That Reminds Me
by Derek Owusu
Award History
| Award | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Betty Trask Award | 2021 | Shortlist |
| Desmond Elliott Prize | 2020 | Winner |
| Desmond Elliott Prize | 2019 | Shortlist |
| Desmond Elliott Prize | 2018 | Shortlist |
About This Book
Derek Owusu's debut novel — based on his own experience — follows K, a young Black man from a Ghanaian family in England, through a mental breakdown and recovery in a psychiatric ward. Written in experimental fragments that move between voices, timelines, and registers, the novel maps the interior devastation of mental illness while exploring masculinity, Blackness, and belonging. It won the Desmond Elliott Prize in 2020.
About the Author
Derek Owusu is a British-Ghanaian writer born in 1990 in London. He studied philosophy and psychology and was a founding member of the literary collective Octavia Poetry Collective. He is the editor of Safe: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space (2019), an anthology that brought together essays, poetry, and photography about Black British masculinity. Read more →
