featuring new work by
Essays about work, cities and the people who keep them running.
Editor’s letter
I write long-form essays and reported features, mostly about labour, migration and the hidden infrastructure of cities. My first book, The Salt Years, came out with Granta in 2024.
I also edit The Harbour Quarterly, a small magazine of new writing from port cities.
“Osei writes about ordinary work with the attention most people save for art.”
Book · 2024
Granta Books
Essays on the docks, night buses and corner shops that keep a city alive. Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize.
Novel · 2026
Granta Books
A novel about a hospital porter, a Sunday, and everything that can happen in one shift.
Magazine · 2021–
Fourteen issues of fiction and essays from port cities, from Lagos to Liverpool.
The Guardian Long Read · 2024
The Last Container Crane in Tilbury
The New Yorker · 2023
Notes from a Corner Shop
Granta 162 · 2023
On Overtime
London Review of Books · 2022
Orwell Prize for Political Writing, shortlist
The Salt Years · 2025
The Harbour Quarterly
Founding Editor, 2021–Present
The Guardian
Features Writer, 2016–2021