Courttia Newland is fast becoming one of the most significant voices in Black British writing. His work includes the novels The Scholar (1998) and Snakeskin (2002), collections of short stories - Society Within (1999) and Music for the Off-Key: Twelve Macabre Short Stories (2006), as well as the critically acclaimed plays, The Far Side, about the murder of a young black man by a white youth, and Mother's Day, which premiered at the Lyric Studio Hammersmith in autumn of 2002. Newland has also edited IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain (2000) and is currently writing the screenplay to a film adaptation of The Scholar.

In an interview that took place in July, Courttia Newland spoke about his writing and his new book.

When did you decide you wanted to become a writer?

Although I had been writing for many years as a "hobby," I only turned to serious writing when I was 21. I had tried various avenues for making money and none of them had worked. I really wanted to build a music studio, so I decided to write a book and sell it, and then build my studio from the proceeds. As you can see, I had no idea what a writer's life was like. Luckily for me I enjoyed writing the book so much I gave up on music.

Who would you say influenced you the most?

On a personal level, my grandfather. He taught me a lot about the world and strengthened my political views with an emphasis on being black in this country (the U.K.). In a literary sense, Chester Himes - his books convinced me I could write about working class black people without having to apologize about it.

Most of your novels, short stories, and plays have black people as main or major characters. Is there a particular reason for this?

I write about people who have been left out of mainstream fiction. When I was first published I felt that these people had no voice, so I wanted to try and capture that. I write to tell stories, to validate and chronicle our untold lives.

How did you come up with the title of your latest book, Music For the Off-Key: Twelve Macabre Short Stories?

In my part of London (west) the word "off-key" has been floating around for a while. It means when something or someone is weird or a little unusual. I wanted a title reminiscent of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected, so I came up with Music For The Off-Key. It's funny because it sounds strange to most people, but working class Londoners tend to get it right away!