Real talkers (clockwise from top left) Munroe Bergdorf, Paapa Essiedu, Mel B, Brit Bennett, Jackie Kay, Nicola Adams, Lennie James and Lolly Adefope. Photographs: Yves Salmon; Emmanuel Robert Owusu-Afram; Sean Pressley; Jamal Yussuff-Adelakun; Chantel King; Anthony Francis; Pedro Oliveira. Illustrations: Nasreen Ahmed. All for the Guardian
Conversations this year have, by necessity, become more intentional than ever. The silence and stillness of the pandemic â which emptied streets, rolled cars into garages, quelled the chatter of local supermarkets â was both soothing and terrifying. No longer would you sit for hours making small talk with your favourite hair braider. No longer would you bump into a friend at the shops. Control over conversations reigned, at a time when the virus was taking over the rest of our lives.
âFrom childhood, I had been surrounded by the gorgeous adornments of Islam.â Illustration: Ngadi Smart/Studio Pi/The Guardian
As a writer, my main concern is inviting the reader into a world that they might not otherwise know. And if itâs a world they do know, I want it to feel familiar to them. If thereâs one thing I strive towards when it comes to writing, itâs legitimacy. And as a reader, Iâm looking for exactly the same thing.
When it came to judging this competition, for young black writers aged between 16 and 21 on the theme of conversations, I spent a lot of time either being wowed by their penmanship, or astonished that I could so easily connect with what they were saying. Itâs been a long time since I was that age, but the skill of a good writer is drawing anyone in, whatever the gaps in age, culture or knowledge.