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.
coming-of-age
“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.
Finding Freedom in Fallibility with Raven Leilani
Everyone expects us to fail, and to succeed is to be the exception. The space between renders us unremarkable.
“I really wanted to write the book that I wish I’d had at 15”: A conversation with Danielle Jawando
Danielle Jawando on mental health, the need for Northern representation, and the impact of covid on And the Stars Were Burning Brightly.
Grown is a map for the next generation
You may laugh, you may tear up a little, and you just might remember long-forgotten lessons from your younger self.
“I hope Black girls will leave the book feeling that alrightness”: A conversation with Tamara Winfrey Harris
Tamara Winfrey Harris talks about her work, the Black girl experience, her reading recommendations, and what she's got coming.
15 Coming-of-Age Novels in English Translation
From Brazil and Haiti to Rwanda and Madagascar, travel the world via this list of coming-of-age novels in English translation.
Black Moses is a damning portrait of Congo-Brazzaville
Longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize, this is a cynical coming-of-age story that zeroes in on corruption in 70s and 80s Congo-Brazzaville.
This debut is a breathtaking love letter to diaspora
Bad Love has a somewhat misleading title. Though it is about how we hurt and are hurt in love, it is ultimately about the resilience of love across space and time.
Parsing Freedom: A Review of Kaitlyn Greenidge’s Libertie
Set in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, this is a book for the sisters who are tired of being strong, for the sisters who have no interest in conditional humanity.
Open Water: An ethereal meditation on Black love and art
People like to say that love sees no colour, that love is blind. True as that may be, it is also true that love is about seeing.