Susheila Nasta

Susheila Nasta was born in London, England.[https://www.migrationmuseum.org/distinguished-friends/susheila-nasta/ "Distinguished friends | Susheila Nasta"], Migration Museum. She grew up in India, Germany and The Netherlands, before returning to Britain to complete her education. She undertook undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Kent, and the University of London.

Her commitment to diversifying the literature curriculum and expanding the remit of English studies has been demonstrated throughout the decades since her involvement with the Association for the Teaching of African and Caribbean Literature (ATCAL), which led to the founding in 1984 of the journal Wasafiri, with Nasta as editor-in-chief.Gail Low and Marion Wynne-Davies (eds), [https://books.google.com/books?id=y22ADAAAQBAJ&dq=Association+for+the+Teaching+of+African+and+Caribbean+Literature+%28ATCAL%29&pg=PA182 A Black British Canon?], Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, pp. 182–84.[http://www.wasafiri.org/assets_cm/files/PDF/susheila_barker_interview.pdf "Making Tracks]: Susheila Nasta in conversation with Jonathan Barker". Retrieved 30 March 2012. Recollecting the magazine's early days, she has written: "In those days, before computers and the now almost immediate communication channels of digital culture, editing was a much slower and more physical process. Comments on stories or poems were made on hard copy, snail mail carried the responses back and, when we finally reached the point of typesetting, the proofs were often delivered to my door by the East End Asian typesetting and printing company we used. I would mark them up in my Greenwich flat (then the makeshift office) and they would be dispatched onwards for printing."{{cite magazine|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02690055.2014.918315|title=Looking Back to Look Forward: Celebrating Thirty Years of Wasafiri|first=Suzheila|last=Nasta|magazine=Wasafiri|volume=29|date= 2014 |issue=3: Celebrating Thirty Years|doi=10.1080/02690055.2014.918315 |access-date=21 April 2022}}

Nasta started her career in school teaching, before moving into Higher Education in the 1980s. She has held posts in different departments at several universities, including at the University of Cambridge, the University of North London, the University of Portsmouth, the Open University, where she held a chair in Modern Literature[http://www.open.ac.uk/people/smn9 "Professor Susheila Nasta"], OU people profiles, The Open University. and is now Professor Emeritus, and at Queen Mary University of London, where she taught between 1992 and 2000, before rejoining in 2017 as Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literatures.[https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sed/staff/nastas.html "Professor Susheila Nasta, MBE, BA, PGCE (London), MA, DLitt (Kent) | Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literatures | Founding Editor, Wasafiri, the Magazine of International Contemporary Writing"], Queen Mary University of London. Retrieved 30 March 2021.[https://myriadeditions.com/creator/susheila-nasta/ "Susheila Nasta"], Authors, Myriad Editions.

Nasta has initiated and led numerous research projects, and since 2007 has led a major public-engagement project on Asian Britain.[https://www.monash.edu/arts/south-asian-diaspora-network/about/susheila-nasta "Susheila Nasta"], South Asian Diaspora International Researchers Network (SADIRN), Monash University.[http://www.open.ac.uk/arts/research/asianbritain/ "Beyond the Frame: Indian British Connections"], The Open University.[https://www.bl.uk/asians-in-britain/about "About"], Asians in Britain, The British Library. She co-edited (with Mark U. Stein) The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing, published in 2020,[https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-black-and-asian-british-writing/AAA5AF72CD834346C3040A947FD40D7F The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing], Cambridge Core, Cambridge University Press. acknowledged as the first such academic collection to cover some 300 years of Black and Asian British literature.[https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/cambridge-history-black-and-asian-british-writing "Great Writers Inspire at Home: Editors and Contributors, The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing"], TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, University of Oxford.

