list.co.uk/festival Nikesh Shukla | FESTIVAL BOOKS
FIGHT
Nikesh Shukla has experienced an extraordinary year with the success of his essay collection on race and racism in the UK, The Good Immigrant. Arusa Qureshi chats to him ahead of his Edinburgh International Book Festival appearance
L et’s stop for a minute to talk about diversity. Or specii cally how, in 2017, people of colour are still having to discuss, debate and demand their inclusion in certain spaces. In the arts and media, conscious and unconscious bias loom large, despite the efforts of those who actively
attempt to alter what is considered the default.
Nikesh Shukla has been at the forefront of these conversations, particularly in publishing, which suffers from a profound eliteness and monoculture at all levels of the industry. As the editor and driving force behind the massively successful essay collection The Good Immigrant, he has been vocal about the industry’s failure to support BAME authors and diverse voices. But he is also candid about his frustration in having to keep up this i ght for representation. ‘I don’t think that any of the work I do around diversity is anything more than the basic work that we should all be doing to push for equality, not only in the arts but also in society,’ he explains. ‘I’m really sick of talking about diversity because I feel like we were beyond that conversation decades ago and we’re still having it and it doesn’t move on. People throw knee-jerk reaction panel events and money at diversity so we can all sit and talk about it rather than actually doing anything that has any long-term benei ts.’ >>
10–17 Aug 2017 THE LIST FESTIVAL 41