JENDELLA BENSON
Agent: Juliet Pickering
Assistant: Finlay Charlesworth
Biography: Jendella Benson is a British-Nigerian writer and editor from Birmingham, now based in London. She is Head of Editorial at Black Ballad – the award-winning digital media platform and online community for black women in the UK and beyond. In her role, she has commissioned and edited hundreds of black women and non-binary journalists and writers from across the globe and worked with brands such as Dove, Comic Relief and Google.
Jendella started her writing career as a columnist for Media Diversified, MTV UK, and Christian Today and has since written for The Guardian, The Sunday Times STYLE Magazine, The Telegraph and The Independent. She is the author of two novels – HOPE AND GLORY and ALL THAT WE’VE GOT – and her short story, ‘Kindling’, was published in THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM. She was a judge for the 2023 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing and is a member of the advisory board for the award-winning, Brixton-based bookshop, Round Table Books.
Jendella has a background in photography and filmmaking and her visual work has featured in the Guardian, on BuzzFeed and been exhibited internationally, most notably at the House of Commons, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, and at the International Center of Photography in New York as part of ICP Projected in May 2018. In 2016, she gave a TEDx on reclaiming the stories that define us, and has also appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour, as well as speaking at various universities and conferences.
Visit Jendella’s website.
ALL THAT WE’VE GOT
Contemporary, 432 pages
Trapeze, July 2024
Mimi is a single mum in her twenties, looking to break free from her family's judgements and her church's oppressive, hypocritical gossip to establish who she is on her own. But a dangerous new romance could lead her into trouble...
Meanwhile, fifteen-year-old Abi dreams of emulating the life she sees through social media and helping her mother with the bills. When she's offered the chance to make money fast by helping a group of local boys, she and her friends jump at it. But soon they're crossing county lines, and Abi finds she's in over her head...
Could Mimi and Abi forge a bond that could free them both, at the heart of a community they've taken for granted?
A powerful commentary on the city we don't always see, this is the stunning new novel from Jendella Benson, the author of the acclaimed HOPE & GLORY.
HOPE AND GLORY
Contemporary, 400 pages
Trapeze, April 2022
Glory arrives back in Peckham, from her seemingly-glamorous life in LA, to mourn the sudden death of her father, and finds her previously-close family has fallen apart in her absence. Her brother, Victor, has been jailed; her sister, Faith, appears to have lost her independence and ambition; and their mother, Celeste, is headed towards a breakdown. Glory is thrown by their disarray, and rather than returning to America she decides to stay and try to bring them all together again. However, when she unearths a huge family secret, Glory risks losing everyone she truly cares about in her pursuit of the truth.