Image courtesy BBC

Throughout 2020, as part of our bicentenary celebrations, we have curated a special series of conversations: On The Same Page brings together RSL Fellows who would not normally share a stage, to discuss the role of the writer in uncertain political times. Elected by their writer peers, each new RSL Fellow signs the Society’s historic Roll Book, bearing signatures from 1825 to 2019. On The Same Page brings together writers who signed the same page of the book, to reflect on their own experiences and explore literature in Britain today.

These writers were all due to share a stage at various UK literature festivals, so we collaborated with BBC Radio 3’s ‘Free Thinking’ to adapt them for broadcast, and these episodes are also available on the BBC Arts and Ideas podcast.

This edition, originally planned for Bare Lit Festival, brings together Nadifa and Irenosen, both elected as Fellows in 2018. Nadifa Mohamed is a Somali-British writer whose work includes novels, short stories, essays, memoirs and articles. Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian-British writer, and her latest book Nudibranch has been shortlisted for the 2020 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing.

Bare Lit is an annual, London-based literature festival celebrating the work of writers of colour.