Kadija Sesay

Kadija George MBE (born 1962), also known as Kadija Sesay, is a British literary activist, short story writer and poet of Sierra Leonean descent, and the publisher and managing editor of the magazine SABLE LitMag. Her work has earned her many awards and nominations, including the Cosmopolitan Woman of Achievementin 1994, Candace Woman of Achievement in 1996, The Voice Community Award in Literature in 1999 and the Millennium Woman of the Year in 2000. She is the General Secretary for African Writers Abroad (PEN) and organises the Writers' HotSpot - trips for writers abroad, where she teaches creative writing and journalism courses.[1]

Kadija Sesay

MBE
Born1962 (age 58–59)
London, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
Other namesKadija George
Alma materBirmingham University
OccupationLiterary activist, writer, editor
Websitewww.sablelitmag.org

Biography

Born in London of Sierra Leonean heritage, Sesay is a graduate of Birmingham University, in England, where she majored in West African studies.[2][3] She then became a freelance journalist, and from the mid-1990s until 1998 worked as a black literature development co-ordinator for the Centreprise Literature Development Project, where she set up the newspaper Calabash.[2] In 2001 she founded Sable LitMag.[4]

Sesay has edited or co-edited several books, including Burning Words, Flaming Images: Poems and Short Stories by Writers of African Descent (1996), IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain (with Courttia Newland, 2000),[5][6] Dance the Guns to Silence: 100 Poems for Ken Saro-Wiwa (Flipped Eye Publishing, 2005), and (as Kadija George) Six Plays by Black and Asian Women Writers (Aurora Metro Books, 2005), Write Black, Write British: From Post Colonial to Black British Literature (Hansib Publications, 2005).

In 2007 she created the first SABLE Literary Festival in The Gambia, where she now programmes the Mboka literary festival and bookfair,[7][8] which she co-founded in 2016.[9]

She is co-director of Peepal Tree Press's writer development programme, Inscribe, alongside fellow poet Dorothea Smartt.

Sesay's first full collection of poems, entitled Irki, was published in 2013.[10] Her poetry, short stories and essays have appeared in a range of publications, including the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.[11][12]

Sesay was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to publishing.[13]

Selected bibliography

As editor

Poetry
  • Irki, Peepal Tree Press, 2013, ISBN 978-1845232085

References
  1. Alison Donnell (2002). "Sesay, Kadija". In Alison Donnell (ed.). Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture. Routledge. pp. 275–6. ISBN 978-1-134-70025-7.
  2. "Kadija George" at British Council, Literature.
  3. "Kadija (George) Sesay", Black British Women Writers.
  4. "Kadija George", SI Leeds Literary Prize.
  5. Maya Jaggi, "The forgotten past", The Guardian, 24 June 2000.
  6. IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain (2000) at Amazon.
  7. "Kadija George", Mboka Festival.
  8. Mboka Festival website.
  9. "Kadija Sesay", African American Literature Book Club.
  10. Mildred Barya, "Irki is for Homeland, Kadija Sesay’s first poetry book", Mildred Barya's House of Life, 21 November 2013.
  11. Olatoun Williams, "New Daughters of Africa" (review), Borders Literature Online, 2019.
  12. "WRITERS & CREATIVES OF COLOUR ONLINE SOCIAL: WITH KADIJA SESAY", Writing Our Legacy, 27 June 2020.
  13. "No. 63135". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 October 2020. p. B18.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.