DB:Is that because publishers are very reluctant when it comes to short story collections?

CN: Just to clear up something about the whole short story thing, it’s not that publishers don’t publish short stories. It’s that they only publish short stories by people they believe will sell. If they’re not into you or they don’t believe you have a market then they won’t publish you. Unfortunately, all black writers fall into that category. I know very few black writers who’ve had a book of short stories published.

DB:The only ones I can think of at the moment are American.

CN: Exactly. On the British side – Caryl Phillips has had a book of 3 novellas – not really short stories - published. I’ve published a book of short stories that were interlinked if you count Society Within. But I wouldn’t really count that as a book of short stories. So nobody. NOBODY in this country has a collection of short stories worth publishing? Some publishers have actually said to people that there aren’t any black writers that are any good.

DB:So what are you going to do?

CN: Publish it myself, probably. I’ve got about 12 short stories, 3 of which are only half written so I’m just going to tie those up. Sometime next year, I’ll look at trying to publish it through my own Tell Tales publishing company.

DB:And the novel?

CN: The novel I am still working on but it’s the same thing. It’s about astral projection, parallel worlds so no one’s interested.

DB:Can you tell us about the story of the novel? Who is the main character?

CN: He is called Marcus Deny. He lives in a city, Landin, which is a parallel city to London. Basically, he has spontaneous outer body experiences and this leads him to find that he can actually travel to parallel times in his own existence. He can travel to parallel versions of himself where he finds that physically he’s the same but his personality is different. It’s called A River Called Time. It explores the notion that instead of travelling forwards or backwards through time you can travel sideways and have these different versions of yourself through the rivers of time

DB:Sounds like a book I’d want to read.

CN: I’ve done readings of it and people like it so I know that it’s not that people don’t like it. When I’ve gone to publishers with it, it’s mainly the marketing departments saying but he does urban fiction so how are we going to market him doing something else? That’s what my problem is now. With The Scholar and Society Within I created a market for myself that I can’t escape from. Other writers seem to be allowed to do that. My favourite author in this country is a guy called Rupert Thompson. Every one of his books is different. Every time he writes a book it’s set in a different place, Mexico, Amsterdam, London. He’s written books set in a fictional place that he’s made up. That’s the kind of writer that I’ve always wanted to be. Paul Auster, same thing. Every one of his books is a different thing. I did 2 books set in the same area but stylistically, I tried to change them. Society Within was nothing like The Scholar in structure and I had thought that people would see that.

DB:Whose writing makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up?

CN: Loads, loads. Like I said, Paul Auster, Rupert Thompson, Iain Banks. When it comes to black writers there’s Coulson Whitehead who’s an amazing, African-American writer. About the only African-American writer that I would back right now because all the rest are on some money thing. I bet some people felt I was just trying to cash in when I came out with The Scholar. I’m not saying that is impossible for black writers to be included in the mainstream but the things you have to do to get there I can’t reconcile with myself. When I wrote The Scholar, I was always sure of where I wanted to go. I haven’t suddenly decided to try different things. I was going to write a ghetto fiction book yes, but I was going to try and make it sophisticated.

DB:So what are you reading at the moment?

CN: Nothing at the moment. The last book I read was Alex Garland’s Coma, an amazing writer. He doesn’t get any props from publishers but he’s just doing his own thing. Other writers I like are Chester Himes, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Paule Marshall (check), Rosa Guy. I’m not really a Toni Morrison fan or a Terri McMillan. I hate clichéd blackness which is what she does. I’m pro-black but that does not mean that I am anti anything else. I just want to live and write stories. I don’t care whether they are stories about black people or not.

If you’re black write stories only about white people, I’d think there’s something wrong. A lot of writers don’t write about what’s going on now. I’m not saying that you should never write about past but there should be a healthy balance. That’s what I’m trying to find within myself, personally and artistically. I read a lot of white authors, I read a lot of black authors, I want to get into Arabic and African fiction. There’s so much out there. I would really encourage black people to get out and see the world a bit more. Some black people have a really blinkered view of what it means to be black - you should only go on African or Caribbean holidays. If you take the example of books and expand it to your life, there is a whole world out there. We shouldn’t be so insecure about blackness that you think going to see the world in all its diversity is going to make you less black.

DB:2 very successful short story collections - Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z Z Packer and Interesting Women by Andrea Lee - certainly fly in the face of this idea that black writers can’t write or don’t sell to a universal readership.

CN: Can you imagine telling Steven Spielberg to stick to Jewish films? Or Martin Scorsese to only make films about gangsters? Does the publishing industry in this country really want black writers?

DB:Or is it to do with the fact that it wants black writers cast in a certain mould? Your Zadie Smiths or right now, Luke Sutherland who is being championed as the next big thing?

CN: Luke’s been around for ages. He was around when I did Scholar. NOW they want him to be the next big thing. Because they haven’t got anybody else. No disrespect to Luke he’s a fine writer just writing what he wants to write. He was brought up in Scotland but it just so happens that he fits into the niche that they are looking for. It gets to the point where it is not about your writing but more about your sensibilities and where you draw the line. It’s almost like choosing affiliations. Being affiliated with black culture penalises you. I have seen black writers run in fear from calling themselves black.

When black people in the industry try to raise a voice about it they are put aside and not allowed to be part of the mechanics that make these decisions. I don’t know what the next stage is going to be. I’m doing a thing in October which is about where black writing is and where it is going to go but I have no idea because things are bad right now. Unless you’re doing the Windrush fiction or the ghetto fiction or the I’m-a-black-writer-but-I’m-not-going-to-talk-about-my-colour fiction, those are the 3 choices you’ve got.

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