Archive of resources
Below is a database of the resources you will find on this site. You can search by author, book title or keyword, or filter the results by type of resource (video, essays, extracts, summary, context and history, and so on). To search within the text of each page, use the search box on this page’s right-hand sidebar.
This archive is a work in progress, and will be added to in the future. We welcome suggestions for writers, books, or other resources to include.
| Title | Categories | Content |
|---|---|---|
| No Beautiful Poems about Violence | Essays | No Beautiful Poems about Violence Chelsea Haith Patience Agbabi’s reading from her work at a … |
| Great Writers Inspire at Home: Patience Agbabi reading and conversation | Videos | Great Writers Inspire at Home: Patience Agbabi reading and conversation In this podcast the dynamic … |
| Settlers and Outsiders: British Writers at the End of Empire | Essays | Settlers and Outsiders: British Writers at the End of Empire Emma Parker, University of Leeds … |
| Interview with Kei Miller | Audio | Interview with Kei Miller In this interview with Elleke Boehmer, Kei Miller reflects on his … |
| Kwame Dawes in Oxford | Essays | Kwame Dawes in Oxford Katherine Collins During Kwame Dawes’s residency in Oxford in 2018, he … |
| The Poetic Arts of Africa: Creative and Critical Voices, with Kwame Dawes | Videos | The Poetic Arts of Africa: Creative and Critical Voices, with Kwame Dawes On 27 November … |
| Close reading of Kwame Dawes’s ‘The Third Former’s Burden’ from Progeny of Air, by William Ghosh | Close reading, Essays | Close reading of Kwame Dawes’s ‘The Third Former’s Burden’ from Progeny of Air William Ghosh … |
| Aida Edemariam: Learning to Listen | Audio | Aida Edemariam: Learning to Listen Aida Edemariam, ‘Learning to Listen’, at the Oxford Centre for … |
| Aida Edemariam: Telling Wives’ and Grandmothers’ Tales | Essays | Aida Edemariam: Telling Wives’ and Grandmothers’ Tales Text by Elleke Boehmer Aida Edemariam is a … |
| The National Theatre brings the tangled story of Small Island vividly to the stage | Essays | The National Theatre brings the tangled story of Small Island vividly to the stage Elleke … |
| Great Writers Inspire at Home: Derek Attridge’s The Experience of Poetry | Videos | Great Writers Inspire at Home: Derek Attridge’s The Experience of Poetry (2019) Books and writers’ … |
| Great Writers Inspire at Home: Sara Ahmed, ‘Closing the Door: Complaint as Diversity Work’ | Videos | Great Writers Inspire at Home: Sara Ahmed, ‘Closing the Door: Complaint as Diversity Work’ Text … |
| Staying Alive: Poetry and Crisis | Audio | In her podcast Staying Alive: Poetry and Crisis, Professor Adriana Jacobs invites eight contemporary poets … |
| The Responsibilities of the Author and the Archive: On the Award of the Bodley Medal to Sir Kazuo Ishiguro | Essays | The Responsibilities of the Author and the Archive: On the Award of the Bodley Medal … |
| Students exercised by decolonisation show us a new way of opening out English studies | Essays | Students exercised by decolonisation show us a new way of opening out English studies Elleke … |
| Postcolonial Poetics: A Book at Lunchtime | Videos | Elleke Boehmer’s Postcolonial Poetics: A Book at Lunchtime seminar A Book at Lunchtime seminar with Elleke … |
| ‘Why Reni-Eddo Lodge is inspiring me to keep talking about race’ by Hélène Neveu Kringelbach | Essays | Why Reni-Eddo Lodge is inspiring me to keep talking about race Hélène Neveu Kringelbach, January … |
| Great Writers Inspire at Home: Reni Eddo-Lodge in conversation with Rebecca Surender | Videos | Great Writers Inspire at Home: Reni Eddo-Lodge in conversation with Rebecca Surender Reni Eddo-Lodge (author … |
| Writers Make Worlds poster display 2018 | Downloads, Resources | Writers Make Worlds poster display 2018 Displayed in the foyer of the Faculty of English … |
