Newland, Courttia

Courttia Newland is the author of seven novels, including The Gospel According to Cane. He has won the Roland Rees Bursary for playwriting, and co-written two episodes of the Steve McQueen BBC series Small Axe. In A River Called Time: A Novel (Akashic Books), a massive structure known as the Ark dominates the city center of Dinium – an alternative London – that promised a utopian existence. But although it was built to save the lives of the many, it rapidly became a refuge for the elite. The story, said Kirkus, “is an ambitiously imagined book that, by removing the European lens on African cultures, creates a new reality that allows us to question how we view our own.” Cosmogramma (Akashic Books), Newland’s first collection of speculative fiction, imagines an alternate future as lived by the African diaspora. Kill parties roam post-apocalyptic streets; a matriarchal race of creatures depends on interbreeding with mortals to survive; and mysterious seeds grow into the likeness of people in their vicinity. Publishers Weekly noted that “Newland easily engages readers with complex world-building, well-shaded characters, and stories as entertaining as they are meaningful. It’s no small feat to so immediately and repeatedly appeal to readers’ hearts and minds, and Newland’s mastery of short-format storytelling is sure to impress. Speculative fiction fans won’t be able to put this down.”