Nadifa Mohamed نظيفة محمد | |
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Born | Nadiifa Maxamed 1981 (age 42–43) |
Nationality | British, born Somali[1] |
Alma mater | St Hilda's College, Oxford |
Occupation | Novelist |
Notable work | Black Mamba Boy (2010) The Orchard of Lost Souls (2013) The Fortune Men (2021) |
Movement | Realism, historical fiction |
Awards | Betty Trask Award (2010) Somerset Maugham Award (2014) Prix Albert Bernard (2016) Wales Book of the Year (2022) |
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] She became Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University in Spring 2022.[5]