Nadifa Mohamed

Nadifa Mohamed FRSL (Somali: Nadiifa Maxamed, Arabic: نظيفة محمد) (born 1981) is a Somali-British novelist. She featured on Granta magazine's list "Best of Young British Novelists" in 2013, and in 2014 on the Africa39 list of writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature.[2] Her 2021 novel, The Fortune Men, was shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize, making her the first British Somali novelist to get this honour.[3] She has also written short stories, essays, memoirs and articles in outlets including The Guardian, and contributed poetry to the anthology New Daughters of Africa (edited by Margaret Busby, 2019). Mohamed was also a lecturer in Creative Writing in the Department of English at Royal Holloway, University of London until 2021.[4][5] She will be Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University in Spring 2022.[6]

Nadifa Mohamed
نظيفة محمد

FRSL
Born
Nadiifa Maxamed

1981 (age 41–42)
Hargeisa, Somali Democratic Republic (now Somaliland)
NationalityBritish, born Somali[1]
Alma materSt Hilda's College, Oxford
OccupationNovelist
Notable workBlack Mamba Boy (2010)
The Orchard of Lost Souls (2013)
The Fortune Men (2021)
MovementRealism, historical fiction
AwardsBetty Trask Award (2010)
Somerset Maugham Award (2014)
Prix Albert Bernard (2016)
Wales Book of the Year (2022)

Personal life

Mohamed was born in 1981 in Hargeisa, Somaliland.[7] Her father was a sailor in the merchant navy and her mother was a local landlady.[8] In 1986, she moved with her family to London for what was intended to be a temporary stay. However, the civil war broke out shortly afterwards in Somalia, so they remained in the UK.[9]

Mohamed later attended the St Hilda's College, Oxford,[10][11] where she studied history and politics. In 2008, she visited Hargeisa for the first time in more than a decade.[9]

Mohamed resides in London.[9]

Literary career

Mohamed's first novel, Black Mamba Boy (2010), described in The Guardian as "a significant, affecting book of the dispossessed",[12] is a semi-biographical account of her father's life in Yemen in the 1930s and '40s, during the colonial period.[13][14] She has said that "the novel grew out of a desire to learn more about my roots, to elucidate Somali history for a wider audience and to tell a story that I found fascinating."[8] A "fictionalized biography", it won critical and popular acclaim in countries as far away as Korea.[15] The book won the 2010 Betty Trask Award, and was shortlisted for numerous awards, including the 2010 Guardian First Book Award,[16] the 2010 Dylan Thomas Prize,[17] and the 2010 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.[18] It was also long-listed for the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction.[19]

In 2013, Mohamed released her second novel, The Orchard of Lost Souls. Set in Somalia on the eve of the civil war,[20] it was published by Simon & Schuster.[21] Reviewing it in The Independent, Arifa Akbar said: "If Mohamed's first novel was about fathers and sons ... this one is essentially about mothers and daughters."[22] In 2014 The Orchard of Lost Souls won the Somerset Maugham Award and was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.[23]

In December 2013, Mohamed was one of 36 writer and translator participants at the Doha International Book Fair's Literary Translation Summit in Qatar.[24]

She was chosen as one of Granta magazine's "Best of Young British Novelists" in 2013,[25] and in April 2014 was selected for the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature.[26][27]

Her writing has also been published in such outlets as The Guardian[28] and Literary Hub, as well as in the anthology New Daughters of Africa (edited by Margaret Busby, 2019),[29] which includes poetry by Mohamed.[30]

In June 2018 Mohamed was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in its "40 Under 40" initiative.[31]

She joined the English Creative Writing faculty of Royal Holloway, University of London, in 2018.[32]

Her 2021 novel, The Fortune Men, is based on the true story of Mahmood Mattan, whom her father knew.[33] The book is about a petty criminal in Cardiff who becomes the last man to be hanged there, wrongfully convicted of murder in 1952.[34] In The Guardian, Ashish Ghadiali wrote of Mohamed that the novel "confirms her as a literary star of her generation",[35] while Michael Donkor described the book as a "determined, nuanced and compassionate exposure of injustice".[36] The book was shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize,[37][38] and at the 2022 Wales Book of the Year Awards won the 'triple crown': taking the Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award, the Wales Arts Review People's Choice Award and the overall prize for Wales Book of the Year.[39]

Mohamed has said that her next book will be "a contemporary novel set in the world of Somali women in London".[33]

