“One day I hope to be able to write purely for beauty’s sake, to run free in language and celebrate the sublime.”
Taíno Mendez is a novelist, essayist and screenwriter.
History lessons
Educating myself to see beyond the stereotypes of the black man as presented through history.
Mendez in conversation with Colin Grant
From Jehovah’s Witness to sex worker to debut novelist: how writing saved Mendez.
Biography
Taíno Mendez is a Margate-based writer and performer. They are the author of Rainbow Milk (Dialogue), which was a 2020 Observer Best Debuts pick, shortlisted for the Gordon Burn, Jhalak and Polari First Book prizes.
They write reviews and personal essays for the London Review of Books, and have contributed fiction and non-fiction pieces to Art Review, Esquire, The Face, Frieze, The Guardian, Times Literary Supplement and WritersMosaic. They are working on their second novel.
