This is the first time in 21 years that Diriye Osman has left the UK – despite numerous invitations and offers from literary festivals and literary houses abroad, including in Norway.

For several years after he won the prestigious Polari Prize in 2014 with “Fairytales for Los Children” – as the first and last black writer – he has also disappeared from the English literary scene.

There he became a critical favorite after his debut book. It depicts young gay and lesbian Somali in the UK – constantly on the verge of self-disclosure as they navigate family ties, immigrant identities and experiences on their journey to freedom. He wrote it based on his own experience:

– I am trying to survive mental illness and losing my family because I am an arrogant and defiant gay man.

Looking forward to Oslo

This year she is back with the book “The Butterfly Jungle”, where she writes about what it means to be black and queer and British after Brexit in a collection of short stories based on the Anglo-Somali community in south London where everyone is queer.

– My doctor is non-binary and Chinese-American, my dentist is gay and Slovenian, the postman is gay Colombian. Almost everyone in the neighborhood was weird. And there is no shame here, no fear. This is the world I want to show my readers, says Osman – who calls “The Butterfly Jungle” a very political book.

He will launch it Melahuset in Oslo on October 13.

– I’m really looking forward to coming to Oslo and sharing a wild and entertaining story with everyone, says Diriye Osman.

It’s a co-author Ari Gautier, who also works at Melahuset, who orchestrates the trick to get Osman who doesn’t travel here very often. They met on Twitter and a friendship was born. When Gautier launched his latest book in London, Diriye Osman came up with the words “I came for you, I didn’t even go to my own literary event” – before agreeing to the Oslo trip.

– When I asked why he accepted our invitation when the whole world was looking for him, he said: “I love what you do, you are simple and unpretentious”, said Gautier, who will speak with Osman on the Melahuset stage.

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