About
Elleke Boehmer is the author of the novels Screens against the Sky (shortlisted David Higham Prize, 1990), Bloodlines (shortlisted SANLAM prize, 2000), Nile Baby (2008) and The Shouting in the Dark (2015; co-winner Olive Schreiner prize, 2015–18), as well as the short-story collection Sharmilla and Other Portraits (2010). To the Volcano, her second short story collection, appeared in 2019. The story ‘Supermarket Love’ was commended for the ABR Elizabeth Jolley Prize. Her fiction probes the delicate interface between our private and public selves in haunting and unforgettable ways.
She is also Professor of World Literature in English at the University of Oxford, and a founding figure in the field of postcolonial literature. Her edition of Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys was a 2004 summer bestseller, and her acclaimed biography of Nelson Mandela (2008) has been translated into Arabic, Malaysian, Thai, Kurdish, Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. She has published several other books including Stories of Women (2005), the anthology Empire Writing (1998), Indian Arrivals: Networks of British Empire (2015), and Postcolonial Poetics (2018).

News
Catch Elleke at FLF 2025!
Elleke will be at the 2025 Franschhoek Literary Festival on Friday and Saturday to talk about her three new books, Ice Shock, Life Writing and…
Mandarin translation of Bloodlines now available in China
We are delighted to announce that the Mandarin translation of Elleke’s novel Bloodlines appears in China this month, published by Shenzhen Publishing House (深圳出版社)! Bloodlines,…
Oxford African Studies Seminar: Elleke in conversation with Wale Adebanwi
On Thursday 15 October, the University of Oxford’s African Studies Centre Seminar hosted Elleke. She was in conversation with Oxford’s Wale Adebanwi about To the…
To the Volcano longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize 2020!
We’re delighted that To the Volcano has been longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize 2020. The Edge Hill Prize is the only UK based award…
Review of To the Volcano in The Short Story
Paul Woodgate has written a wonderful review of To the Volcano for The Short Story. Here’s an excerpt: Each story, delivered with a minimal grace…
Homi Bhabha reviews Postcolonial Poetics
Homi Bhabha has reviewed Postcolonial Poetics for Critical Inquiry. Some highlights include: It is difficult to do justice, in a brief review, to a book…
Fiction
To the Volcano, and Other Stories
Published by Myriad Editions (UK), 2019 Shortlisted: 2019 Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize for ‘Supermarket…
The Shouting in the Dark
Published by Sandstone Press (UK), Cossee (Netherlands), Jacana (South Africa), 2015; UWA Press (Australia), 2019…
Sharmilla, and Other Portraits
Published by Jacana (South Africa), 2010 and Historica (Italy), 2019 Police question a Cape Town…
Nile Baby
Published by Ayebia, 2008 Nile Baby tells the story of two quirky young friends who…
Bloodlines
Published by David Philip (South Africa), 2000; Shenzhen Publishing House (China), 2024 Short-listed for the…
An Immaculate Figure
Published by Bloomsbury, 1993 Rosandra White is the proverbial perfect blonde. Exquisitely proportioned, desirable, her…
Screens Against the Sky
Published by Bloomsbury and Penguin, 1990 Short-listed for the David Higham Prize Set in South…
Non-fiction
Life Writing and the Southern Hemisphere
Texts, Spaces, Resonances Published by Bloomsbury Press, 2024 Edited with Katherine Collins Exploring lives lived,…
Postcolonial Poetics: 21st-Century Critical Readings
Published by Palgrave Macmillan, 2018 Postcolonial Poetics is about how we read postcolonial and world…
Indian Arrivals, 1870-1915: Networks of British Empire
Published by Oxford University Press, 2015 Winner: 2016 ESSE Book Award for Literatures in the English…
The Postcolonial Low Countries: Literature, Colonialism, and Multiculturalism
Published by Lexington Books, 2012 Edited with Sarah de Mul The Postcolonial Low Countries is…
The Indian Postcolonial: A Reader
Published by Routledge, 2010 Edited with Rosinka Chaudhuri India has often been at the centre…
Terror and the Postcolonial: A Concise Companion
Published by Wiley-Blackwell, 2010 Edited by Elleke Boehmer and Stephen Morton Terror and the Postcolonial…
J. M. Coetzee in Context and Theory
Published by Continuum, 2009 Edited with Robert Eaglestone and Katy Iddiols Nobel Laureate 2003 and the…
Nelson Mandela
Published by Oxford University Press, 2008 As well as being a remarkable statesman and one…
Upcoming events
Contact
Agent
Catherine Clarke
Felicity Bryan Literary Agency
2a North Parade Avenue,
Oxford, OX2 6LX
catherine@felicitybryan.com
Tel: (01865) 513816
Fax: (01865) 310055