Losing the Plot

LONGLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2023

LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2023

SHORTLISTED FOR PEOPLE'S BOOK PRIZE - FICTION 2023

'A highly enigmatic, affectionate and robustly written portrayal of a mother-son relationship . . . very relatable' Diana Evans

Driven by a deep-seated desire to understand his mother’s life before he was born, Derek Owusu offers a powerful imagining of her journey. As she moves from Ghana to the UK and navigates parenthood in a strange and often lonely environment, the effects of displacement are felt across generations. Told through the eyes of both mother and son, Losing the Plot is at once emotionally raw and playful as Owusu experiments with form to piece together the immigrant experience and explore how the stories we share and tell ourselves are just as vital as the ones we don’t.

Derek Owusu is a writer, poet and podcaster from North London. In 2016, he joined the multi-award winning literature podcast Mostly Lit. He also produced the well-received This Is Spoke podcast for Penguin Random House and Freemantle Media. He has written for the Big Issue, i and more. His essay on Black men and insecurities was the second-most read article on Media Diversified in 2018, and his essay on language was picked up by BBC Newsnight to be turned into a short documentary. He contributed to What Is Race by Nikesh Shukla and Claire Heuchan and has had poems published by the Good Journal. Derek also collated, edited and contributed to Safe: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space. He is the author of That Reminds Me, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize.

@DerekVsOwusu