Noo Saro-Wiwa
Travel writer and author
NEWS & EVENTS
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2024
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SEPTEMBER 8
Berlin Literature Festival
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Interview with The Republic literary magazine
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Noo has contributed to Go Girl 2 - The Black Woman's Book of Travel and Adventure anthology
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APRIL
Interview in The Africa Report magazine
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APRIL 5
Sherbourne Travel Writing Festival at 17.00 GMT
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MARCH 14
Royal Society for Asian Affairs at 17.00 GMT
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2023​
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Appearance on BBC Radio 4 Start the Week: China - It's Economy and Poetry
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LIVE TALK on 23rd November at Stanfords Bookshop, Covent Garden, London: Noo will speak about her latest book, Black Ghosts: A Journey Into the Lives of Africans in China, 7pm-8.30pm.
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BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking: writers Teju Cole and Noo Saro-Wiwa and Tate curator Osei Bonsu talk to Laurence Scott.
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Noo's second non-fiction travel narrative, Black Ghosts: A Journey Into The Lives of Africans in China, will be released on November 2nd.
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Noo will participate in a panel discussion: Female Travel Writers, alongside Sara Wheeler, Gráinne Lyons and Taran Khan at the Frontline Club in London on July 24th at 7pm
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Noo chairs a talk "Surviving The Climate Emergency" with science journalist Gaia Vince at the Festival of the Garden in Lewes, Sussex on Sunday July 16th
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Noo features in Super Eagles '96, a new documentary about the Nigerian football team's success at the 1996 Olympics
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Pathfinder Prize winners Lola Akinmade Åkerström, Noo Saro-Wiwa and Erik Jaråker to go on an expedition to Greenland, following in the footsteps of Tété-Michel Kpomassie, author of An African In Greenland (April-May)
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2022
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The Economist names Looking For Transwonderland among its 'six essential travel books'
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Noo joins the editorial advisory board of the publishers Head of Zeus (HOZ), to work on its African Writers Series
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Noo presents BBC World Service radio documentary, Silence Would Be Treason, about the last writings of her father, Ken Saro-Wiwa
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2021
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Noo's next travel book, Black Ghost, which explores the African community in China, will be published by Canongate in 2023
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OCTOBER 28
Noo will present a talk at Merton Library (Wimbledon) about her travels in the Niger Delta.
6-7pm. Click here for free tickets
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Noo Saro-Wiwa presents The First Britons – a TV documentary about the Cheddar Man human fossil (on Dan Snow’s History Hit channel)
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JUNE 17-20
Literary Festival: Atlantide (Nantes, France)
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Travel Writing World: author profile interview
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Guest speaker at the Nomadic Network virtual book club (January 6th)
2020
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Noo presents BBC Radio 4 programme Every Little Touch, in which she gives her personal perspective on poetry’s relationship with touch, as part of Radio 4's Touch Test week.
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Speaking to students at Roedean School for Black History month (October 16)
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Noo Saro-Wiwa has been selected for the prestigious Civitella Ranieri Writing Fellowship in Italy in 2021.
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Oprah magazine lists Looking For Transwonderland among its top travel books
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National Geographic names Looking For Transwonderland among its notable 'road trips' travel books
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Looking For Transwonderland is named in The Guardian's 10 of the best road trips to take … by audiobook
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2019
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NOVEMBER 29
In conversation with Juliane Okot Bitek (University of British Columbia, Vancouver)
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JUNE 15
Discussing Looking for Transwonderland at Arcadia Bookstore (Rovereto, Italy)
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JUNE 14
QuiVirgola bookstore with A. Igoni Barrett (Schio, Italy)
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JUNE 13
Discussing Looking for Transwonderland at Università Ca' Foscari (Venice, Italy)
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JUNE 12
CreativAfrica Festival: discussing Travel in Africa (Turin, Italy)
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JUNE 6-7
Discussing Looking For Transwonderland (Macomer, Sardinia)
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MARCH-APRIL
Arts & Literary Arts Residency (Rockefeller Center, Bellagio, Italy)
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JANUARY 26
Mboka Festival (Banjul, The Gambia)
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2018
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DECEMBER
Noo Saro-Wiwa named by Condé Nast Traveler Magazine as one of the "The World's 30 Most Influential Female Travellers"
OCTOBER 27 -
Aké Arts & Book Festival (Lagos, Nigeria)
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MAY 26
BareLit Festival: Who Gets to Be Tastemaker? In conversation with Bridget Minamore about cultural criticism.
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MAY
Noo Saro-Wiwa was granted a 2017 AIR Bellagio residency, to be undertaken in 2019.
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MARCH 5
Brixton BookJam (London, UK) ​
2017
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NOVEMBER 25
La Città del Libro Festival (Campi Salentina, Puglia, Italy)
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OCTOBER 19
Cambridge Festival of Ideas Refugees: Truth and Innocent Lies (Cambridge University, UK)
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OCTOBER 1
Storymoja Festival (Nairobi, Kenya)
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JUNE 28
Discussing Looking For Transwonderland at Fuori Luogo Culture and Arts Residence (Asti, Italy)
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JUNE 26
Discussion with Samia Nkrumah on life as daughters of political icons (The Conversation, BBC World Service)
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JUNE 24
Speech at Roedean School, Brighton
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MAY 15
Speaker at Le Gymnase Jean Sturm (Strasbourg, France)
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APRIL 6
Guest lecturer at the Université de Lausanne, Switzerland: the complexities of writing about Africa.
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To celebrate International Women's Day, the New York Public Library has selected Looking For Transwonderland as one of 365 notable books written by female authors.
2016
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Literary Festival of Sardinia (Gavoi, Italy - July 2)
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Looking For Transwonderland (Italian version) has been awarded Italy's Albatros Travel Literature Prize. in Palestrina, Rome (June 25)
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Reading at the launch of A Place of Refuge - an anthology on asylum seekers (London National Theatre, June 10)
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Stoke Newington Literary Festival (London - June 5)
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Podcast interview on Saturday Mornings with Joy Keys Online Radio (recorded May 7)
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Guest speaker at Washington College - Nigeria: When Worlds Collide (Maryland, USA - April 26)
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Ananti de sa Ziminera - Fèstival Literàriu Difùndiu (Sardinia, Italy - March 12-13)
2015
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Noo Saro-Wiwa has been awarded a Miles Morland Foundation Writing Scholarship for non-fiction
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Live, online discussion with Nigeria scholar Darren Kew of UMass Boston (organised by Primary Source, December 2)
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Primary Source, a nonprofit organization that works to advance global education in primary and secondary schools, has selected Looking for Transwonderland as its annual Global Read title for teachers throughout the United States.
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Verden i Bergen, Norway (literature festival, November 28)
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Maynooth University, Ireland (November 10)
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Ottobre Africano (literature festival): Parma, Turin and Rome in Italy (October 24-29)
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Saro-Wiwa is the focus of Studies in Travel Writing Volume 19, Issue 3, 2015
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Festivaletteratura, Mantova, Italy (September 9-13)
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​Release of Italian translation of Looking For Transwonderland (66thand2nd, 2015)
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Africa Writes literature festival, London (July 4)
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Speaker at the University of Central Lancashire (March 16-17)
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Uganda International Writers Conference 2015, Kampala (March 1-6)