Courttia Newland
Courttia Newland is the author of nine books including his much lauded debut, The Scholar. His latest novel, The Gospel According to Cane, was published in 2013. He co-edited The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain, and his short stories have featured in various anthologies and been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. He was shortlisted for the 2007 CWA Dagger in the Library Award and the 2010 Alfred Fagon Award. In 2016 he was also awarded the Tayner Barbers Award for science fiction writing and the Roland Rees Bursary for playwriting. As a screenwriter, he has written episodes of Steve McQueen’s 2020 BBC series Small Axe.
@courttianewland
‘Rooted in a decolonised narrative style where every turn of phrase brings forth the weight of its cultural implications, A River Called Time is a deeply thoughtful, surprising and rewarding read … In short, much of the novel is less an imagined reality than a conditional one: a status quo that could well exist, had major historical events panned out differently. The achievement of Newland is to convey this reality so convincingly.’
Charlie Stone
The Arts Desk
‘To me, this book thematically is all about the importance of truth telling, particularly in uncertain times … And I think in each parallel Markriss has to tackle that, whether he should be involved in truth telling or not’ Courttia Newland speaks to Front Row about his new novel, A River Called Time
Courttia Newland
Front Row
Courttia Newland discusses astral projection, rejection, racism, Small Axe and his new novel, A River Called Time with the Guardian
‘When I was growing up I used to have these episodes where you wake up and feel like you can’t breathe, you can’t see, you’re almost having a seizure, a dreaming seizure. I’d fight it and try to wake up – but this one time, around 1997, I didn’t fight it and I had an out of body experience, like I actually rose from my body. I could see somebody in the room sitting next to the bed. The experience stuck in my head and I thought, “Let me find out what’s been happening.” I found all these books saying it was astral projection. And that was it. I knew I wanted to write about astral projection.’
Ashish Ghadiali
Guardian