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Diriye Osman
Goodreads Author
Born
in Mogadishu, Somalia, Somalia
Website
Twitter
Genre
Influences
Alison Bechdel, Junot Diaz, Edwidge Danticat, Nuruddin Farah, Alice Mu
...more
Member Since
February 2013
Popular Answered Questions
Diriye Osman
I get to do what I love most in the world. Sounds too much like cornball shizz? It's true though. I love writing and that's what compels me to keep going at it.
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Fairytales for Lost Children
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published
2013
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6 editions
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Speak My Language, and Other Stories: An Anthology of Gay Fiction
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published
2015
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5 editions
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The Butterfly Jungle
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published
2022
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2 editions
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Black and Gay in the UK: An Anthology
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published
2014
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2 editions
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Inviting Interruptions: Wonder Tales in the Twenty-First Century (The Donald Haase Series in Fairy-Tale Studies)
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Black Lives: A Nottingham Writers' Studio Anthology
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published
2021
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We Once Belonged to the Sea
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Jungle Jim #20
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published
2013
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SCARF: Breathing Space
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Author's Note
Dear reader,
Five years ago I sat down to write my first short story. It was a 2500 word narrative loosely modelled on my own life. Although I had previously written two unpublished, structurally messy novels, this one piece of short fiction altered my life in ways I couldn’t have imagined. This particular story was about a Somali teenager who had immigrated to the UK and although discouraged by th Read more of this blog post »
Five years ago I sat down to write my first short story. It was a 2500 word narrative loosely modelled on my own life. Although I had previously written two unpublished, structurally messy novels, this one piece of short fiction altered my life in ways I couldn’t have imagined. This particular story was about a Somali teenager who had immigrated to the UK and although discouraged by th Read more of this blog post »
Diriye’s Recent Updates
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Diriye Osman
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“Happiness is day drinking in the middle of Oxford Street whilst dancing to Megan Thee Stallion on a busy weekend after having mixed up all your meds because surprises are fun, and sometimes it's important to be reminded of why you first moved to this weirdly wonderful, obscenely overpriced city. That is happiness and you don't need a therapist or a witchy, wasted transwoman to tell you that shit. Invest in a bombass vibrator, be nice to sweet old ladies on the tube because if you're really lucky, you too will one day grow old and you'll want someone to treat you with a modicum of kindness and care. And stop making yourself go grey with needless stress! Now get the fuck out of my house. You're starting to harsh my buzz.”
...more Diriye Osman |
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Diriye Osman
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“Happiness is not spending a single second reading endless—and I mean, endless—shitposts in 'The Guardian' masquerading as reportage about the kind of very, very boring morons you actively go out of your way to never meet. Happiness is The Wellcome Collection, but never the Hayward. Happiness is Kylie Minogue and Graham Norton because they're both dope, but not Dua Lipa or Calvin Harris because even though they both seem to be everywhere, all the time, I swear I cannot for the life of me name a single song of theirs.”
...more Diriye Osman |
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Diriye Osman
shared
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“Happiness is not lame sex with diseased dickheads from the internet with no social or sexual charisma, whose entire personality is PureGym, and then finding yourself constantly dashing off to 56 Dean Street to make sure you haven't contracted chlamydia or worse. Happiness is not the School of Oriental and African Studies, or the Royal African Society, or any Africanists and Orientalists who schlep to cities like Kolkata and Kampala, and find endlessly inventive ways to weaponise their whiteness by explaining decolonisation to folks their own ancestors are still fucking over from beyond the grave.”
...more Diriye Osman |
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"QUEER SOMALISSS this made my heart burst n so much luv and it’s one of a kind i loved the story abt the mother who knew her daughter was a lesbian n snuck out to see her gf on the beach at night "
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"birthday review here we go yo!!! this book heartwrenches and heart heals and provides such a close lens at being black and african and queer across diaspora space and experience. the short stories are varied and perfect in small bursts, an array of d"
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"Luscious, vibrant, textured, grounded, illuminating, whimsical, profound, intriguing…. Just magnificent.
I adored this book." |
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“The God of Imagination lived in fairytales. And the best fairytales made you fall in love. It was while flicking through "Sleeping Beauty" that I met my first love, Ivar. He was a six-year-old bello ragazzo with blond hair and eyebrows. He had bomb-blue eyes and his two front teeth were missing.
The road to Happily Ever After, however, was paved with political barbed wire. Three things stood in my way.
1. The object of my affection didn't know he was the object of my affection.
2. The object of my affection preferred Action Man to Princess Aurora.
3. The object of my affection was a boy and I wasn't allowed to love a boy.”
― Fairytales for Lost Children
The road to Happily Ever After, however, was paved with political barbed wire. Three things stood in my way.
