Masala Festival – An Evening with Nikesh Shukla: Celebrating 10 Years of The Good Immigrant
Join us for a special reading and in-conversation event with award-winning writer, educator, editor and activist Nikesh Shukla, as we discuss his groundbreaking work across genres and forms – from wriing Spiderman comics to literary fiction – and celebrate the 10th anniversary of his groundbreaking anthology The Good Immigrant, marking the milestone alongside GemArts Masala Festival's own 10th anniverary.
First published in 2016 following a landmark crowdfunding campaign, The Good Immigrant changed UK publishing for good, bringing together twenty-one powerful voices exploring race, immigration, identity and what it means to be seen as "other" in the UK, and opening the door for countless British writers of colour to find mainstream success. Honest, urgent and deeply personal, the collection has become a defining work in contemporary British literature and cultural conversation.
Featuring contributions from leading voices including Riz Ahmed, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Nish Kumar and Vinay Patel, the anthology continues to resonate a decade on, sparking dialogue, challenging perspectives and amplifying stories that demand to be heard.
Nikesh Shukla will be in conversation with award-winning writer, Preti Taneja, Professor of World Literature and Creative Writing at Newcastle University, for an insightful discussion on his life and work, the book's impact and legacy, and how conversations around identity and belonging in publishing and beyond have evolved over the past decade.
A powerful, thought-provoking evening of words, ideas and reflection, celebrating the stories and activism that shapes who we are.
Presented by GemArts and Northern Stage.
About Masala Festival
GemArts' award-winning Masala Festival returns from 13th – 19th July for its 10th anniversary, bringing a vibrant mix and blend of the finest South Asian arts and culture to the North East. Enjoy an incredible programme of performances, exhibitions, events, workshops, talks, pop-ups, and of course, delicious Indian food in venues, places and spaces across the region. Don't miss this special milestone year!
For the full Masala Festival 2026 programme, visit www.gemarts.org/whatson
About Nikesh Shukla
Nikesh Shukla is a novelist and screenwriter who wrote a Spider-Man comic book miniseries for Marvel, as well as numerous television projects. Most recently, he released his first children's book, called The Council of Good Friends.
Nikesh wrote the award-winning short film, Two Dosas, a Channel 4 Comedy Lab production called Kabadasses, and the award-winning short film, The Great Identity Swindle. He has worked in numerous writer's rooms both in the UK and US for HBO, Prime, Sky, Apple and the BBC. Nikesh is a fellow of the Sundance Institute and the Royal Society of Literature. He is also a columnist for the Bristol Cable.
Nikesh is the author of Coconut Unlimited (shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award), Meatspace and the critically acclaimed The One Who Wrote Destiny. He was also the Editor of the bestselling essay collection, The Good Immigrant, which won the reader's choice a the Books Are My Bag Awards, and co-edited The Good Immigrant USA with Chimene Suleyman. He is the author of three YA novels – Run, Riot (shortlisted for a National Book Award), The Boxer (longlisted for the Carnegie Medal), and Stand Up.
Nikesh was one of Time Magazine's cultural leaders, Foreign Policy magazine's 100 Global Thinkers and The Bookseller's 100 most influential people in publishing in 2016 and in 2017. He is the co-founder of The Good Literary Agency. Nikesh's memoir, Brown Baby: A Memoir of Race, Family and Home was longlisted for the Jhalak Prize. He has also written a book on writing called Your Story Matters. Nikesh teaches creative writing for Faber Academy.
About Preti Taneja
Preti Taneja's novel, We That Are Young, won the Desmond Elliott Prize for the UK's finest literary debut in 2018, and was listed for awards including the Folio Prize and the Prix Jan Michalski, Europe's premier award for a work of world literature. Her second book is Aftermath, a lament on the language of prison, terror, trauma and grief. It won the Gordon Burn Prize 2022 for 'literature that is fearless in ambition and execution', and was a New Statesman and New Yorker Book of the Year.
Preti's work is available in English and in translation around the world. She is the co-writer of the short film, The Man Who Met Himself, nominated for the short film Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival, and winner of the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Languages and Literatures. Preti lives in Newcastle, and is Professor of World Literature and Creative Writing at Newcastle University and Director of the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
| Date | Saturday 18th July 2026 |
| Time | 7pm |
| Cost | £5 |
| Venue | Northern Stage |
| Address | Barras Bridge, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 7RH |
| Booking Details : Northern Stage / 0191 230 5151 | |
