-
Access our Top 20
Books of 2024!
Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Diana Evans was born in London and spent part of her childhood in Lagos, Nigeria. She studied Media Studies at the University of Sussex and was a dancer in the Brighton-based troupe Mashango before becoming a journalist and author. She has written features and criticism for Marie Claire, the Independent, the Observer, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Source, Time Out, the Stage and Harper’s Bazaar, and her interviews have included Lauryn Hill, Maya Angelou and Mariah Carey. She holds a Masters degree in creative writing from the University of East Anglia.
Evans’s first novel, 26a, received a Betty Trask award, a nomination for the Guardian First Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel and Commonwealth Best First Book awards. It was the inaugural winner of the Orange Award for New Writers and has been translated into twelve languages. Her second novel, The Wonder, is also published by Chatto & Windus.
Diana Evans's website
This bio was last updated on 03/26/2016. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
Q: To what degree is 26a an autobiographical novel?
A: It was inspired by a personal bereavement so in that sense it is
autobiographical; and I did draw from memories and sensations from my own
childhood. But I would be uncomfortable calling it a portrait or a blueprint of
my life. When you are using autobiographical material in fiction, it is
absolutely necessary that you distance yourself enough from the subject so that
it becomes something of its own, nothing to do with you, so that the imagination
can take flight and all kinds of unexpected twists and turns of plot and
character come into play. This is what happened with 26a.
Q: 26a shares some qualities with magical realist fiction. Have you been
influenced by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie, Isabel Allende, and other
magical realist writers? Or does this quality flow into your work more from
African folk-tales?
A: I would not attribute either source to the 'magic realist' aspects of the
novel. It's simply the way I write. I love the supernatural, and I am enthralled
by writing that dares to venture into the impossible or fantastic. It's great
fun and takes the writer and the reader into another world, which is what
fiction should do. ...
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Nigeria in 1977. She is from Abba, in Anambra State, but grew up in the university town of Nsukka where she attended primary and secondary schools and briefly studied Medicine and ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
26a
Try:
Half of a Yellow Sun
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Monica Ali is the daughter of English and Bangladeshi parents.
She came to England at the age of three, and her first home was Bolton in Greater Manchester. Ali later studied at Oxford University.
Her first novel, Brick ...
(more)
If you enjoyed:
26a
Try:
In the Kitchen
by Monica Ali
We recommend 8 similar authors
.png)
When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
