Having read all my life and found it a great source of pleasure, one thing had always bothered me - I never saw myself reflected in the pages of anything I read. This prompted me to write my first book and has kept me inspired to date! Telling untold stories keeps me alive.
Courttia Newland

Courttia Newland was born in 1973 in West London to parents of Caribbean heritage. From a young age, Newland was fascinated with hip-hop and began his own record label. A love of music was followed by a passion for literature - at 21 Courttia began writing and in 1998 published his first novel The Scholar. Courttia was immediately hailed as a master at highlighting the complex intercity life of multicultural London. "I write about people that have been left out of mainstream fiction. When I was first published I felt that these people had no voice, so I wanted to try and capture that,” stated Newland in a recent interview. British newspaper The Observer called his first novel "an absorbing debut from a writer who clearly has something to say." Further critically-acclaimed novels followed, including The Society Within (1999), a collection of short stories about young black Londoners, and Snakeskin (2002), a thriller about murder, politics and justice.

Courttia's career has also encompassed performance readings, short-story and playwriting. His plays include The Far Side and Mother’s Day, which premiered at the Lyric Studio Hammersmith in 2002. Newland is the editor of the anthology IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain (2000) and has featured short stories in many other anthologies including The Time Out Book of London Short Stories and England Calling. Although known for writing about urban life, Newland's bibliography also includes adaptations of Greek tragedies for the stage and scripts for the small screen.

In 2001 Courttia Newland and Nii Parkes (both British Council UK Writers-in-Residence for 2007) formed the London arts organization Tell Tales. Dedicated to engaging the public with the literary form of short stories, Tell Tales combines music and storytelling to provide audiences with interactive experiences. In addition to public events Tell Tales also produces several compelling anthologies by diverse groups of contemporary UK writers.

Prior to this year's British Council residency at Georgetown University, Courttia was selected in 2005 as the British Council Ireland's International Writer Fellow at Trinity College, Ireland. In 2006 Newland published The Dying Wish as well as Music for the Off Key (Peepal Tree Press), a collection of short stories which had many inspirations, including Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected. Hands, his first radio play, was also broadcast on BBC Radio 4 last year. Currently, Newland’s production company Cofe is producing a film adaptation of The Scholar.

CRITICAL PRAISE

“As literary culture, we are chronically short of this sort of fiction. Voices like Newland’s provide a vital counterpoint to the likes of Bridget Jones.”
Financial Times

“Britain’s brightest black writer”
Evening Standard

“The rising star of Brit-Lit and chronicler of inner city life … Newland has acquired a buzz … The comparison with [Irvine] Welsh is apt for two reasons. First there is a clear parallel in creating new literary language and second, with luck, Newland will open up the world of fiction to a whole new audience.”
The Guardian