| ‘Crossing from Guangdong’ | Extracts, Resources | Crossing from Guangdong Sarah Howe Something sets us looking for a place. For many minutes … |
| Great Writers Inspire at Home: Reading Bass Culture: Linton Kwesi Johnson and Paul Gilroy | Videos | Great Writers Inspire at Home: Linton Kwesi Johnson and Paul Gilroy On 26 April 2018, … |
| Postcolonial Writers Make Worlds: project introduction | Videos | Postcolonial Writers Make Worlds: project introduction Elleke Boehmer introduces the Postcolonial Writers Make Worlds … |
| Vievee Francis on challenging preconceptions with her poetry | Audio | Vievee Francis on challenging preconceptions with her poetry Poet Vievee Francis discusses how she and … |
| Reading list: On reading | Reading lists | Reading list: On reading The following is a list of articles and books that will … |
| Reading list: Black and Asian British writing | Reading lists | Reading list: British Literature and Identity The following is a list of books and articles … |
| Great Writers Inspire at Home: D-Empress Dianne Regisford presents ‘Hersto-rhetoric? Na so today!!!’ | Videos | Great Writers Inspire at Home: D-Empress Dianne Regisford presents ‘Hersto-rhetoric? Na so today!!!’ D-Empress Dianne … |
| Great Writers Inspire at Home: ‘Readers and readings’ | Videos | Great Writers Inspire at Home: ‘Readers and readings’ Prof. Elleke Boehmer and Dr Erica Lombard … |
| Great Writers Inspire at Home: Selma Dabbagh and Courttia Newland on writing and community | Videos | Great Writers Inspire at Home: Selma Dabbagh and Courttia Newland on writing and community Writers … |
| Great Writers Inspire at Home: M. NourbeSe Philip on the haunting of history | Videos | Great Writers Inspire at Home: M. NourbeSe Philip on the haunting of history M. NourbeSe … |
| Great Writers Inspire at Home: Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing | Videos | Great Writers Inspire at Home: Editors and contributors, The Cambridge History of Black and Asian … |
| Great Writers Inspire at Home: Kamila Shamsie on writing history in A God in Every Stone | Videos | Great Writers Inspire at Home: Kamila Shamsie on writing history in A God in Every … |
| Great Writers Inspire at Home: Daljit Nagra on voice and identity in Look We Have Coming to Dover! | Videos | Great Writers Inspire at Home: Daljit Nagra on voice and identity in Look We Have … |
| Great Writers Inspire at Home: Nadifa Mohamed on travelling, home and belonging in Black Mamba Boy | Videos | Great Writers Inspire at Home: Nadifa Mohamed on travelling, home and belonging in Black Mamba … |
| Great Writers Inspire at Home: Aminatta Forna on writing memory and trauma in The Memory of Love | Videos | Great Writers Inspire at Home: Aminatta Forna on writing memory and trauma in The Memory … |
| Great Writers Inspire at Home: Bernardine Evaristo on writing Britain’s Black histories | Videos | Great Writers Inspire at Home: Bernardine Evaristo on writing Britain’s Black histories In conversation with … |
| Close reading of Diran Adebayo’s Some Kind of Black by Chelsea Haith | Close reading, Essays | Close reading of Diran Adebayo’s Some Kind of Black Chelsea Haith The following extract is … |
| Motherhood and Mother Tongue in Sarah Howe’s ‘Crossing from Guangdong’ by Lorraine Lau | Close reading, Essays | Motherhood and Mother Tongue in Sarah Howe’s “Crossing from Guangdong” Lorraine Lau “Crossing from Guangdong” … |
| Brian Chikwava: Further Reading | Reading lists, Resources | Brian Chikwava: Further Reading —Josh Jewell Brian Chikwava’s writing has attracted a small but diverse … |
| ‘Labour and Literary Form in Harare North’ by Josh Jewell | Close reading, Essays | Labour and Literary Form in Harare North Josh Jewell In literary studies, we tend to … |
| Postcolonial Writers Make Worlds: website introduction video | Videos | |
| ‘The Presence of the Ghazal in The Meanest Flower (2007)’ by Holly Fathi | Close reading, Essays | ‘The Presence of the Ghazal in The Meanest Flower (2007)’ Holly Fathi Ghazal: It’s Heartache … |
