The ComedyStudio is a targeted development scheme for black and minority ethnic writers, led by the BBC’s Writersroom. Working across the industry and broadcasters, it aims to bring together a group of up to 10 of the most talented writers with a real commitment to narrative comedy. The impetus for this scheme came from the… Continue reading The ComedyStudio

Ola Awonubi with Wasafiri prize judge Mimi Khalvati in 2009 Since winning Words of Colour Production’s first short story writing competition in 2008 Ola Awonubi has gone from strength to strength. A year later she won the prestigious Wasafiri New Writing Prize in the fiction category with The Go-Slow Journey, a short story set in… Continue reading Interview with Ola Awonubi

Book: The Painted Bridge Author: Wendy Wallace Publisher: Simon & Schuster Review by Julie Tomlin Haunting photographic portraits of asylum patients were the spark for writer and journalist Wendy Wallace’s first novel that exposes the horrors experienced by those women who didn’t live up to the standards of Victorian respectability.

Theatre Royal Stratford East in collaboration with New World Nigeria has launched 30 Nigeria House, a search for original work from young artists of Nigerian heritage. Thirty of the artists will be awarded up to £3,000 to develop their work. This exciting new project is one of the outcomes of Theatre Royal Stratford East hosting… Continue reading 30 Nigeria House

During the London 2012 Games Theatre Royal Stratford East will be hosting Nigeria House, which is the hub of all activities promoting Nigeria’s rich and diverse cultural heritage and a celebration of the best of Nigerian life and art. Audiences will be able enjoy a special programme and will learn more about the culture of… Continue reading Nigeria House

David Oyelowo as Joe “Lighting” Little/Picture credit: Momentum Pictures Film: Red Tails Director: Anthony Hamilton Released by: 20th Century Fox Review by Kwame MA McPherson During World War II, a group of African-American pilots, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air… Continue reading Red Tails

Picture by Brian Would Bola Agbaje, the Olivier Award winning playwright, is on a roll. Since her impressive debut back in 2008 with her first play Gone Too Far! at the Royal Court Theatre, she has written prolifically. The right wing press have a tendency pigeon-hole her plays as youth obsessed, urban and ghetto. Instead… Continue reading Interview with Bola Agbaje

Seni Seneviratne is many things, including a poet, creative artist and psychotherapist who also sings acapella. Of English and Sri Lankan heritage, Seneviratne was born and raised in Leeds, Yorkshire. An alumnus of Ten – The Complete Works programme, her first collection of poetry, Wild Cinnamon and Winter Skin, was published in 2007 to critical… Continue reading Interview with Seni Seneviratne

Kerry Young is one happy writer. Since the publication of her first novel Pao in 2011, she has been shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2011 and the Commonwealth Book Prize 2012, and has been invited to read at this year’s Calabash literary festival in Jamaica, where she was born. Of Chinese-Jamaican heritage with… Continue reading Interview with Kerry Young

Now in its sixth year, this festival is the only one of its kind in the UK to celebrate the writing of Asia and Asians. The theme of this year’s festival is power and change through Asia and beyond. With writing from 16 countries, there are events on the Arab Spring and the power of… Continue reading Festival of Asian Literature