Michael Donkor
Michael Donkor | |
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| Born | 1985 (age 40–41) London, England |
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| Notable works | Hold (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
[edit]Donkor was born in 1985 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
[edit]In 2010, Donkor trained as an English teacher at the UCL Institute of Education, and began his teaching career at Esher College. He formerly taught at St Paul's Girls' School.[1][2] He left his job there by 2022 to pursue a writing career in Lisbon, Portugal. 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]
He has written for outlets including The Guardian, The Telegraph, BBC Radio 3, the TLS and The Independent.[1]
Hold
[edit]Fourth Estate gained publishing rights to Donkor's debut novel 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 when he was applying to study English at university.[5] Hold was longlisted for the 2019 Dylan Thomas Prize.[11] Among those who praised Donkor's work were Diana Evans, Jeffrey Boakye and Courttia Newland.[1] Jackie Kay wrote: "Michael Donkor's brilliance is in the way he captures voices; his work has an immediacy and a warmth to it and his is a world you want to enter, whose characters spring vividly to life."[12]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 "Michael Donkor". Blake Friedmann. Retrieved 10 May 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Michael Donkor – Poets' Corner Tutors". Poets' Corner Tutors. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ↑ Donkor, Michael (7 July 2018). "'My blackness seemed curious, difficult to handle': the day I ran away from Oxford University". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ↑ O'Kelly, Lisa; Akbar, Arifa; Armitstead, Claire; Beckerman, Hannah; Clark, Alex; Kellaway, Kate; Lewis, Tim; Skidelsky, William (14 January 2018). "Meet the new faces of fiction for 2018". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- 1 2 3 4 Pymm, Francesca (23 April 2018). "Michael Donkor | 'Ghanaians have a really silly and often quite absurd sense of humour'". The Bookseller. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ↑ "Brixton Rising: New Voices in Fiction, Brixton Library tonight, Weds 16th May, 7pm". Brixton Buzz news, features and listings for Brixton, London. 16 May 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ↑ Wood, Heloise (26 July 2017). "Fourth Estate wins teacher's debut novel at auction". The Bookseller. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ↑ "2018: Most Anticipated Reads". The Book Banque. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ↑ "The Most Anticipated African Books To Read In 2018 – Nigeria Info". Nigeria Info. 12 January 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ↑ "Hold by Michael Donkor – Hardcover". HarperCollins UK. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ↑ Flood, Alison (31 January 2019). "Dylan Thomas prize: teacher and nurse among 'starburst' of young talent". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- ↑ Kay, Jackie (5 October 2019). "Jackie Kay selects Britain's 10 best BAME writers". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 May 2026.
External links
[edit]- Michael Donkor on X
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