Quick Facts
Biography
Derek Owusu (born 1988) is a British writer and podcaster. He edited and contributed to the book Safe: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space (2019); his debut novel is That Reminds Me (2019).
Life and work
Owusu, of Ghanaian heritage, was raised in foster care by a white family until he was eight years old. In 1997 he moved from Suffolk to North London to live with his biological parents.
He is the former co-host of the literature podcast Mostly Lit and works at Penguin Books.
Owusu edited the book Safe: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space (2019), an anthology of writing by 20 Black British men. It includes essays by JJ Bola, Suli Breaks, Alex Wheatle, Courttia Newland and others that are, as Alex Mistlin wrote in Vice, "addressing the conflicts and complexities of being a black man in Britain today". According to Mistlin, Safe is "about the multi-faceted nature of the black experience, how blackness intertwines with society, masculinity and sexuality to form a coherent identity that is at once universal and unique." Owusu contributes an essay about his experience of foster care.
Owusu's coming-of-age debut novel, That Reminds Me, was published in 2019, the first novel from Stormzy's imprint #Merky Books. According to Metro, "there’s nothing indulgent about this quietly observed account of a black man Owusu gives the name of K, who is struggling to make sense of a chaotic upbringing and of his place in a world not designed for people like him with a hidden mental health problem." Kate Kellaway, poetry critic for The Observer, picking That Reminds Me as her poetry book of the month for November, called it "brave and moving", describing it as "semi-autobiographical", as both K, the protagonist, and Owusu himself live with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. It was described by The Herald as a "virtuosic debut by a raw new talent."
Publications
Fiction
- That Reminds Me. London: Merky, 2019. ISBN 978-1529118599.
As editor
- Safe: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space. London: Trapeze, 2019. ISBN 978-1409182634.