Nasta is a regular speaker at international conferences, festivals other literary events – notable recent appearances include "An Island Full of Voices: Writing Britain Now" at the British Library,{{cite web|first=Sandra|last= van Lente|url=http://literaryfield.org/wasafiri35/ |title=An Archive Full of Voices: Wasafiri celebrates 35 years and 100 issues|work=Literary Field Kaleidoscope|date= 12 November 2019}} participation in the NGC Bocas Lit Fest in Trinidad,[https://www.bocaslitfest.com/2018/events/one-one-romesh-gunesekera/ "One-On-One with Romesh Gunesekera"], Bocas Lit Fest, 28 April 2018.[https://www.wasafiri.org/susheila-nasta-interviews-david-dabydeen-bocas-lit-fest/ "Susheila Nasta interviews David Dabydeen at Bocas Lit Fest"], Wasafiri, 2 May 2017. symposia and panel discussions at Goldsmiths, University of London[https://www.peepaltreepress.com/blog/events/thoughts-british-black-and-asian-literature-1945-2010 "Thoughts on British Black and Asian Literature (1945–2010)"], via Peepal Tree Press, 24 January 2017.[https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=11190 "Daughter of Africa: Celebrating Margaret Busby's 50 Years in Publishing and Beyond"], Goldsmiths, 1 December 2017.[https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=11005 "On Whose Terms?: 10 Years On"], Goldsmiths, 22–23 March 2018. (where she was interviewed by Blake Morrison in October 2014 on Wasafiri{{'}}s 30th anniversary)[https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=7972 "Celebrating 30 years of Wasafiri"], Goldsmiths, 22 October 2014. and presentations at the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters in Trivandrum, Kerala[https://english.mathrubhumi.com/mbifl2020/speakers/susheila-nastasusheila-nasta-mbifl-2020-festival-of-letters-mathrubhumi-literature-festival-1.4439614 "Susheila Nasta"], MBILF'20, 13 January 2020. – and she has served as a judge for literary prizes including the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the SI Leeds Literary Prize, and the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize.[https://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/2019/hss/winners-of-queen-mary-wasafiri-new-writing-prize-2019-announced.html "Winners of Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2019 announced"], Queen Mary University of London, 9 November 2019. She has also curated and advised on such exhibitions as At the Heart of the Nation: Indians in Britain, and 2018's Windrush: Songs in a Strange Land for the British Library.

She has published widely on post-colonial and contemporary writing, particularly on literature from the Caribbean, the South Asian diaspora and black Britain. She has special expertise in the work of Samuel Selvon (for whom she is literary executor),J. Dillon Brown, [https://brill.com/view/journals/nwig/92/3-4/article-p355_35.xml?language=en Review of Beyond Calypso: Re-reading Sam Selvon, by Malachi McIntosh (ed.)], in New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids, Vol. 92, Issue 3–4, Brill (2018), ISSN: 1382-2373. Jean Rhys, Jamaica Kincaid, as well as on women's writing from Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia.[https://www.soas.ac.uk/english-studies/events/07mar2016-elleke-boehmer-oxford-indian-arrivals-networks-of-british-empire---book-launch-and-panel-d.html "Elleke Boehmer (Oxford), Indian Arrivals: Networks of British Empire - book launch and panel discussion with Susheila Nasta and Shafquat Towheed"], Centre for English Studies, School of Arts, SOAS, 7 march 2016.

Nasta's 2019 publication, the anthology Brave New Words: The Power of Writing Now (Myriad Editions), celebrating 35 years of Wasafiri under her editorship, contains contributions by writers who include Bernardine Evaristo,Bernardine Evaristo, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/19/bernadine-evaristo-what-a-time-to-be-a-black-british-womxn-writer "Bernardine Evaristo: 'These are unprecedented times for black female writers'"], The Guardian, 19 October 2019. Romesh Gunesekera, James Kelman,[https://myriadeditions.com/authors/susheila-nasta/brave-new-words-the-bookseller-previews/ "Brave New Words: The Bookseller Previews"], August 2019. Kei Miller, Blake Morrison,Blake Morrison, [https://newint.org/features/2019/08/14/long-read-call-yourself-english "'Call Yourself English?'"], New Internationalist, 2 October 2019. Caryl Phillips, Olumide Popoola,[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/05/jackie-kay-selects-britains-10-best-bame-writers "Jackie Kay selects Britain's 10 best BAME writers"], The Guardian, 5 October 2019. Bina Shah,Bina Shah and Tabish Khair, [https://archive.indianculturalforum.in/2019/12/03/the-power-of-the-written-word/ "The Power of the Written Word"], Indian Cultural Forum, 3 December 2019. and Mukoma Wa Ngugi, among others. The reviewer for Dawn newspaper noted: "...a common thread in several essays is the discomfort of not fully embracing any one 'home' or place of belonging. By studying immigrants’ experiences, the disillusionment that lies behind many such aspirations is probed.... Brave New Words explores the theme of exclusion at various levels — it articulates not only the consequences of being expelled from countries and territorial affiliations, but from language itself....Personal memoirs ... where writers venture into terra incognita as they delve into the abyss of memory make these essays so rewarding."{{cite news|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1542747|title=Non-Fiction: Reading from the margins|newspaper=Dawn|first=Aneeqa M. |last=Wattoo|date=22 March 2020}}