| Close reading of Diana Evans’s 26a by Tessa Roynon | Close reading, Essays | Close reading of Diana Evans’s 26a Tessa Roynon The analysis is of the following paragraph from Diana … |
| Close reading of Nadeem Aslam’s The Wasted Vigil by C. S. Bhagya | Close reading, Essays | Close reading of Nadeem Aslam’s The Wasted Vigil C. S. Bhagya She lifts her hand to … |
| ‘Caleb Femi in performance’ by Justine McConnell | Essays | Caleb Femi in performance Justine McConnell Caleb Femi’s work compels his audience to move away … |
| Close reading of Hari Kunzru’s The Impressionist by Khadeeja Khalid | Close reading, Essays | Close reading of The Impressionist Khadeeja Khalid The analysis is of the following paragraph from … |
| Close reading of V. S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr Biswas by William Ghosh | Close reading, Essays | Close reading of A House for Mr Biswas William Ghosh The analysis is of the following … |
| Close reading of Moniza Alvi’s ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik’ by William Ghosh | Close reading, Essays | Close reading of Moniza Alvi’s ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik’ William Ghosh ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik’ from Split … |
| Close reading of Vahni Capildeo’s ‘Fire & Darkness: And Also / No Join / Like’ by Chelsea Haith | Close reading, Essays | Reading Vahni Capildeo’s ‘Fire & Darkness: And Also / No Join / Like’ Chelsea Haith … |
| Close reading of Caryl Phillips’s Foreigners by William Ghosh | Close reading, Essays | Close reading of Caryl Phillips’s Foreigners William Ghosh The analysis is of the following paragraph … |
| ‘Reading “Bass Culture”: Linton Kwesi Johnson’s politics of Rhythm and Bass’ by Louisa Layne | Close reading, Essays, Videos | ‘Reading “Bass Culture”: Linton Kwesi Johnson’s politics of Rhythm and Bass’ Louisa Layne for … |
| Close reading of Daljit Nagra’s ‘For the Wealth of India’ by Khadeeja Khalid | Close reading, Essays | Close reading of ‘For the Wealth of India’ Khadeeja Khalid For the Wealth of India (from … |
| Close reading of Abdulrazak Gurnah’s By the Sea by Chelsea Haith | Close reading, Essays | Close reading of By the Sea Chelsea Haith The analysis is of the following paragraph from Abdulrazak … |
| Close reading of Warsan Shire’s ‘Conversations About Home (at the Deportation Centre)’ by Chelsea Haith | Close reading, Essays, Videos | Close reading of Warsan Shire’s ‘Conversations About Home (at the Deportation Centre)’ Chelsea Haith Warsan … |
| Close reading of Zadie Smith’s NW by Khadeeja Khalid | Close reading, Essays | Close reading of NW Khadeeja Khalid The analysis is of the following passage from Zadie Smith’s NW … |
| ‘It’s just a difficulty in even knowing where I am at any given time: Helen Oyeyemi’s travelling fictions’ by Natalya Din-Kariuki | Essays | It’s just a difficulty in even knowing where I am at any given time: Helen … |
| Close reading of Andrea Levy’s Small Island by Tessa Roynon | Close reading, Essays | Close reading of Small Island Tessa Roynon The analysis is of the following paragraph from Andrea Levy’s … |
| ‘The Postcolonial “Ghetto”?’ by Ed Dodson | Essays | The Postcolonial ‘Ghetto’? Ed Dodson In the post-war British context, the term ‘postcolonial’ has often … |
| ‘The Myth of Homecoming’ by Lotta Schneidemesser (Kamila Shamsie’s A God in Every Stone) | Essays | The Myth of Homecoming Lotta Schneidemesser This essay first appeared in The Oxonian Review If a … |
| ‘On Okri’ by Elleke Boehmer | Essays | On Okri Elleke Boehmer From the outset Ben Okri’s work has engaged the question of … |
| ‘Selma Dabbagh’s Out of It’ by Dominic Davies | Essays | Selma Dabbagh’s Out of It Dominic Davies As for much of Dabbagh’s writing, Out of It … |
| Diran Adebayo | Fiction, Profiles, Writers | Diran Adebayo Biography Writing Adebayo’s 1996 debut novel Some Kind of Black was heralded as … |
