagram.
FEATURED
“She wrote exactly how it was to live, love, and be in endz”: A conversation with Lemara Lindsay-Prince
coming-of-age, womanism
“For so many of us Black Brits, the anonymous writer of Keisha The Sket—Jade LB—is as fundamental to the canon as Shakespeare or Dickens.”
When Mr Mandela Came to Town: The Story Behind the Book
children’s, memoir
I remember the day so vividly. It was the summer of 1996—July to be exact. He captivated audiences wherever he went. I explicitly remember my dad saying: “This is history in the making, better than any book you will ever read.” Ironically, 25 years later, I have now written about this very experience in a book titled When Mr Mandela Came to Town.
The Nail Polish Theory: I broke up with my boyfriend when he started wearing it
literary, queer
The first time someone called me “Faggot”, I was around three years old. My older cousin, a young teenager with breasts growing out like small lemons, spat: “Pédé!”. For a long time, I thought she’d insulted me. Today I think she was trying to define me. “Pédé” must have been the only word she knew. It was the only word she had.
TREAT YOUR SHELF
15 Coming-of-Age Novels in English Translation
literary, translation
This list brings together the stories of Black youth from all four corners, moving away from the dominance of Anglophone voices.
6 Unforgettable Black Poetry Collections
poetry
From the concrete heights of a North Peckham estate to the azure shores of the Zambezi River, these poetry collections are brilliant.
10 Classic Epic Poems from the Black Atlantic
epic, poetry
So begins the project of chronologising and mapping the epos of the Black Atlantic across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
THE DOWNLOW
“I felt that I had grown up and become Jewell Parker Rhodes”: A conversation with Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes
children’s, historical
Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes sheds light on learning literary traditions from her dear Grandmother and how to adapt oral culture for printed children’s books.
“This book was the way to offer a kind of solidarity”: A conversation with Emmanuel Iduma
travel, experimental
A Stranger’s Pose, is a dreamy travelogue and memoir through west and north Africa that explores the nature of estrangement, identity and grief among other things.
“I define justice as something we give ourselves”: A conversation with Leila Mottley
coming-of-age, literary
Nightcrawling was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022, making this 20-year-old the youngest author ever to have been nominated.