‘The changing of the seasons, the cold slicing winds, the falling leaves, sunlight on green grass, snow on the land, London particular.’ Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners
The novelist and short story writer Samuel Selvon (1923–1994) – also known as ‘Sam’ Selvon – is best-known today as the author of The Lonely Londoners, published in 1956. Narrated in creolized English and following a cast of Caribbean migrants striving to make their lives in London, this ground-breaking novel established Selvon as an important voice for Caribbean literature in Britain.
Chair Shahidha Bari is joined by Susheila Nasta, Anthony Joseph and Guy Gunaratne to discuss The Lonely Londoners, London-based literature, and Sam Selvon’s legacy in his centenary year.
The event will take place at The British Library and feature readings, archival material and an audience Q&A.
Presented in partnership with the British Library and BBC Radio 3
Public tickets available via British Library.
Susheila Nasta MBE is a writer, critic and literary activist. She is the founder of Wasafiri, the Magazine of International Contemporary Writing, Britain’s first magazine to platform literary voices from Britain’s Black British, South Asian, and diasporic communities. Early publications focused on writers from the Caribbean such as Sam Selvon, Jean Rhys and VS Naipaul and women’s writing. In 1991, she produced the first critical anthology of black women’s writing in Britain Motherlands: Black Women’s Writing from Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia. Similarly pioneering, her 2002 monograph, Home Truths was the first book to map a tradition of South Asian fiction in Britain. Recent works include: The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing (CUP, 2019), and Brave New Words: The Power of Writing Now (Myriad Editions, 2019). She is the recipient of a number of honours including the Royal Society of Literature’s Benson Medal, and was elected an Honorary Fellow of the English Association. Currently Emeritus Professor at Queen Mary College and the Open University, she acts as a member of Council for the RSL and is Trustee of the Royal Literary Fund. She continues to act as literary executor and representative for the Sam Selvon literary estate.
Shahidha Bari is a critic, academic and broadcaster. She presents Inside Culture on BBC Two and Free Thinking on BBC Radio 3. Her writing has appeared in publications including Art Review, The Guardian and the TLS and she is the author of Dressed: A Philosophy of Clothes and Look Again: Fashion, part of a series exploring the Tate Britain collection. She is a Professor at LCF at University of the Arts London.
Guy Gunaratne‘s first novel In Our Mad And Furious City won the International Dylan Thomas Prize, Jhalak Prize and the Authors Club Award. It was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and longlisted for the Booker Prize, as well as the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. Their second novel MISTER, MISTER was released in May 2023. Guy was a Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge 2019 – 2022. They have also served on literary prize judging panels including the Goldsmiths Prize (2019) and the Rathbones Folio Prize (2023).
Anthony Joseph was born in Trinidad. He is a poet, novelist, academic and musician. He holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths University and is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at King’s College London. Anthony is the author of five poetry collections. Sonnets for Albert, published by Bloomsbury, won the T. S. Eliot Prize 2022 and was shortlisted for The Forward Prize for Best Collection 2022. Anthony has also written three novels, including Kitch: A Fictional Biography of a Calypso Icon, which was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award and longlisted for the 2019 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. As a musician he has released eight critically acclaimed albums. Anthony lives in London and was elected an RSL Fellow in 2023