| Patience Agbabi | Performance, Poetry, Profiles, Writers | Patience Agbabi Biography Writing Patience Agbabi came to prominence in the spoken word scene in … |
| Moniza Alvi | Poetry, Profiles, Writers | Moniza Alvi Biography Writing ‘If I think about my work as a whole’, Moniza Alvi … |
| Nadeem Aslam | Fiction, Profiles, Writers | Nadeem Aslam Biography Writing Nadeem Aslam has spent the bulk of his writing life producing … |
| Vahni Capildeo | Poetry, Profiles, Writers | Vahni Capildeo Biography Writing Concentrating on notions of home and belonging in her most recent … |
| Brian Chikwava | Fiction, Profiles, Writers | Brian Chikwava Biography Writing As the title Harare North – the Zimbabwean colloquialism for London … |
| Kayo Chingonyi | Poetry, Profiles, Writers | Kayo Chingonyi Biography Writing Warsan Shire has described Chingonyi’s debut collection Kumukanda (Chatto & Windus, … |
| Teju Cole | Fiction, Non-fiction, Profiles, Writers | Teju Cole Biography Writing Teju Cole is a Nigerian-American by origin, but as a writer … |
| Selma Dabbagh | Drama, Fiction, Profiles, Writers | Selma Dabbagh Selma Dabbagh and Courttia Newland in conversation during the Great Writers Inspire at … |
| Kwame Dawes | Drama, Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, Profiles, Writers | Kwame Dawes Biography Writing All Kwame Dawes’s work is pervaded by a conviction that writing, … |
| Reni Eddo-Lodge | Non-fiction, Profiles, Writers | Reni Eddo-Lodge Reni Eddo-Lodge in conversation with Rebecca Surender, Oxford, 14 June 2018 Biography Writing … |
| Diana Evans | Fiction, Profiles, Writers | Diana Evans Biography Writing Each of Evans’s novels combines a cast of characters who possess … |
| Bernardine Evaristo | Drama, Fiction, Poetry, Profiles, Writers | Bernardine Evaristo Biography Writing Evaristo’s work spans times, places, and literary genres, often exploring what … |
| Caleb Femi | Performance, Poetry, Profiles, Writers | Caleb Femi Biography Writing When Caleb Femi became the Young People’s Laureate for London in … |
| Aminatta Forna | Fiction, Non-fiction, Profiles, Writers | Aminatta Forna Writing Aminatta Forna’s works explore the historical, cultural, and emotional repercussions of societies … |
| Xiaolu Guo | Fiction, Non-fiction, Profiles, Writers | Xiaolu Guo Biography Writing In A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (2007), Guo portrays a … |
| Abdulrazak Gurnah | Fiction, Profiles, Writers | Abdulrazak Gurnah Biography Writing Dislocation, exile, loss, and identity are central themes in all of … |
| Sarah Howe | Poetry, Profiles, Writers | Sarah Howe Biography Writing The work of the British-Hong Kong poet Sarah Howe negotiates between … |
| Kazuo Ishiguro | Fiction, Profiles, Writers | Kazuo Ishiguro Biography In an interview with The Paris Review, Kazuo Ishiguro admits that his … |
| Mimi Khalvati | Poetry, Profiles, Writers | Mimi Khalvati Biography Writing Since 1991, Mimi Khalvati has published nine collections of poetry, which … |
| Hari Kunzru | Fiction, Profiles, Writers | Hari Kunzru Biography Writing Kunzru’s first novel, The Impressionist (2002), won the Betty Trask Prize … |
| Kwame Kwei-Armah | Drama, Profiles, Writers | Kwame Kwei-Armah Biography Writing Kwei-Armah’s plays are motivated by an unmistakable social imperative: he writes … |
| Linton Kwesi Johnson | Performance, Poetry, Profiles, Writers | Linton Kwesi Johnson Biography While at school, Johnson joined the British Black Panthers’ youth section. … |
| Andrea Levy | Fiction, Profiles, Writers | Andrea Levy Biography Writing ‘For me, writing has always been a journey of discovery about … |
| Gautam Malkani | Fiction, Profiles, Writers | Gautam Malkani Biography Writing Londonstani (2006) chronicles the trials of Jas, a young second-generation South … |
| Kei Miller | Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, Profiles, Writers | Kei Miller Biography Writing Kei Miller reading in Oxford, Planned Violence workshop, September 2015 (photo: … |
