Natasha Brown: Impact of Art and Literature
Significance of Engaging in Literature
Creativity comes in many forms, through art, photography and literature; however, the core remains the same – a story to tell. Art and literature are expressions of vast emotions, suffering and pain, but also love and happiness and it is because of this expression that art is inheritantly political. Literature was political when Aristotle discussed philosophy, it was political as countries defined citizens’ rights and it was political when the first African American Woman published her poetry collection.
Writing and literature go beyond a sense of cathartic relief and expression, they are a means of persuasion, power and most importantly; Hope.
Literature with a POC as the Protagonist
Since the first book published by an African American woman, literature has come a long way, has come in waves, carrying the weight of civil movements with them. Society is now entering a new phase, where it wants to see people of colour as the protagonist. African Americans, Indians, Indigenous people and the rest of the world want to see someone like them being the protagonist. They want to see their story take up the space on pages of novels and poetry. Their story is one that is in demand now, one that needs representation.
The need for these stories have only been higher in demand because of the vicious policies being led by numerous governments across the world. These stories highlight the humanity of those who may not look like us, do not share the same language as us or who live miles away from everything we have ever known.
Even though there has been such demand for diversity in stories and authors, much of it has still been unmet. There has only been a 16% increase from 2019-2020 in authors from Black, Asian and other minority groups (Understanding Author Diversity Report, 2021). A demographic statistic report published in the USA in 2023 emphasises that 75.58% of authors are White (Talbot, 2023).
These disparities haunt our society, many new faces in the literary sphere have emerged to challenge these disparities. Author of global sensation Babel and Yellowface R.F Kuang has spoken out about her experiences of being published in both interviews and through her books. Yellowface is satirical metafiction about the publishing industry as well as a critique of social media. R.F Kuang’s voice has become one of the new waves of literature that is bringing forth a movement for inclusion.
Award winning author of ‘Assembly’ Natasha Brown has also paved the way for young ethnic authors in the UK. In her award winning novella, discussions of classism, education, and societal pressure are significant.
Who is Natasha Brown?
Winner of the Betty Trask Award in 2022 for her debut novella, Natasha Brown is an English Novelist who graduated from University of Cambridge. What would be surprising to many is that Natasha actually graduated with a degree in Mathematics from Cambridge. She spent a decade working in the competitive Finance industry after graduating and she finally published her first book ‘Assembly’ at age 31.
Her bibliography
As a new author she currently only has two published books. The first published was Assembly in 2021, discussing the prominent class system in the UK, and the intersection of race, immigration, work and sexual politics. Within only 112 pages, Brown succinctly tells the story of a second generation immigrant Black woman who is living a seemingly successful life, but at what cost?
Her second book published in 2025 – Universality. This book follows a journalist through a seemingly classic who-did it murder novel where the leader of an anarchist group has been brutally murdered with a gold bar. The story follows a self-pitying banker, the journalist with skeletons in her closet, the idealistic cult leader and fugitive with nothing to lose. This story focuses on media, class, power and truth.
Assembly
As an avid reader, I have read both classics and contemporary fiction but none of those has altered my perspective as much as Natasha Brown’s debut novel. Even for people who do not usually engage with literature, I genuinely believe that this book can change that. With a novella like structure which is not too plot heavy, it follows the main character’s stream of consciousness. The readers follow the unnamed main character’s thoughts as she battles with a particularly hard day at work, followed by contemplation of her romantic relationship with a white man. In a poignant manner, Brown highlights the class divide and the micro-aggressions she is faced with in her day-to-day life. The fact that Brown did not name her main character is significant, implicitly saying that this could be anyone. It does not have to be someone working in finance, it is not just her story, it is the story of hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have experienced micro-aggressions at work, who have experienced pressure to perform for expecting parents, who have been burdened by society. Furthermore, Brown states in an interview with Vogue “I feel we read so many books about a guy or a woman who has it all, but still isn’t totally happy. As people of colour, we don’t get that narrative, because it’s so rare we even see a character who has all of those things – let alone is dissatisfied with them. I wanted to say, ‘We can have a dissatisfaction story, too.’” This novella has won awards because of her subtlety, without cursing, without name dropping politicians or policies, Brown was able to convey a sense of inferiority, frustration and disappointment all within 112 pages.
Novels like this make a difference, art like this makes a difference, anything that makes you aware of social disparities and isolation of minority group makes a difference. Art allows for creative expression, an expression of the frustration at society for undermining or under-representing stories of ethnic minorities. It is our job, at ArtClusiv, to bring the spotlight to a new movement which embraces artists, literary works from individuals who are a part of the ethnic minority. This is a community which aims to celebrate works from artists, musicians and writers that want to tell their side of the story.
Reference list
Nast, C. (2021). Author Natasha Brown On Writing The Debut Novel Of The Summer. [online] British Vogue. Available at: https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/assembly-natasha-brown.
Talbot, D. (2023). Author Demographics Statistics – WordsRated. [online] WordsRated. Available at: https://wordsrated.com/author-demographics-statistics/.
Understanding Author Diversity Report. (2021). Available at: https://www.publishers.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Author-Diversity-Report-and-Toolkit.pdf.