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About the author
Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian British author whose work pushes the boundaries of form, language and ideas. Her novel,
Butterfly Fish, and short story collections,
Speak Gigantular and
Nudibranch, have won and been nominated for multiple awards. Her journalism has been featured in
The New York Times, the
Observer, the
Guardian and the
Huffington Post. She is a Contributing Editor for
The White Review as well as
And Other Stories. She co-presented the BBC's
Turn Up for The Books podcast, alongside Simon Savidge and Bastille frontman Dan Smith. Her work has been optioned for the screen. She has also judged various literary prizes including the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Gordon Burn Prize, the BBC National Short Story Award and the Dublin Literary Award. She was a judge for the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction. Formerly the Vice Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, she was awarded an MBE For Services to Literature in 2021. She is the director and founder of
Black to the Future festival. Her new novel
Curandera is published by Dialogue Books.
Summary
A fragile outsider living in London, Joy struggles to pull the threads of her life back together after her mother's sudden death. As family secrets come to light, she unearths the ties between her mother, grandfather, the wife of the king, a fearsome warrior, and a brass head's pivotal connection to them all.
