Diriye Osman: Butterfly Jungle

When the British-Somali writer and visual artist Diriye Osman won the Polari First Book Prize in 2014, for the short story collection Fairytales for Lost Children, he became the first black person to win this prize. Osman was praised for his writing about LGBTQ Somalis by iconic authors such as Bernardine Evaristo, Roxanne Gay and Alison Bechdel, but quickly faded from the spotlight.

Almost ten years later came the novel The Butterfly Jungle , which Osman says is about what it means to be black, queer and British in a post-Brexit climate. It is a deeply political book about a queer British-Somali community living peacefully in South London.

Welcome to conversation with Diriye Osman and Ari Gautier about Butterfly Jungle.

The doors open at 17.00 | Start: at 18.00

Free entry