In 2011, Nasta was appointed an MBE in the New Year Honours for her services to Black and Asian Literature.[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/honours-list/8231975/New-Year-Honours-List-2011-in-full.html "New Year Honours List 2011 in full"], The Telegraph, 31 December 2019.[https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/dec/31/new-year-honours-list-mbe "New Year honours list: MBEs"], The Guardian, 31 December 2010. In 2019, she was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (RSL)[https://rsliterature.org/fellow/susheila-nasta/ "Susheila Nasta"] at The Royal Society of Literature. and was awarded the RSL's Benson Medal for exceptional contribution to literature, presented by Marina Warner.[https://rsliterature.org/2019/06/rsl-elects-45-new-fellows-and-honorary-fellows/ "RSL Elects 45 new Fellows and Honorary Fellows"], The Royal Society of Literature, 25 June 2019.[https://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/2019/hss/queen-mary-academic-receives-prestigious-royal-society-of-literature-award.html "Queen Mary academic receives prestigious Royal Society of Literature Award"], News stories, Queen Mary University of London, 25 June 2019.[https://myriadeditions.com/authors/susheila-nasta/royal-society-of-literature-award-for-susheila-nasta/ "Royal Society of Literature Award for Susheila Nasta"], Myriad Editions. In 2020, she became an Honorary Fellow of The English Association.[https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/english-association/fellowship/list#honorary-fellows "List of Fellows | Honorary Fellow"], The English Association.

• Motherlands: Black Women's Writing from Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia, Rutgers University Press, 1992, {{ISBN|978-0813517810}}
• African, Caribbean and South Asian Fiction in English – A select bibliography, The British Council, 1992, {{ISBN|978-0863551369}}
• Home Truths: Fictions of the South Asian Diaspora in Britain, Palgrave, 2001, {{ISBN|978-0333670057}}
• India in Britain: South Asian Networks and Connections, 1858–1950, Palgrave, 2012, {{ISBN|978-0230392717}}
• Asian Britain: A Photographic History (Introduction by Razia Iqbal),{{cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/inside-yet-an-outsider/article5433273.ece|title=Inside, yet an outsider|first=Hasan|last=Suroor|newspaper=The Hindu|date=7 December 2013}} The Westbourne Press, 2013, {{ISBN|978-1908906113}}

;As editor

• Writing Across Worlds: Contemporary Writers Talk, Routledge, 2004, {{ISBN|978-0415345675}}
• Critical Perspectives on Sam Selvon, Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1988, {{ISBN|0894102389}}
• Reading the 'New' Literatures in a Post-Colonial Era, D.S. Brewer, 2000, {{ISBN|978-0859916011}}
• Brave New Words: The Power of Writing Now, Myriad Editions, 2019, {{ISBN|978-1912408207}}
• With Mark U. Stein, The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British, Cambridge University Press, 2020, {{ISBN|978-1107195448}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/sep/30/top-10-cultural-books "Susheila Nasta's top 10 cultural journeys"], The Guardian, 30 September 2009.
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZtaGsrutUo "Independent Publishng | Susheila Nasta in conversation with Githa Hariharan"], Indian Writers Forum, 10 February 2016.
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLlgh_nyyjc "Susheila Nasta MBE & Mark U. Stein discuss The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing"], Cambridge University Press - Academic, 2 February 2021.

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Category:Living people

Category:1953 births

Category:Academics of Queen Mary University of London

Category:Academics of the Open University

Category:Academics of the University of North London

Category:Academics of the University of Portsmouth

Category:Alumni of the University of Kent

Category:British Asian writers

Category:British women non-fiction writers

Category:English magazine editors

Category:English women magazine editors

Category:English people of Indian descent

Category:English people of Sindhi descent

Category:English women writers

Category:Women anthologists

Category:Members_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire