Gurnaik Johal is a writer from West London. He was shortlisted for The Guardian 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize in 2018 and graduated from The University of Manchester in 2019. He works in children’s publishing.
Gurnaik’s iconic London debut, We Move, is published by Serpent’s Tail.
Praise for We Move:
‘A debut collection of such precocity and aplomb that it stands comparison to the likes of Junot Díaz and Bryan Washington’ Observer
‘These are excellent stories, told with skill and verve. Gurnaik Johal has a sharp eye for details, an ear for the gaps and evasions in real dialogue, and a heart for the hopes and regrets that carry us through our lives. But most of all, he has the instincts of a storyteller, and in We Move he has put those instincts to great effect’ ― Jon McGregor
‘Delicate, controlled and moving portraits of the strange, poignant dislocation wrought by both distance and proximity’ ― Colin Barrett
‘Moving, truthful, straight from the heart (and a very capacious heart too), the stories in WE MOVE announce the arrival of a promising young writer we will be talking about for years to come. Gurnaik Johal, welcome.’ ― Neel Mukherjee
‘An assured and profoundly humane collection, rich in character and story. Johal relocates the human comedy to contemporary Southall and weaves in threads from the past and far across the world’ ― Jo Lloyd, author of The Earth, Thy Great Exchequer, Ready Lies
‘A whole universe of lives intricately connected and woven together in a way that is wholly surprising and unobvious’ ― Huma Qureshi, author of Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love
