Black British Book Festival founder Selina Brown Serves Identity, Joy, and Representation in ‘My Rice Is Best’

When Selina Brown launched the Black British Book Festival in 2021, she wasn’t just starting another literary event—she was sparking a movement. As an accomplished author and event director among many other roles, Brown set out to rewrite the narrative around representation for Black writers across the UK and beyond. In just a few short years, the festival has grown into Europe’s largest celebration of Black literature, creating a powerful platform where emerging voices meet industry opportunities.

Through her multifaceted work, Selina actively shares updates about her initiatives and events which continue to amplify Black presence within the literary marketplace, striving to create lasting change in the publishing industry.​ In 2023, Selina opened a library in Croydon dedicated to Black literature, providing an all important physical space for readers to discover and celebrate diverse stories. Her dedication has garnered recognition and well-deserved accolades, including being named FutureBook Leader of the Year in 2024 and most recently, 2025 Trailblazer Award winner at The London Book Fair. 

An affinity to great literature has led Selina to author her latest children’s book My Rice Is Best, released 8th May 2025. Taking the opportunity to read the book aloud to my nieces and nephews sitting in a circle on the rug, the interactive dialogue, humour and deeper messaging to spark conversation on identity made it a delight to share. In conversation with Selina, we discuss the inspiration behind this brilliant new work and the significance of authentic representation. 

What was your creative process from concept to print with My Rice Is Best? 

There were several different reasons. One being I'm a big foodie. Two, I wanted to write a book that really tapped into my culture and I honoured my grandmother. So my grandmother was from a Jamaican background. One of the key things I remember from my childhood was food, specifically rice and peas and my grandmother was the first one to introduce me to it. She was in my eyes the best cook of rice and peas in the world. She took making it very serious; in the evening just before bed she'd get the gungo peas, wash them and soak them in a pot—the whole process was like a meditation. She'd take ages sorting through each of the peas making sure that each of them were okay. And if they floated on the top, they had to go get dashed in the bin. And when she woke up in the morning the following day, she'd get the pot, she'd get some coconut milk, the thyme and all the different herbs, and then slowly simmer it while she was at church; come back, she'd add the Basmati rice and like it was a whole process. It took like two whole days and it was the best rice and peas in the world. I just like, I remember I was eating it one day and I was thinking there needs to be a story to preserve the culture for young people, and so I started writing about the character Shane and the rice and peas, and then Yinka came along. Then I realised actually, rice and peas is in every single culture and it just kind of spiralled from there. So it was an honor to culture; it was honored in the similarities between us, the celebration of who we are, where we come from, and it's about me empowering young Black children as well. I wanted to ensure they felt seen and they were at the forefront. 

That's beautiful because it's merging your childhood experiences with present day and the future, but what I really loved about it, is it’s a display of solidarity through differences for the kids, and how to view differences and build opinions; I feel like it really touched on those themes within the book. If you could sum your new book up in three words, what would they be?

I'd say timeless, celebration and unapologetic. Being unapologetic because Shane and the characters were unapologetic about who they were and their food, and they were like actually, mine is the best and they were unapologetic about that, celebrating what their culture brings. 

Photo Credit: Karmel Brown

You do brilliant work with the Black British Book Festival; I went to the one in October 2024 and I managed to see Dianne Abbott, Eve, Charlene White, Caleb Femi; it was such a brilliant experience. How do you maintain the passion for storytelling and advocating Black literature and writers? 

I mean, it's just part of who I am. I've always been a book-lover. I feel like I'm living my purpose so there's nothing really to sustain. If anything, it sustains me, it feeds me because being around the festival, being around books, being around authors, it gives me life, it gives me purpose and it gives me energy. It recharges me and it feeds into making me who I am; it just is.

I know that because of the your direct involvement you get to see a lot of behind the scenes, especially within the literary world. So on a global level do you feel or have you witnessed more recognition of Black British authors and their work? 

