Faber bags collection of Younge's 'vital' journalism

Faber has snapped up Dispatches from the Diaspora: From Nelson Mandela to Black Lives Matter by Gary Younge. 

Laura Hassan, associate publisher, bought world English-language rights from Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown. Publication is slated for 16th March 2023. 

"Dispatches from the Diaspora is a powerful, career-spanning collection of Gary’s journalism on race, racism and Black life and death from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and the United States," the synopsis reads. 

"For the last three decades, Gary Younge has had a ringside seat during the biggest events and with the most significant personalities to impact the Black diaspora: accompanying Nelson Mandela on his first election campaign, joining revellers on the southside of Chicago during Obama’s victory, or entering New Orleans days after Hurricane Katrina. We see him get drunk with Maya Angelou in her limousine, discuss politics with Stormzy on his couch and witness Archbishop Desmond Tutu almost fall asleep mid-interview. He has seen how much change is possible and the power of systems to thwart those aspirations.

"In a rich mix of reportage, memoir and polemic, among other thought-provoking pieces, Gary asks readers to contemplate what a White History Month might look like and argues that all statues of historical figures, from Rosa Parks to Cecil Rhodes, should be taken down.

Dispatches from the Diaspora is an unrivalled body of work from a unique perspective that takes you to the frontlines and compels you to engage and to ’imagine a world in which you might thrive, for which there is no evidence. And then fight for it.’"

Younge is an award-winning author, broadcaster and a professor of sociology at the University of Manchester. Formerly a columnist and an editor-at-large at the Guardian, he is an editorial board member of Nation magazine. He is the author of five books, including Another Day in the Death of America (Guardian Faber), which was shortlisted for both the Orwell and the Jhalak Prize. His writing has appeared in Granta, the New York Times, Financial Times and the New Statesman, and he has made several radio and television documentaries on subjects ranging from gay marriage to Brexit.

"The curiosity that brought me into journalism has since taken me around the world," he said. "It’s been a wild ride. Throughout, my aim has been to show the readers the things I have seen, as though they were with me, and to ponder the questions I pose, even when they don’t agree with my conclusions. This particular anthology is important to me because it focuses on people, places and issues that have in the past been poorly covered or not covered at all."

Hassan said: "I read everything Younge writes because he is utterly wise and always brings a fresh perspective. It is a privilege to publish this collection of his inspiring, sometimes joyful, sometimes devastating reporting on the Black diaspora. This is a stirring, vital book."