Chimene Suleyman
{{Short description|Writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Chimene or Chimène Suleyman is an English writer. She has written on the politics of race and immigration in media including The Guardian, The Independent, the BBC and NPR, and co-edited The Good Immigrant USA in 2019.{{cite web |title=Chimene Suleyman |url=https://theface.com/faces/chimene-suleyman |website=The Face |access-date=1 September 2021 |language=en-gb}}{{cite news |title=Chimene Suleyman |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/author/chimene-suleyman |access-date=1 September 2021 |work=The Independent |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Chimene Suleyman |url=https://www.nationalbook.org/people/chimene-suleyman/#fullBio |website=National Book Foundation |access-date=1 September 2021}}
Personal life
Suleyman was born at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington{{Cite web|url=https://twitter.com/chimenesuleyman/status/1376800856163680258|title=Im English. Was born at the same hospital as Prince’s William and Harry. Im tanned. ImEnglish. And Muslim. Still English. I have a French first name, Turkish last name. Im English. I have Turkish grandparents. Just like the Prime Minister, who is English.|author=Chimene Suleyman|via=Twitter|accessdate=20 March 2025}} and grew up in North London. Her father's family are from the north of Cyprus which was invaded and illegally occupied by Turkey in 1974. She has written about her grandfather's death in 1964, when he was tortured and killed by Greek soldiers in Cyprus, and his (Suleyman Recep) body, with a dozen others, seen in a much-reproduced photograph.{{cite news |last1=Suleyman |first1=Chimene |title=No Longer An Allegory Of War: A Personal Reflection On Images & Conflict |url=https://thequietus.com/articles/16064-war-photography-cyprus-civil-war |access-date=1 September 2021 |work=The Quietus |date=21 August 2014}}
Career
Suleyman created the monthly spoken-word event "Kid, I Wrote Back" in London, which ran from 2010 until at least 2013.{{cite web |title=Review: 'Kid, I Wrote Back' Spoken Word Night |url=https://tribeninestudios.co/nines-thoughts/kid-i-wrote-back |website=Tribe Nine Studios |access-date=1 September 2021 |date=14 February 2013}}
In 2014, the writer Laura Bates chose Suleyman's poetry collection Outside Looking On{{cite web |title=Outside Looking On |url=https://www.influxpress.com/outside-looking-on |website=Influx Press |access-date=1 September 2021}} as one of her "best books" of the year, saying that it "presents startlingly perceptive snapshots of human experience, delving powerfully into themes that range from big-city loneliness and longing, to prejudice and love".{{cite news |last1= |first1= |title=Writers pick the best books of 2014: part one |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/29/-sp-writers-pick-best-books-2014 |access-date=1 September 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=29 November 2014 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Whalley |first1=Charles |title=Outside Looking On by Chimène Suleyman |url=http://sabotagereviews.com/2014/11/13/outside-looking-on-by-chimene-suleyman/ |access-date=1 September 2021 |work=Sabotage |date=13 November 2014}}
In 2017, Suleyman was a contributor to the crowdfunded publication The Good Immigrant, and in 2019 contributed to and co-edited its sequel, The Good Immigrant USA.{{cite news |last1=Khong |first1=Rachel |title=The Good Immigrant USA review – 'our joy is as valuable as our suffering' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/20/the-good-immigrant-usa-nikesh-shukla-chimene-suleyman-review |access-date=1 September 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=20 March 2019 |language=en}}
In 2021, Suleyman, Monisha Rajesh and professor Sunny Singh received racist abuse on social media as a result of raising concerns about depictions of autism and of students of colour in Kate Clanchy's book Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me.{{cite news |last1=Campbell |first1=Lucy |title=Kate Clanchy to rewrite memoir amid criticism of 'racist and ableist tropes' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/aug/10/kate-clanchy-to-rewrite-memoir-after-criticism-of-racist-and-ableist-tropes |access-date=1 September 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=10 August 2021 |language=en}}
In 2023, it was announced that Weidenfeld & Nicolson would publish Suleyman's memoir, The Chain, in 2024.{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=Lauren |title=W&N wins Suleyman’s ‘explosive’ memoir in four-way auction |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/wn-wins-suleymans-explosive-memoir-in-four-way-auction |access-date=23 November 2023 |work=The Bookseller |date=4 September 2023 |language=En}}
Selected publications
- {{cite book |last1=Suleyman |first1=Chimene |title=Outside Looking On |date=2014 |publisher=Influx |location=London |isbn=9780992765552}}
- {{cite book |last1=Suleyman |first1=Chimene |editor1-last=Shukla |editor1-first=Nikesh |title=The Good Immigrant |date=2017 |publisher=Unbound |location=London |isbn=9781783522965 |edition= |chapter=My Name is My Name}}
- {{cite book |last1=Suleyman |first1=Chimene|chapter= On Being Kim Kardashian|editor1-last=Shukla |editor1-first=Nikesh |editor2-last=Suleyman |editor2-first=Chimene |title=The Good Immigrant USA: 26 writers reflect on America |date=2019 |location=London |isbn=9780349700366}}
References
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Category:21st-century English women writers
Category:English people of Turkish Cypriot descent
Category:English women non-fiction writers
Category:People from Paddington