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A new podcast exploring race and identity in literature with guests including Bernardine Evaristo, Sara Collins and Derek Owusu has been launched, sponsored by Idris Elba’s production company.
Eight-part series “generation veX”, backed by Green Door Pictures, launched on 20th October, focusing on books by people of colour, for people of colour, and exploring issues which its hosts say do not get enough air-time.
Guests will include Evaristo talking about her Booker Prize-winning novel, Girl, Woman, Other (Hamish Hamilton) and Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton (Viking). Writer and poet Owusu will discuss an anthology which he edited, Safe: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space (Trapeze), and writer Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, the winner of The Authors’ Club First Novel Award and a Betty Trask Award, will unpack her new novel about identity and mental health, Starling Days (Sceptre).
The series is the brainchild of West End stars and podcast hosts Stephenson Ardern-Sodje, Vanessa Fisher and Sharon Rose (pictured), along with writer and book marketer Naomi Morris Omori.
Morris Omori, executive producer, said: “This podcast was born out of the fact that the conversations that we wanted to listen to were not represented enough in podcasting spheres. We want to encourage a community of young people of colour to enjoy and embrace books as tools for self-care and self-development.”
Elba added: “We are so thrilled to be supporting generation veX. At the heart of both our philosophies is a passion for underrepresented voices and stories. This podcast is the perfect way to bring attention to an exciting range of literary talent in Britain.”