Abdulrazak Gurnah is a Tanzanian-born British author and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021 “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents". Learn more about the Nobel Prize here.
St Peter’s, alongside the York Literature Festival and York St John University, was pleased to welcome Mr Gurnah for an evening in conversation with Professor Sarah Lawson Welsh who once studied under him at university and now teaches at YSJ. The evening was filled with delightful stories, a look into his most popular novels, and sobering observations of postcolonialism.
One of the main themes of Mr Gurnah’s talk was that of nostalgia and homesickness, which have influenced much of his writing. He spoke of the importance of remembering thins that hurt, rather that neglecting their meaning, as well as highlighted why communities need to continue the tradition of storytelling. He treated the audience to a reading of an excerpt from his new novel, and then kindly answered questions.
Mr Gurnah has been shortlisted for the Booker, Writer’s Guild, and Whitbread prizes as well as many other accolades for his many influential novels and short stories over the years. He is currently Emeritus Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent and has recently published his newest novel titled Theft. You can learn more about this new novel here.
Thank you to Abudlrazak Gurnah for joining us, as well as York Lit Fest, York St John University, and all those who helped make the evening possible.
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