Back to Magazine
Angie Thomas: On the Come Up
In March 2019 we welcomed bestselling author of The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas, to our Queen Elizabeth Hall
Thomas joined award-winning writer and deputy editor at gal-dem, Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff for a discussion about her second novel On the Come Up, the power of storytelling and a homage to hip-hop.
On the Come Up – the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; of the struggle to become who you are and not who everyone expects you to be – firmly positions Thomas as a writer of compelling novels with audacious characters that offer a prism through which we can view contemporary culture, politics and the black American experience.
‘Here I am as a black woman author in children’s literature, my counterparts are not threats, they’re my inspiration, they’re my motivation, we’re all doing this and we’re doing it for a greater good so why not support and celebrate one another?’
Angie Thomas