The Big Read 2021 book was The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney by Okechukwu Nzelu. Below you can discover how students and staff came together to explore themes such as religion and LGBTQ+ issues, the therapeutic power of reading, strengthening one's values and skills for fulfilling futures.
About the book
This year’s book is The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney, the debut novel of Okechukwu Nzelu, a writer and teacher. This is a novel about the coming of age of a young woman, daughter of a British mother and a Nigerian father, discovering her identity and exploring her Nigerian heritage; the book is written with a compelling balance of humour, sensitivity, and depth.
The book is centred on Nnenna Maloney's transition to adulthood and on her forays into discovering who she is. The narrative flows between tender accounts of Nnenna's relationships with her mother, with her father whom she's never met, her disovery of her Igbo-Nigerian culture, with her boyfriend and school mates. In all these, Nnenna finds herself needing to ask big questions - what is means to be oneself, how to relate to one's unknown heritage, how to love parents, friends and romantic partners, how to think of the future.
Nnenna's own story is interwoven with stories of those surrounding her, her mother, her mother's friends, her school, and her local community in Manchester, all searching for big questions of their own - how to accept one's child's independence, how to understand and accept one's sexuality, how to navigate human relationships when following one's religious faith.
About Okechukwu Nzelu
A message from the author, Okechukwu Nzelu
Hear author Okechukwu Nzelu's message to Big Read participants and learn more about the book here.
Okechukwu Nzelu is a Manchester-based writer. In 2015 he was the recipient of a Northern Writers' Award from New Writing North. In 2020 his debut novel, The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney (Dialogue Books/Little,Brown), won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Betty Trask Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize, and the Polari First Book Prize. In 2021, it was selected for the Kingston University Big Read. He is a regular contributor to Kinfolk magazine. His second novel, Here Again Now, will be published by Dialogue Books/Little,Brown in March 2022. He is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Lancaster University.
Photograph credit: Martin Glackin
Events
Creative writing workshop
When and where? Monday 18 October 2021, 5:30-7pm, MS Teams (online)
Speaker: Prof. Alison Baverstock, Professor of Publishing at Kingston University, and the author of 18 books.
A follow up to last year’s successful workshop, we are pleased to offer a practical and informative workshop about the value of creative writing. However busy you are, making time to reflect and write can bring satisfaction, pleasure and enhance your personal effectiveness. This workshop will offer guidance on why it’s worth making the effort, and how you can get started.
Alison will cover both the benefits and the practical stages involved, and the workshop will be peppered with opportunities for practical involvement – with plenty of opportunities for questions.
Big Read 2021-22 launch event: Reading and becoming a better healthcare professional
When and where? Tuesday 26 October 2021, 4-5pm, Michael Heron Lecture Theatre
Speakers: Mujgana Hussainy, Samia Tajhiba, Earnest Selvadurai, Dr Carina Spaulding (The Reading Agency), Dr Marcus Jackson (Associate Dean Student Experience)
About this event
Mujgana Hussainy, second year medical student, and one of the two students who interviewed Emily Mailtlis, last year’s Big Read author, together with Earnest Selvadurai and Samia Tajbiha, both representatives of the St George’s Literature Society and second year Biomedical Science students, will present research findings about the benefits of reading for health and will interview St George’s staff about their reading and writing/journaling practices and their wellbeing effects.
More about our speakers
Mujgana Hussainy
Mujgana is a first-year medical student who loves to go on long walks, watch historical TV shows and documentaries, and read books, from YA to autobiographies to poetry. She took part in the Big Read Initiative last year when she interviewed BBC journalist and presenter of Newsnight, Emily Maitlis, about her book Airhead, the 20-21 Big Read book. Mujgana’s written piece on the experience can be found in George’s student newsletter. She is back again this year to interview staff members on the benefits of reading for healthcare practitioners.
Earnest Selvadurai
Hi! My name is Earnest Selvadurai and I got involved with the Big Read in my capacity as a representative and Treasurer of the SGUL Literature Society. As well as relishing a good novel, I’m a keen reader of politics and history, alongside science. As a Year 2 Biomedical Science student with past research projects in blood substitutes, bacterially-derived biofuel and ecology, reading scientific materials continues to be a long-standing passion. I feel a deep sense of fulfilment in giving back to our communities and have extensive experience in working with charities such as our own Teddy Bear Hospital Charity, Red Cross Society and the Scouts. I hope Big Read participants will also discover how literature and writing may compliment academic and clinical life!
Big Read Book club
When and where? Thursday 11 November 2021 from 1pm to 2pm in Room H0.1
Host: Anne Binsfeld, Liaison Support Librarian.
About this event
Join us for a firm favourite, a book club! We will be having an informal discussion about Nnenna, her peers and their complex, rich world on November 11 from 1pm to 2pm, in-person. We might even have biscuits or you can bring your lunch. Okechukwu Nzelu covers a range of topics in his debut novel, including race, religion, going to uni and (LGBTQ+) sexuality, which means there will be plenty for us to chat about and (dis)agree on. Some questions your host will be raising are:
- What did you think of the opening chapter?
- What do you make of Nnenna’s development?
- Which character can you identify with most?
- Did your relationship with your mum / dad / caretakers change in the way Nnenna and her mum’s does when you went to uni?