| Nadifa Mohamed | Fiction, Profiles, Writers | Nadifa Mohamed Biography Writing Nadifa Mohamed’s writing is concerned with disrupting and confronting unequal power … |
| Daljit Nagra | Poetry, Profiles, Writers | Daljit Nagra Overview Nagra’s acclaimed collection Look We Have Coming to Dover! (2007), won awards … |
| V. S. Naipaul | Fiction, Non-fiction, Profiles, Writers | V. S. Naipaul Biography Writing When, in the 1980s, Boris Ford was charged with compiling … |
| Courttia Newland | Drama, Fiction, Profiles, Writers | Courttia Newland Biography Writing Newland’s early novels depict community and family life on London housing … |
| Ben Okri | Fiction, Poetry, Profiles, Writers | Ben Okri Overview Ben Okri (1958– ) is a Nigerian-born British novelist and poet. Ben … |
| Helen Oyeyemi | Fiction, Profiles, Writers | Helen Oyeyemi Biography Writing In an interview for NPR, Oyeyemi has described her works as … |
| Caryl Phillips | Drama, Fiction, Non-fiction, Profiles, Writers | Caryl Phillips Biography Writing Caryl Phillips is one of the major British writers of his … |
| Kamila Shamsie | Fiction, Non-fiction, Profiles, Writers | Kamila Shamsie Biography Writing Kamila Shamsie is one of the most remarkable storytellers of our … |
| Warsan Shire | Poetry, Profiles, Writers | Warsan Shire Biography Writing Shire’s verse was put to work in both political and pop … |
| Zadie Smith | Fiction, Profiles, Writers | Zadie Smith Biography Writing White Teeth sees Smith intricately weave together an array of characters … |
| ‘Waist Bead Serenade’ | Extracts | ‘Waist Bead Serenade’ This poem comes from D-Empress Dianne Regisford’s ‘Hersto-rhetoric? Na so today!!!’. Highlight … |
| Extract from NW | Extracts | Extract from NW This extract comes from p. 182 of Zadie Smith’s NW. We’re interested in … |
| Extract from A God in Every Stone | Extracts | Extract from A God in Every Stone This extract comes from pp. 287–288 of Kamila … |
| ‘Rapinder Slips into Tongues . . .’ | Extracts | ‘Rapinder Slips into Tongues . . .’ This poem is from Daljit Nagra’s Look We … |
| Extract from Black Mamba Boy | Extracts | Extract from Black Mamba Boy This extract comes from pp. 1–2 of Nadifa Mohamed’s Black … |
| Extract from The Memory of Love | Extracts | Extract from The Memory of Love This extract comes from pp. 151–152 of Aminatta Forna’s … |
| Extract from The Emperor’s Babe | Extracts | Extract from The Emperor’s Babe This extract comes from p. 3 of Bernardine Evaristo’s The … |
| Bernardine Evaristo’s The Emperor’s Babe | Featured works, Summary, context and history | The Emperor’s Babe, Bernardine Evaristo’s comic verse-epic or novel-in-verse, told in erratically un-rhyming couplets, pays … |
| Aminatta Forna’s The Memory of Love | Featured works, Summary, context and history | With striking confidence, Aminatta Forna’s second novel, The Memory of Love (2010), explores the complex … |
| Nadifa Mohamed’s Black Mamba Boy | Featured works, Summary, context and history | Jama, a Somali boy, walks and walks, ‘sharpening his spirit on the knife-edge of solitude’. … |
| Daljit Nagra’s Look We Have Coming to Dover! | Featured works, Summary, context and history | The poems in Daljit Nagra’s celebrated debut collection, Look We Have Coming to Dover! (2007), are based … |
| D-Empress Dianne Regisford: ‘Hersto-rhetoric? Na so today!!!’ | Featured works, Performance, Poetry, Summary, context and history | In a series of seven sculptures created by abstract expressionist artiste D-Empress Dianne Regisford, the … |
| Kamila Shamsie’s A God in Every Stone | Featured works, Summary, context and history | Kamila Shamsie’s audacious and affecting A God in Every Stone ranges across continents and histories, … |
| Zadie Smith’s NW | Featured works, Summary, context and history | NW (2012), Zadie Smith’s fourth novel, documents the lives and experiences of four people who … |