I was a reader before I was a writer, and when I started putting together my first collection of short stories, Fairytales For Lost Children, I drew on my rich history as a reader to try and create my voice. I wanted this voice to reflect my Somali background, my Kenyan upbringing and my London home. This voice would be a mashup of all the elements that formed my youth; the sticky-sweet Jamaican patois, the Kenyan street slang, my Somali and Italian linguistic tics, my love of jazz poetics and nineties hip-hop slanguistics. This language would form the bed on which my narratives of love, loss, identity and hope would rest.
About This Quote
About Diriye Osman
Diriye Osman was British painter. Diriye Osman is a British-Somali author, visual artist, critic and essayist. His books include the award-winning collection of stories, Fairytales For Lost Children, and the collection of interlinked stories, The Butterfly Jungle, which Osman wrote and designed on his phone. Read more on Wikipedia →