Karunatilaka and Gurnah to lead inaugural Silk Road Slippers writing masterclasses 

Abdulrazak Gurnah, the Nobel Prize in Literature Laureate 2021, and Shehan Karunatilaka, winner of the Booker Prize  in 2022, will headline the inaugural Silk Road Slippers writing masterclasses in Marrakesh in November 2023.

Bloomsbury’s Alexandra Pringle, who was named Editor of the Year at the 2022 British Book Awards, author and journalist Nesrine Malik, historian and broadcaster Alex von Tunzelmann and freelance editor Faiza Khan launched the Silk Road Slippers Book Club in October 2021.

Coinciding with the launch of their business Silk Road Slippers – “an online purveyor of distinctive textiles, jewellery and homewares from all over the world” – they say the book club was  “inspired by the great trade routes that shaped the modern world".

The first two Silk Road writing masterclasses will take place in November 2023 over six days each at Jnane Tamsna, a boutique hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco. According to the organisers the classes will “cover the whole of the writing process, from the principles of storytelling and structure to how to place your finished work with an agent and publisher”. Spaces are limited to 18 participants.

The Shehan Karunatilaka masterclass will take place between 12th and 17th November. Karunatilaka won the 2022 Booker Prize for The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Sort of Books). His first novel, Chinaman (Vintage), won the 2011 Commonwealth Book Prize.

Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 for Paradise (Bloomsbury) and is the author of 10 novels. He was born in Zanzibar and is formerly a professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent. His masterclass will take place between 19th and 24th November 2023. Prospective participants to the masterclasses can apply here.