1. The object of my affection didn't know he was the object of my affection.
2. The object of my affection preferred Action Man to Princess Aurora.
3. The object of my affection was a boy and I wasn't allowed to love a boy.”
― Fairytales for Lost Children
“Daughter, I want you to form the most intense, loving relationship with yourself. Only then will you realize your capacity for kindness and emotional expansiveness. Daughter, after you have formed this relationship with yourself, I want you to love others with the openness and humility that you always embodied as a child. Daughter, I want you to forgive easily, laugh loudly and never allow yourself to become the invisible, silent woman that your mother was. Daughter, this is how we soften our hearts and become better human beings.”
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“Manic depression — or bipolar disorder — is like racing up to a clifftop before diving headfirst into a cavity. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is the psychic equivalent of an extreme sport. The manic highs — that exhilarating rush to the top of the cliff — make you feel bionic in your hyper-energized capacity for generosity, sexiness and soulfulness. You feel like you have ingested stars and are now glowing from within. It’s unearned confidence-in-extremis — with an emphasis on the con, because you feel cheated once you inevitably crash into that cavity. I sometimes joke that mania is the worst kind of pyramid scheme, one that the bipolar individual doesn’t even know they’re building, only to find out, too late, that they’re also its biggest casualty.”
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Topics Mentioning This Author
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Around the World ...: 50 Books by African Men That Everyone Should Read | 2 | 115 | Jan 18, 2018 03:40AM | |
| Around the World ...: Somalia | 15 | 447 | Apr 29, 2018 01:58AM | |
| Around the World ...: Tsipi all-time circumnavigation | 2 | 17 | Aug 30, 2021 03:11PM | |
| WACKY READING CHA...: POI SPELL CHALLENGE #3 | 161 | 57 | Sep 10, 2021 08:46PM | |
| On The Same Page : Ethiopia/Somalia | 7 | 8 | Dec 05, 2021 10:26PM | |
| WACKY READING CHA...: POI SPELL CHALLENGE #2 | 151 | 73 | Jun 19, 2022 07:08PM | |
| Read the World.: * Progress | 35 | 109 | Aug 14, 2022 05:20PM | |
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The Seasonal Read...:
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3131 | 302 | Sep 01, 2022 06:00AM | |
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Reading with Style:
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1071 | 71 | Sep 01, 2022 06:02AM | |
| WACKY READING CHA...: A-TEAM CHARACTER SPELL CHALLENGE | 86 | 59 | Nov 17, 2022 03:23AM |
“The God of Imagination lived in fairytales. And the best fairytales made you fall in love. It was while flicking through "Sleeping Beauty" that I met my first love, Ivar. He was a six-year-old bello ragazzo with blond hair and eyebrows. He had bomb-blue eyes and his two front teeth were missing.
The road to Happily Ever After, however, was paved with political barbed wire. Three things stood in my way.
1. The object of my affection didn't know he was the object of my affection.
2. The object of my affection preferred Action Man to Princess Aurora.
3. The object of my affection was a boy and I wasn't allowed to love a boy.”
― Fairytales for Lost Children
The road to Happily Ever After, however, was paved with political barbed wire. Three things stood in my way.
1. The object of my affection didn't know he was the object of my affection.
2. The object of my affection preferred Action Man to Princess Aurora.
3. The object of my affection was a boy and I wasn't allowed to love a boy.”
― Fairytales for Lost Children
“I've always loved being gay. Sure, Kenya was not exactly Queer Nation but my sexuality gave me joy. I was young, not so dumb and full of cum! There was no place for me in heaven but I was content munching devil's pie here on earth.”
― Fairytales for Lost Children
― Fairytales for Lost Children
“In those sticky summer nights in South London our windows stay open and our tiny apartment becomes our secret garden. The magic of the secret garden is that it exists in our imagination. There are no limits, no borderlines. The secret garden leads to the marigolds of Mogadishu and the magnolias of Kingston and when the heat turns us sticky and sweet and unwilling to be claimed by defeat we own the night. We own our bodies. We own our lives.”
― Fairytales for Lost Children
― Fairytales for Lost Children
“i have been told many times by family, friends, colleagues and strangers that I, a black African Muslim lesbian, am not included in this vision; that my dreams are a reflection of my upbringing in a decadent, amoral Western society that has corrupted who I really am. But who am I, really? Am I allowed to speak for myself or must my desires form the battleground for causes I do not care about? My answer to that is simple: ‘no one allows anyone anything.’ By rejecting that notion you discover that only you can give yourself permission on how to lead your life, naysayers be damned. In the end something gives way. The earth doesn’t move but something shifts. That shift is change and change is the layman’s lingo for that elusive state that lovers, dreamers, prophets and politicians call ‘freedom’.”
― Fairytales for Lost Children
― Fairytales for Lost Children