Kadija George

Fulbright All Disciplines Scholar Award - Howard University

Dr. Kadija George Sesay, MBE, FRSA, Hon. FRSL, graduated from Brighton University (2022). Her thesis, ‘Black British Publishers and Pan-Africanism 1960-1980’, will be published by Africa World Press. She is an independent scholar working in literary project management and creative professional development.

She received an ECR Fellowship: ‘Inclusion, Participation and Engagement’ from the School of Advanced Study, to develop her methodology, PCMI (Public Collective Memory Interviews) for ongoing research on Black magazine publishing in the 90s. Whilst in the US, Kadija will continue this approach as she seeks to unlock hidden narratives of Black magazine and book publishers during critical historical periods.

Kadija will be resident at Howard University, Washington DC, to share experience and knowledge of Black British Literature. She founded and published a literary magazine SABLE, (2001-2015); edited the book, Write Black, Write British. As Publications Manager for Inscribe/Peepal Tree Press, she commissions Black British literature anthologies.

Kadija has published creative work including a poetry collection, Irki (2013). She recently launched the ‘International Black Speculative Writing Festival’ and AfriPoeTree, a selective interactive video.

In 2026, Dialogue Books publish Black Radical: The Political Poetry of Black Britain, which Kadija edited with the late Professor Benjamin Zephaniah.