Available to book
Teju Cole
Critical Thinking
Storytelling
Creativity
Book Teju Cole, award-winning novelist, cultural critic, and visual storyteller. Teju helps organisations explore storytelling, cross-cultural leadership, and creative thinking through literature and photography. PEN/Hemingway Award winner, praised by Salman Rushdie, featured in TIME's essential reading lists.
Author
Artist
Anthropologist
Filmmaker
Teju Cole is a novelist, critic, and photographer whose work explores the intersection of memory, place, and perception across cultures and borders. Born in the United States and raised in Nigeria, Teju has written four acclaimed books, including Tremor, named to TIME's 10 Best Nonfiction Books and 100 Must-Read Books of 2023. His novel Open City won the PEN/Hemingway Award, and Every Day Is for the Thief was named a Book of the Year by The New York Times. Salman Rushdie has called him "among the most gifted writers of his generation." T
eju's cross-cultural perspective and practice across multiple art forms give him a rare ability to illuminate how we see the world and what we overlook. His writing and photography demonstrate how close attention to everyday life can reveal hidden structures of power, history, and beauty. Audiences benefit from his capacity to connect personal narrative with broader social and political currents in ways that feel immediate and grounded.
From Teju's sessions, audiences gain a deeper understanding of how storytelling shapes identity, practical frameworks for observing the world with greater nuance, and renewed confidence that art and literature remain vital tools for making sense of complexity. Book Teju Cole to bring intellectual rigour and creative vision to any stage where ideas matter.
Teju Cole brings the intellectual depth of a PEN/Hemingway winner with a cross-cultural lens that helps leadership teams reframe how they read complexity and narrative in global markets. His work on perception and overlooked structures translates directly into sharper strategic thinking and cultural fluency for organizations navigating ambiguity.
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frequently asked questions
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Email teju.cole@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Teju's availability and fees. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and a bit about your audience.
Teju Cole draws on his practice across fiction, criticism, and photography to structure sessions around close observation — using specific images, texts, or places as entry points to examine how perception shapes understanding of history, power, and identity.
Teju Cole speaks on storytelling and identity, memory and place, and the intersection of art with social and political history. His novel Open City won the PEN/Hemingway Award, and his book Tremor was named to TIME's 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023.
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