Nazneen is British Bangladeshi and lives in Southampton. She grew up in commuter belt suburbia somewhere in between the iconic cultural landmarks of Croydon and Gatwick Airport, where she was one of two brown kids in her year at school. She spent most of her teen years writing, reading, and listening to melancholy indie music, going on to study English literature at the University of Warwick and completing a PhD in Bangladeshi literature at the University of Oxford. She is currently Research Associate in the geography department at University College London, researching the geography and history of migration, a subject which is also at the heart of much of her fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction. She was selected as one of 12 mentees from 2000 applicants for the 2016/17 round of Penguin Random House’s Write Now Live mentorship scheme which aims to support and publish underrepresented writers. From June 2017 – June 2018 she also holds the role of Writer in Residence at Southampton’s public libraries, in association with the Arts Council funded project So:Write. Photo credit: Laura Cuch