(UK, 1954) Hanif Kureishi CBE is an English playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker, novelist and short story writer. The themes of his work have touched on topics of race, nationalism, immigration and sexuality. In 2008, The Times included Kureishi on their list of 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945. He is the author of novels such as The Buddha of Suburbia,The Black Album and Intimacy, the story collections Love in a Blue Time, Midnight All Day, The Body, plays such as Outskirts, Borderline and Sleep With Me and screenplays including My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus. Among his other publications are the collection of essays Dreaming and Scheming, The Word and the Bomb and the memoir My Ear at His Heart. His latest works are The Black Album and The Last Word. His recent novel The Nothing has been published in January.