This event took place on 9 December 2023. The information below is correct as of the publication date.
Rebecca F. Kuang’s Babel: An Arcane History, was one of the most acclaimed novels of 2022, of any genre. It was described as ‘A masterpiece that resonates with power and knowledge… a stark picture of the cruelty of empire, a distillation of dark academia, and a riveting blend of fantasy and historical fiction – a monumental achievement’ (Samantha Shannon). A Sunday Times bestseller, it was named Fiction Book of the Year at the British Book Awards, a Blackwell’s Fiction Book of the Year and a Waterstones Book of the year finalist, among many awards.
In 2023, it was followed by literary sensation Yellowface, an internationally bestselling thriller set in the world of publishing that tells the tale of two young novelists in Washington DC.
Watch Rebecca F. Kuang in this rare U.K appearance as she talks to fellow writer Saara El-Arifi.
Rebecca F. Kuang is the #1 New York Times and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy, Babel: An Arcane History, and Yellowface. Her work has won the Nebula, Locus, Crawford, and British Book Awards. A Marshall Scholar, she has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford. She is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale, where she studies diaspora, contemporary Sinophone literature, and Asian American literature.
Saara El-Arifi is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Final Strife and The Battle Drum – the first two parts of The Ending Fire, a game-changing trilogy set in an African and Arabian-inspired world. Her next book, Faebound, appears in 2024. Her work is inspired by her Ghanaian and Sudanese heritage and having been raised in the Middle East until her formative years, when her family swapped the Abu Dhabi desert for the English Peak District hills.
Supported by the U.S. Embassy, London and the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library.
