Diriye Osman
| Diriye Osman ديري عثمان |
|
|---|---|
| Born | 1983 Mogadishu, Somalia |
| Occupation | Writer, visual artist |
| Nationality | British |
| Ethnicity | Somali |
| Alma mater |
University of Birmingham, Royal Holloway, University of London |
| Period | 2008–present |
| Website | |
| www |
|
Diriye Osman (Somali: Diriyeh Cismaan, Arabic: ديري عثمان) (born in 1983) is a Somali-British short story writer, essayist, critic and visual artist. He is the author of the short story collection Fairytales For Lost Children, which won the 2014 Polari First Book Prize. His writing has also been published in a number of publications. Additionally, Osman's visual art is noted for its surrealism.
Osman was born in 1983 in Mogadishu, Somalia. When the civil war broke out in the early 1990s, he and his family relocated to Nairobi, Kenya.
As a child, Osman developed an interest in fashion design. His parents encouraged his desire to become a designer. An avid reader, he was also enthralled with the works of C. S. Lewis and Roald Dahl, as well as The Adventures of Tintin and Calvin and Hobbes. In 2001, Osman and his family moved again to London, England.
In 2002, at the age of 18, Osman was diagnosed with psychosis and institutionalised in a mental hospital in Woolwich, South London. He was so traumatized by the experience that he did not speak for nearly six months. After he was released from the hospital, his mother encouraged him to apply for a library card and he began to read Nuruddin Farah, Arundhati Roy, Zadie Smith, Manil Suri, Alice Munro, Alison Bechdel, ZZ Packer, Edwidge Danticat and Junot Diaz. By reading as widely as possible, Osman regained the confidence to speak again. Reading extensively also made him want to learn about characters and stories that echoed his own experiences.
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