Irenosen Okojie and Nadifa Mohamed. Midsummer archaeology
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 22 June 2020
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The writing life of two authors who should have been sharing a stage at the Bare Lit Festival. Irenosen Okojie and Nadifa Mohammed talk to Shahidha Bari in a conversation organised with the Royal Society of Literature. And 2020 New Generation Thinker Seren Griffiths describes a project to use music by composer at an archaeological site to mark the summer solstice and the findings of her dig.
The Somali-British novelist Nadifa Mohamed featured on Granta magazine's list "Best of Young British Novelists" in 2013, and in 2014 on the Africa39 list of writers under 40. Her first novel Black Mamba Boy won a Betty Trask Award. Her second novel The Orchard of Lost Souls won the Somerset Maugham Award and contributed poems to the collection edited by Margaret Busby in 2019 New Daughters of Africa.
Irenosen Okojie's debut novel, Butterfly Fish, won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Edinburgh First Book Award. Her short story collection, Speak Gigantular was shortlisted for the Edgehill Short Story Prize, the Jhalak Prize, the Saboteur Awards and nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award. Her most recent book is called Nudibranch.
You can find more information about the Bare Lit Festival http://barelitfestival.com/ and about the Royal Society of Literature https://rsliterature.org/ Irenosen is one of the voices talking about Buchi Emecheta in this programme https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09r89gt Caine Prize 2019 winner Lesley Nneka Arimah is interviewed https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006mtb Caine Prize 2018 winner Makena Onjerika https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b89ssp Billy Kahora a Caine nominee https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02tw6fg
The music used by Seren Griffiths is by https://jonhughesmusic.com/ and you can find out about the dig https://bryncellidduarchaeology.wordpress.com/the-bryn-celli-ddu-rock-art-project/ and the minecraft https://mcphh.org/bryn-celli-ddu-minecraft-experience/
New Generation Thinkers is the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year to turn their research into radio.
Producer: Robyn Read
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps |
| 0:21.2 | it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream |
| 0:26.1 | van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. Hello, an archaeologist with an app taking us back in time to a 5,000-year-old Welsh burial site |
| 0:44.8 | and two writers reaching across space to discuss the writing life. |
| 0:49.3 | Will they be on the same page? |
| 0:51.8 | Find out on the Arts and Ideas podcast with me Shahadabari just after this. |
| 0:58.2 | Hello, I'm Jess Gillum. |
| 0:59.7 | I play the saxophone and I really think you should subscribe to my new podcast, This Classical Life. |
| 1:04.7 | If you're like me and always listening to music, |
| 1:06.8 | this is a great new way of discovering sounds for your playlists. |
| 1:09.9 | It's when I want something really groovy and really funky. |
| 1:15.3 | Every week I'm joined by a special guest |
| 1:17.0 | and we share the latest tracks we just can't stop playing. |
| 1:19.8 | I also have this playlist on my phone called 5am |
| 1:22.1 | and it's full of classical music. |
| 1:24.4 | Just head to BBC Sounds and subscribe to this classical life. |
| 1:32.3 | Hello, Irenna Kogi and Nidifa Muhammad have quite a lot in common. |
| 1:36.3 | They're both young and clever novelists and in 2018 they signed their names on the same page |
| 1:42.3 | of the Royal Society of Literature's roster of fellows. |
| 1:46.0 | What they didn't get to share though was a stage at the 2020 Bear Lit Festival which |
| 1:51.0 | celebrates the work of writers of colour. Sadly it was cancelled this year as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.