Anne is a Liaison Support Librarian, supporting IMBE courses with teaching, training and learning resources. She is also responsible for the library social media accounts like Instagram and the library blog. She is in charge of the library’s growing reading for pleasure collection which includes novels, short stories, popular non-fiction and poetry. If you’d like anything added to that, don’t hesitate to get in touch by emailing abinsfel@sgul.ac.uk. She is a member of the LGBTQ network and a Mental Health First Aider.
Them vs Us: Religion, faith, health and university life
Reflections on Nnenna Maloney’s story and the impact of religious identity
When and where? Thursday 25 November 2021, from 1pm to 2pm on Big Read MS Teams (online)
Register for your place here .
Speakers:
- Angela Kubacki CPsychol, SFHEA, Senior Lecturer and Head of Clinical Communication
- James Sullivan-McHale, 3rd Year MBBS5 student, Student Lead of Student-Staff Partnership Grant project
- Hussein Abu-Rabia, 3rd Year MBBS5 student
- Aditya Dhiran, 3rd Year MBBS5 student
- Nathan McNamara, 3rd Year MBBS5 student.
Honoured guest: Dr Yingfei Heliot, PhD, MBA, FHEA, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Psychology, University of Surrey Business School.
About this event
Following on from a series of workshops in July 2021 aimed at improving cultural competency, the Them vs Us team will tackle the delicate issues of religion and faith in ‘The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney’ by Okechukwu Nzelu. In this hour session, discussion will focus on the faith-based elements in the book, namely the orthodox Christian views and the attitude of outsiders to the Christian viewpoint. The team will present key findings and discuss their challenges in conducting a project on faith. Finally, our invited guest speaker, Dr Yingfei Heliot, will highlight key findings from her report on “Religious Identity and Working in the NHS”, a study commissioned by NHS Employers in 2019.
'Them vs Us' is a research project conducted by St George's students and funded by a Staff-Student Partnership Grant. Following the session, a short handout will be provided (available for download) with further information about Nnenna Maloney and the research project.
Big Read Author event: A meeting with Okechukwu Nzelu
When and where? Wednesday 8 December 2021, 2-3pm, online (live interview streamed online)
Register for your place here.
Things I wish I’d known – St George’s techers’ and students’ experiences of moving to university
When and where? 13 January, 5-6:30pm, online (MS Teams)
An event to bring students and staff together and learn from each other. Teachers and students from across Programmes (Medicine, Paramedic Science, Postgraduate etc) will talk about their experiences of moving to university, overcoming personal and professional challenges, and discovering themselves in the process.
This Big Read session invites the whole of St George's community to reflect on their university experiences, share stories and lessons learnt, discuss how things have changed in medical education but also what has endured.
The session will be hosted by Marcus Jackson, Associate Dean for Student Experience, and guests will include Chris Baker (Paramedic Science), Judith Ibison (MBBS), Mark Bodman-Smith (PG), and Vasantha Muthuppalaniappan (MBBS) and their invited students, including Issy Schiavi (PhD student), Sarah Jones (Paramedic Science, Year 3), and Jan Mukiibi (MBBS4, Final year).
Religion and the LGBT+ community – a discussion around faith and being LGBT+
When and where? 24 February, 1-2pm, Alistair Hunter Room, 2nd Floor
Register here
Join us for a short talk and series of group discussions exploring what the historical relationship between religion and the LGBT+ community has been, as well as exploring personal relationships between faith and identity. We see this same debate explored in the book - Leviticus 18:22 – the famous line about man not lying with man – is the line that Jonathan suggests his bible group in Cambridge put on a postcard to hand out, we later find out that years after Jonathan is now living in Manchester as an openly gay man. We invite everyone regardless of religion, identity or opinion to join us in exploring these complicated topics in an open and constructive forum.
Careers workshop: Know yourself and explore your values to have a fulfilling future
When and where? 10 March, 1-2:30pm, online (MS Teams)
Register here
Workshop leads: Emma-Marie Fry (Careers Consultant), Julia Hutchinson (Head of Counselling), Valerie Gage (Counsellor)
Understanding our values helps us to make the right choices for a fulfilling future. Our values are the things that we believe are important in the way we live and work but many of us are unaware what our own values are and can sleepwalk into making regrettable choices for ourselves, be that in our reactions to challenging situations or in making major life choices like career direction. In this session the SGUL Careers Service and Counselling will cover;
An Introduction to values - why are they fundamental to understanding ourselves and making the right choices. What methods and tools help identify your values for career choice Values and your well-beingKeeping our values in mind - techniques to overcome everyday mental challenges that we all face in our work, study and home lives.
More about the speakers
Emma-Marie Fry, qualified Careers Consultant, has 25 years experience of careers guidance and careers education, with people of all ages and stages of career development. Emma has worked as a senior manager for an international, private careers consultancy, set up her own career guidance company for schools, before moving on to the University of London Careers Service where she has worked as a Careers Consultant at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and St George's. Emma supports students to launch and continue along fulfilling, successful career paths. She is a member of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) and sits on the national AGCAS Health and Related Professions Task Group.
Valerie Gage is our first Black Counsellor here at St. George's. Her time here has enabled her to gain a deeper sense of the importance of representation for Black and Brown peoples. She is interested in transgenerational beliefs, cultural attitudes and values and how these factors influence and impact our sense of self and life choices
Julia Hutchinson is Head of Counselling and really interested in what motivates people to become health professionals, and what sustains them along the course of their training and career.