Awards

Works

Novels

Selected shorter writings

References
  1. "Nadifa Mohamed - Literature". Literature.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  2. "Spotlight: Nadifa Mohamed", Africa39.
  3. "The Fortune Men". thebookerprizes.com. 27 May 2021. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  4. "Ms Nadifa Mohamed". Royal Holloway, University of London. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  5. "'A community of creative writers' – Nadifa Mohamed, English | Royal Holloway, University of London". Royal Holloway. 6 January 2020. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2021 – via YouTube.
  6. Faculty, Creative Writing Program, NYU.
  7. Nadifa Mohamed Archived 15 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine, HarperCollins Author Profile
  8. "WDN Interview with Nadifa Mohamed: The Author of Black Mamba Boy", WardheerNews, 21 April 2011. Archived 1 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. "Nadifa Mohamed". Simon and Schuster. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  10. "Nadifa Mohamed - Modern History and Politics, 2000", St Hilda's College, University of Oxford. Retrieved 3 Februaary 2023.
  11. "Flash fiction from Nadifa Mohamed", biographical note. TANK magazine, issue 74, April 2018.
  12. Catherine Taylor (2 January 2010), "First novels from Simon Lelic, Nadifa Mohamed, Alan Monaghan and Ru Freeman", The Guardian.
  13. Arifa Akbar (15 January 2010), "Black Mamba Boy, By Nadifa Mohamed" (review), The Independent.
  14. Hassan M. Abukar, "Black Mamba Boy: A Book Review" Archived 9 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine, WardheerNews, 30 October 2010.
  15. "Nadifa Mohamed in conversation with Ellah Allfrey". Rift Valley Institute. 21 June 2013. Archived from the original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  16. Benedicte Page (29 October 2010), "Guardian first book award shortlist revealed", The Guardian.
  17. "Somali author Nadifa Mohamed up for first book prize", BBC, 28 October 2010.
  18. "Shortlist announced for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2010". BookTrust. Archived from the original on 27 November 2010.
  19. "Orange Prize for Fiction announces 2010 longlist", The Independent, 17 March 2010.
  20. Maya Jaggi (14 September 2013), "The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed – review. The Betty Trask award winner takes on a complex history of Somalian civil unrest with a focus on women", The Guardian.
  21. Rhiannon Davies (16 August 2013). "The Orchard of Lost Souls". The Lady. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  22. Arifa Akbar (16 August 2013), "Book review: The Orchard of Lost Souls, By Nadifa Mohamed", The Independent.
  23. "Dylan Thomas Prize: Swansea University reveals longlist", BBC News, South West Wales, 22 July 2014.
  24. "Doha International Book Fair Opens". Marhaba. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  25. "Granta 123: Best of Young British Novelists 4". Granta (123). 2013. Archived from the original on 17 April 2013.
  26. Nadifa Mohamed page at Africa39.
  27. Margaret Busby (10 April 2014), "Africa39: how we chose the writers for Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014", The Guardian.
  28. Nadifa Mohamed page at The Guardian.
  29. Bookseller staff (19 June 2019). "Obioma, Okojie and Evaristo join Africa Writes line-up". The Bookseller.
  30. Margaret Busby (9 March 2019), "From Ayòbámi Adébáyò to Zadie Smith: meet the New Daughters of Africa", The Guardian.
  31. Alison Flood (28 June 2018). "Royal Society of Literature admits 40 new fellows to address historical biases". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  32. "Nadifa Mohamed to Join Royal Holloway English Creative Writing Faculty". Royal Holloway, University of London. 2 July 2018. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  33. "Nadifa Mohamed Q&A". thebookerprizes.com. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  34. Sally Vincent (1 November 2021). "How a 17-year-old newspaper article inspired Nadifa Mohamed to Booker success". Penguin Newsletter.
  35. Ashish Ghadiali (25 May 2021). "The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed review – a miscarriage of justice revisited". The Guardian.
  36. Michael Donkor (28 May 2021). "The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed review – injustice exposed". The Guardian.
  37. Rebecca Jones (14 September 2021). "Booker Prize 2021 shortlist: 'Absorbing global stories of life and death'". BBC. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  38. Alison Flood (14 September 2021). "Nadifa Mohamed is sole British writer to make Booker prize shortlist". The Guardian.
  39. "English-language Book of the Year 2022". Wales Arts Review. 29 July 2022. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
  40. Richard Lea (27 August 2010). "Guardian first book award longlist ranges around the world". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
  41. Annalisa Quinn (15 April 2013). "Granta's 'Best of Young British Novelists' Shows A 'Disunited Kingdom'". Granta. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  42. "Africa39" (PDF). Hay Festival. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 July 2015. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  43. Yusuf M. Hassan (2 July 2014), "Somaliland: Author Nadifa Mohamed Wins the Somerset Maugham Awards 2014" Archived 12 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Somaliland Sun.
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