This year Platform have been working closely with WRAP – the Writing, Reading and Pleasure initiative here at Trent. Author Derek Owusu sat down with WRAP in this live stream.
After attending the Writing Reading and Pleasure (WRAP) YouTube live stream event of In Conversation with Derek Owusu – chaired by Becky Cullen – I found it very interesting and if I am completely honest, before today I hadn’t heard of him. However, now I am going to purchase the novel that he was talking about.
At the beginning of the live stream, Becky Cullen mentioned that she had first heard of Derek Owusu when he was reading his work at the Nottingham UNESCO Literature My Voice Competition Celebration.
When Derek came onto the live stream, he said that his writing has both incorrectly been labelled as a memoir, because That Reminds me is from the fragmented memory of a boy whom some readers have taken to believe is based upon his own life. However, this is not the case. His writing has also been labelled as a poetry collection. He then began to read from his new book That Reminds me, which is about a boy in foster care who gets fostered by an upper middle class foster family.
This novel is really interesting, as it highlights the themes of mental health and suicide, both important topics that are rather glossed over in society and not given the attention that they deserve. This is because many people suffer in silence through these problems, and others can’t get the help that they so desperately need.
The novel also has a significant focus upon culture and the effects of foster care on the mental health of young people (as mentioned above!), he writes about all of the things that we experience in life as well as his personal influences as he grew up, such as the fact that immigrant families are more frugal with money compared to the upper middle class because they need to be more careful with it.
The exploration of gender is another important theme in his writing, and he mentions in the video that “gender norms in the west are not the same.” He provides examples with this from his time in Ghana where he saw men holding hands as they crossed the road and the fact that in Ghana, gender terms are not used. He goes on to say that this was a long time ago though and it may have changed by now.
Owusu ended his section of the live stream by saying that he writes because he wants to speak for the people who are scared to speak and that when he started writing, he wanted to write about himself and give his own voice to the world.
The stream was a joy to watch and I found the topics discussed very moving and engaging and would recommend for people to read his book.
More information on what WRAP is and what they do can be found here.
By Ellie Moylan
Feature image: Penguin Books