Opening hours Gallery: Wednesday to Sunday 12–5pm

Novel Writers: JJ Bola

No Place to Call Home

Novel Writers: JJ Bola

No Place to Call Home

Novel Writers at Spike Island: JJ Bola

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With colourful characters and seamless prose, No Place to Call Home by Kinshasa born, London raised JJ Bola is a tale of belonging, identity and immigration, of hope and hopelessness, of loss — not by death, but by distance — and, by no means the least, of love.

JJ Bola

JJ BOLA is an established writer and poet of three collections; Elevate (2012), Daughter of the Sun (2014), and WORD (2015). His debut novel, No Place to Call Home, was first published in the UK in 2017. He was one of Spread the Word’s Flight Associates 2017, and a Kit de Waal Scholar for the Birkbeck, University MA in Creative Writing.

JJ reads, speaks, workshops and performs all over London/the UK at various universities and festivals such as SOAS, Oxford, Kings College, Glastonbury festival, WOMAD, Cheltenham Literature festival, Africa writes and more. JJ has also made international appearances; Literary Crossroads, Goethe Institute Lagos, Writivism festival, Kampala, Devos – World Economic Forum, and a number of readings across the United States; Da Poetry Lounge, UCLA, Oakland Poetry Slam, and across Europe. ​ JJ Bola is represented by Pontas Literary & Film Agency

Novel Writers

Each month we invite a debut novelist to read from and talk about their work in an informal setting. Prior knowledge of the text is not essential. Topics of discussion include theme, structure, inspiration and the craft of writing. These sessions are a great way to discover new writing talent and great books.

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