Derek Owusu, a London based writer, first became known as an up and coming podcaster, co-founding the award-winning literature podcast Mostly Lit, and producing the This Is Spoke podcast for Penguin Random House and Fremantle Media.

Demonstrating a keen interest in race issues, particularly black masculinity, and a passion for literature, Owusu has also written for publications including The Big Issue, The i and The Voice, and has contributed to Nikesh Shukla and Claire Hutchens’s children’s book What Is Race. He's fast becoming an authority on the black British male experience, having edited, collated and contributed to the 2019 anthology SAFE: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space, and has signed a two-book deal with Stormzy’s Penguin Random House imprint #Merky Books, with plans to release a novel-in-verse called That Reminds Me in November, and a non-fiction work titled Teaching My Brother to Read in 2021. With so many irons in the fire, it’s no wonder Penguin Random House editorial director Tom Avery described Owusu as ‘One of the most talented, dedicated and courageous young writers of today’.