Professor Steph Newell talks about how she became interested in African literature, and how a nine-year-old girl in Lagos transformed the way she researched urban cultures.

Her most recent book is Histories of Dirt in West Africa.

The Common Room is a production of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee in the Yale Department of English. Cover art by Sarah Harford; editing and sound design by Robert Scaramuccia '19. 

Fiction writer and Yale lecturer Derek Green discusses his winding path to Yale, how writers read, and why his upcoming novel, about a Midwestern militia, feels more like nonfiction every day. His most recent book is New World Order.

The Common Room is a production of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee in the Yale Department of English. Cover art by Sarah Harford; editing and sound design by Robert Scaramuccia '19.