Born in Nigeria in 1984, Inua Ellams is an internationally touring poet, playwright, performer, graphic artist & designer. He is an ambassador for the Ministry of Stories and has published four books of poetry: Candy Coated Unicorns and Converse All Stars, Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales, The Wire-Headed Heathen and #Afterhours. His play, Barber Shop Chronicles, sold out at England’s National Theatre. He is currently touring An Evening With An Immigrant.
J K CHUKWU is a writer and visual artist from the Midwest. She holds an MFA in Literary Arts from Brown University and was a 2019 Lambda Fellow. Her work has appeared in Black Warrior Review, DIAGRAM, and TAYO.
Sefi Atta is the author of two previous novels, Swallow and Everything Good Will Come, and a collection of short stories, News from Home. She has been awarded the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa and the NOMA Award for Publishing in Africa. Her novels have been published around the world and translated into numerous languages, and her radio and stage plays have been performed internationally. She was born in Lagos and now lives in the United States.
Anna James is a writer and journalist living in London. Anna was Book News Editor at The Bookseller and Literary Editor of Elle UK. Anna has written for The Pool, The LA Times, The Financial Times and The Independent, as well as making YouTube videos as A Case For Books. She hosts literary events and panels and is the co-founder and host of the London YA Salon. She was shortlisted for the Kim Scott Walwyn Award for Women in Publishing, 2015, and the London Book Fair Trailblazers Award, 2016.
Nadifa Mohamed was born in Hargeisa in 1981 while Somalia was falling deeper into dictatorship. In 1986 she moved to London with her family in what she thought was a temporary move but a couple of years later it became permanent as war broke out in Somalia. She was educated in London and went to Oxford to study History and Politics and she finally returned to Hargeisa, now in the new Republic of Somaliland, in 2008. She lives in London and is currently working on her third novel.
Francine Prose is the author of eighteen books of fiction, including Blue Angel, a finalist for the National Book Award. Her short story ‘The Mirror’ appeared in the short story collection Reader, I Married Him (2016). She lives in New York City.
