Instead of celebrating myself, I’m going to celebrate the books by black authors that came before me
I have a funny thing about winning. I find it overwhelming. I don’t know how to cope or act when things are meant to be “good”. What do I do? Should I be happy? What is that? How many ways can I genuinely and meaningfully thank people who congratulate me? Do they understand that if I don’t reply to their kind messages, I’m not being rude – it’s just that I don’t know what to say?
It’s not that I’m not grateful when things go well, it’s more that I need to talk to a therapist about them. Anyway, imagine my discomfort when I was told that my book Queenie had won debut of the year at the British Book awards. Actually, my first feeling was relief that instead of having to attend a ceremony and have my picture taken, and get up on a stage and be looked at, I could just pre-record an acceptance speech on Zoom then go back to watching music videos all day.