About the Author

Courttia Newland (External Editor)
Courttia Newland is the author of seven books including his much lauded debut, The Scholar. His latest novel, A River Called Time, was published in 2021 and Cosmogramma, a story collection, will be published later in the year. His short stories have featured in various anthologies and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. He was shortlisted for the 2007 CWA Dagger in the Library Award and the 2010 Alfred Fagon Award. In 2016 he was also awarded the Tayner Barbers Award for science fiction writing and the Roland Rees Bursary for playwriting. As a screenwriter, he has written episodes of Steve McQueen's 2020 BBC series Small Axe.

Kadija Sesay (External Editor)
Kadija (George) Sesay, Hon. FRSL, FRSA, is a literary activist of Sierra Leonean descent. She is the founder of the magazine SABLE LitMag and creator of AfriPoeTree, a selective interactive video. She is the Publications Manager for Inscribe/Peepal Tree and editor of several anthologies including Six Plays by Black and Asian Women Writers and Write Black, Write British- From Postcolonial to Black British Literature. She co-edited Dreams, Miracles and Jazz- New Adventures in African Fiction with Helon Habila and Dance the Guns to Silence- 100 Poems for Ken Saro-Wiwa with Nii Parkes. She has published her creative writing in several anthologies, and a poetry collection, Irki (Peepal Tree, 2013). She is a co-founder of Mboka Festival of Arts, Culture and Sport in The Gambia and has received awards and fellowships for her work in the creative arts and her research, including an AHRC doctoral scholarship to research Black British publishers and Pan-Africanism.