Iman Verjee Explained

Iman Verjee is a Kenyan author who has written two books and is currently based in Edmonton, Canada.[1] Verjee was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and lived there until she was 18 before moving to Canada and England.[2]

Career

Verjee's first novel, In Between Dreams, addresses themes of child sexual abuse and was published in May 2014 by Oneworld Publications.[3] Speaking to Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation in 2014, Verjee said she focused on the topic of sexual abuse because "it’s a terrible thing to have to happen to anyone and it’s imperative that society deals with it".[4]

Her second novel, Who Will Catch Us As We Fall, was published in 2016. It examines the culture of the Indian-Kenyans who arrived in Kenya during the colonial era,[5] focusing particularly on the tensions between Africans and Indians living in post–British imperialism Kenya. She began writing her second novel while she spent a year back in Kenya after twelve years away, after which time she observed how the city had changed in her absence.[6]

Bibliography

Awards and recognition

Verjee is the winner of the 2012 Peters Fraser & Dunlop/City University Prize for Fiction for her novel In Between Dreams.[7]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: How leaving Nairobi (and coming back) helped Iman Verjee write her new novel. www.cbc.ca. 2017-04-02.
  2. Web site: How leaving Nairobi (and coming back) helped Iman Verjee write her new novel. www.cbc.ca. 2017-04-02.
  3. Web site: Iman Verjee publishes her debut novel – In Between Dreams. 2014-04-18. Ismailimail. 2017-04-02.
  4. News: Child sexual abuse: Inside the worlds of victim, perpetrator. Daily Nation. 2017-04-02. en-UK.
  5. Web site: Out of Africa. The Economist. 2017-04-02.
  6. Web site: How leaving Nairobi (and coming back) helped Iman Verjee write her new novel. www.cbc.ca. 2017-04-02.
  7. News: Iman Verjee - Peters Fraser and Dunlop (PFD). Peters Fraser and Dunlop (PFD). 2017-04-02. en-GB.