Whose stories get told, and whose get buried? British author and screenwriter Nikesh Shukla argues that this question is not a side issue in the fight against fascism, but the fight itself. Authoritarian movements narrow the range of stories a country is allowed to tell about itself, restricting who counts as “us” and whose history is worth remembering. With fascism on the rise across the continent, diversity in storytelling is one of the first lines of defence.
In 2016, Shukla published The Good Immigrant, an anthology of 21 essays by British BAME writers writing back against the narrow, often hostile roles they had been assigned by British mainstream culture. Personalities like Reni Eddo-Lodge, Riz Ahmed and Nish Kumar reflected on racism, nationhood and belonging in a book that became a rallying point in the UK’s own reckoning with its colonial past. On its 10th anniversary, The Good Immigrant remains a contemporary classic in helping to reshape the discussion about race in Great Britain.
Nikesh Shukla is also the co-founder of The Good Literary Agency, aimed at under-represented writers, and has written novels, essays and books for younger readers exploring identity, race and resistance. In 2019 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
At the House of Literature, Shukla draws from more than a decade spent fighting for diverse stories to tell us why everybody’s stories matter and what literature can do for democracy.
