Michael Donkor

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

Michael Donkor
BornLondon England
Occupation
Alma mater
Notable worksHold (2018)

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 taught sixth-form students 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 it 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. "Michael Donkor". Blake Friedmann. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
  2. "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. O'Kelly, Lisa; Hannah Beckerman; Tim Lewis; Claire Armitstead; Kate Kellaway; William Skidelsky, William; Arifa Akbar; Alex Clark (2018-01-14). "Meet the new faces of fiction for 2018". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
  5. 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.
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