In conversation

Talking about her transformation from science teacher to publisher and author of children's literature.

Talking about Natasha's transformation from teacher to writer of young adult fantasy fiction.

On combining academic work, poetry and love of carnival.

Talking about his influences from Nigeria to Manchester via West African folk tales.

Talking about Roy Williams's love of dialogue and collaborations.

Talking about his writing process, his flight at the age of four with his mother from Idi Amin’s Uganda, and why precision in language is so important to him.

Speaking in multiple voices and the gift of different identities.

Growing up Black in the care and mental health systems, embodied cultural knowledge and Black masculinity.

Talking about what she's learned along the way and how she pays that learning forward.

John Siddique meets multi-genre, multi-voiced, writer Peter Kalu to talk about his life long fascination and journey with the power of story.


Roger Robinson won the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2019, and the following year, he spoke to Gabriel Gbadamosi about empathy in black writing, and migrant experience becoming rooted in words to keep us human.

Rommi Smith has excavated an overlooked history of black people in Britain in her work and particularly in interpreting a series of extraordinary photos from the archives of the TopFoto agency. Through Smith's carefully researched poetic responses she is changing the story of what we consider the nature of Britain.