Michael Donkor

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For the Ghanaian footballer, see Michael Donkor (footballer).
Michael Donkor
BornLondon England
Occupation
Alma mater
Notable worksHold (2018)

Michael Donkor (born 1985) is a British author and English teacher based in London. He is represented by Blake Friedmann and Fourth Estate.

Early life and education[]

Donkor was born in London to a Ghanaian household.[1] He completed his bachelor's degree in English at Wadham College, Oxford, as well as a master's in Creative Writing at University of London.[2] At the University of Oxford he was one of only 21 black students in his year.[3] At the University of London he was supervised by Andrew Motion.[2]

Career[]

In 2010 Donkor trained as an English teacher at the UCL Institute of Education, and began his teaching career at Esher College. He now teaches at St Paul's Girls' School.[1][2] In 2014 he was chosen by the National Centre for Writing for their mentoring programme, through which he met mentor Daniel Hahn and agent Juliet Pickering.[1] He was described by HarperCollins as a "powerful new British literary voice". The Observer selected him as a New Face of Fiction in January 2018.[4][5] He is inspired by Zadie Smith, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Toni Morrison.[5]

Hold[]

Fourth Estate gained publishing rights to Donkor's Hold, which was published in July 2018.[6][7][8][9] It follows the stories of three teenage girls from Kumasi, Ghana, to Brixton, London, in 2002, and has been described as a coming-of-age novel.[10][5] Donkor chose to set Hold in 2002 as it marks the summer he was applying to study English at university.[5] Hold has been longlisted for the 2019 Dylan Thomas Prize.[11]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Michael Donkor". Blake Friedmann. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Michael Donkor – Poets' Corner Tutors". Poets' Corner Tutors. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
  3. ^ Donkor, Michael (2018-07-07). "'My blackness seemed curious, difficult to handle': the day I ran away from Oxford University". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
  4. ^ Lisa O'Kelly; Arifa Akbar; Claire Armitstead; Hannah Beckerman; Alex Clark; Kate Kellaway; Tim Lewis; William Skidelsky (2018-01-14). "Meet the new faces of fiction for 2018". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Pymm, Francesca (2018-04-23). "Michael Donkor | 'Ghanaians have a really silly and often quite absurd sense of humour'". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
  6. ^ "Brixton Rising: New Voices in Fiction, Brixton Library tonight, Weds 16th May, 7pm". Brixton Buzz news, features and listings for Brixton, London. 2018-05-16. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
  7. ^ Wood, Heloise (2017-07-26). "Fourth Estate wins teacher's debut novel at auction". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
  8. ^ "2018: Most Anticipated Reads". The Book Banque. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
  9. ^ "The Most Anticipated African Books To Read In 2018 - Nigeria Info". Nigeria Info. 2018-01-12. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
  10. ^ "Hold by Michael Donkor - Hardcover". HarperCollins UK. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
  11. ^ Flood, Alison (2019-01-31). "Dylan Thomas prize: teacher and nurse among 'starburst' of young talent". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-02-04.

External links[]

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