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Oludiran "Diran" Adebayo FRSL (born 30 August 1968) is a British novelist, cultural critic and academic best known for his 1996 novel Some Kind of Black.
Adebayo's debut novel, Some Kind of Black (1997), centred on the youthful adventures of its protagonist, Dele, was one of the first to articulate a British-born African perspective, and won several awards.(below) His follow-up book, the fable My Once Upon A Time, was set in a near-future London-like western city and fused noir with Yoruba people folklore. The novel made use of the song "Heaven and Hell" by Chef Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan. In 2009, Adebayo donated the short story "Calculus" to Oxfam's "Ox-Tales" project. Ox-Tales , Oxfam.
Adebayo was a columnist for the now defunct New Nation newspaper, and has written on race, arts and sports for newspapers such as The Guardian, The Independent and New Statesman magazine.
In 2004 Adebayo co-edited New Writing 12, the British Council's annual anthology of British and Commonwealth literature, with Blake Morrison and Jane Rogers. In 2005, Adebayo was the first guest director of the Cheltenham Literature Festival. "Cheltenham Literature Festival, 30 November—17 October 2005"
In 2006, Adebayo was the International Writing Fellow at Southampton University, "Research project: International Writing Project – Dormant". , University of Southampton. before a residency at Georgetown University. "Georgetown Hosts British Author Diran Adebayo" , Georgetown University press release, 2 March 2006. In 2012-13, Adebayo was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow. Adebayo is BA Creative Writing Course Leader at the University of Kingston, London.
Adebayo is a former trustee of The Book Trust and the Arts Council of England. He stepped down from the Arts Council in 2010 following controversy over the acceptance of a grant.
In 2022, Adebayo adapted and serialised Some Kind of Black for BBC Radio 4. The novel is now a Virago Press.
Some Kind of Black (1997) won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain's New Writer of the Year Award, the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award, the 1996 Saga Prize, and a Betty Trask Award.Kieran Meeke, "Guilty Pleasures – Diran Adebayo" , Metro, 27 October 2009. It was also longlisted for the Booker Prize.
In 2000, Vienna University awarded Adebayo the $60,000 Abraham Woursell stipend, a prize for young noteworthy European writers.
In 2001 the writer Zadie Smith, praised him for his "humanness",Smith, Zadie. "This is how it feels to me" , The Guardian, London, 13 October 2001. arguing that he is one of a few English writers who "trade in both knowledge and feeling".Childs, Peter, and James Green (2013), Aesthetics and Ethics in Twenty-First Century British Novels: Zadie Smith, Hari Kunzru and Nadeem Aslam, Bloomsbury Publishing, , 9781623564698. In 2002 The Times Literary Supplement named him as one of the Best Young British Novelists. "MPs and misdemeanours" The Guardian, London, Saturday, 27 July 2002.
In 2017, he was one of 20 people to have their portraits taken by Oxford University for permanent display, as part of its "Diversifying Portraiture" initiative, in recognition of his "achievements and contributions to the University and to the literary world". "More than 20 new portraits commissioned to reflect Oxford University's diversity", News & Events, University of Oxford, 30 March 2017.Kennedy, Maev, "Portrait exhibition at Oxford showcases university's diversity", The Guardian, 24 November 2017.
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