I think yes and no. I think there's established authors that will always obviously get their accolades and they deserve it on a global scale and that's amazing, but it's harder as newer emerging writers to break through that barrier. It takes longevity, it takes a lot of marketing and push that we sometimes don't get from the industry. It also depends on what territory you're talking about, you know. Within the Caribbean and Africa, of course because they relate to us; we are them, they are us. But in other places, such as more European spaces, maybe not as much because they're not as receptive. So from that perspective, it really depends. 

What have been some of the biggest challenges and victories you've faced since launching the festival to date? 

Biggest challenge I suppose was going from community level to national scale and people doubting that it was possible and feasible. That was a challenge because you had to really prove them wrong. But as we know, as Black people, we have to work twice as hard anyway. So it's ingrained in my blood to push and to move forward and be resilient. But it was a challenge, you know. But we overcame that and we triumphed; and now, we're the largest in Europe so we did what we had to do. One of the significant victories came in March; so we do several festivals a year, but this year we did our first children's festival which was really special to me, we did that in Birmingham. We specifically targeted schools with low literacy rates and high free school meals, so a lot of these children had never been to a literature festival before and that was amazing to me. What we did at the festival is that each of the children went home with their own mini library—they went home with five books each. We take it for granted that people have books or children have books in their house, some children don't. So some of the kids were really gripping the books as they were walking through the door, and I was like yes, that's why we're doing it, this is what it's about, you know. I'm helping start them on a lifelong journey with books, a love of books and a dream of reading. So that was really special to me. And then obviously doing the festival flagship event every year. It takes around a year to eighteen months to organize a festival for one day. It's a lot of manpower, it's a lot of skills and expertise that my team has to pull together and we deliver, so it's always a victory to do the festival and see such a brilliant turn-out and presence of representation. 

Photo Credit: Karmel Brown

What does true representation in children's literature look like to you? And what advice would you give in terms of people developing authentic characters?

I think true representation comes from really representing the characters in their truest light for everything; from skin to the way they talk, to their mannerisms, to the things that they say—just really leaning into the culture. So in the book there's several things that we did to really represent the culture. At the beginning of the story, the kitchen scene and the fridge; when the illustrator originally had that page illustrated the top of the fridge was empty. And I was like no, there's absolutely no way a Black person's fridge is empty like that (both laugh). Yeah,  that's a shelf that is not a fridge, there's dishes by the sink, there's some ginger beer, there's some hard dough bread. These are the little things that the kids that are from that culture will observe and be like, ‘Oh my God, look, look, mom!’ And again, it's almost a sense of pride. We've got the moi-moi, we've got the plantain in there for Nigeria, you know what I mean? It's about putting in the ‘little’, it's a tiny symbolism, little things that kids pick up on that actually are big things in their world because they pick up on everything. All those symbols that really celebrate who they are and make them feel seen, be seen, make them feel heard.

Even at the end of the book when Shane drops his rice and peas and then Yinka is like, ‘Oh have some of mine,’ and then Shane tries it, the original book was always Shane turns around and says it tastes nice but mine's better. Because the little Black boys in my family can be cheeky, man! (laughs) You know what I mean? (both laugh) So I wanted to bring that little playful cheekiness out of him. The publishers were like, ‘Actually, can we not just say that it does taste nice and her rice is better?’ I was like, ‘That's never gonna happen.’ That wouldn’t really happen and it doesn't feel authentic, it doesn't feel right. Yes, I know that you want them to be friends and want them to have this lovely moment, but we've also got to be authentic. I know that little Black boys are not going to say that. They're going to maintain from start to end that their rice is the best, and nothing's changing that. So it's about understanding your culture, understanding your tongue, understanding how things go and fighting for that. Just really advocating for how you know that things go within your spaces, within your world, with the people that you interact with, so they can resonate with it and they can feel it and know it to be true. So that's what representation is to me.