Biography
Courttia Newland is a British novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Born in London in 1973 to parents of Jamaican and Barbadian heritage, he grew up in Shepherd’s Bush and published his debut novel, The Scholar, in 1997. He has since written several further novels, short-story collections and plays, and co-edited the 2000 anthology IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain.
As a screenwriter he co-wrote two episodes of Steve McQueen’s BBC anthology series Small Axe (2020), Lovers Rock and Red, White and Blue. He has also written for the series The Woman in the Wall (2023). Newland has received awards including the Roland Rees Bursary for playwriting and has taught creative writing at institutions such as the University of Westminster.
