Diriye Osman (Somali: Diriyeh Cismaan, Arabic: ديري عثمان) (born in 1983) is a British-Somali author, visual artist, critic and essayist.

After he was released from the hospital, his mother encouraged him to apply for a library card and he began to read Nuruddin Farah, Arundhati Roy, Zadie Smith, Manil Suri, Alice Munro, Alison Bechdel, ZZ Packer, Edwidge Danticat and Junot Díaz.

[5] For his post-secondary education, Osman studied English Literature, Linguistics and Fine Art at the University of Birmingham, graduating with a BA (hons) degree.

[9] Similarly, the Lambda Literary Review described the work as "texturally beautiful and tonally gorgeous";[11] Binyavanga Wainaina hailed the book as "taut, feral, sinewy, fearless",[2] and proclaimed Osman "a new Baldwin".

[12] Jameson Fitzpatrick of Next Magazine noted that the "stories are suffused with the possibility of joy and pleasure";[13] Alison Bechdel added that through storytelling Osman creates a shelter for his displaced characters, "a warm place which is both real and imaginary, in which they find political, sexual, and ultimately psychic liberation;"[2] Bernardine Evaristo, writing in The Independent, hailed Osman as a courageous and original writer, remarking that his language is "crafted with all the concision and riches of poetry.

"[14] Roxane Gay in The Nation also summarized the piece as a "raw collection of short stories"; Eden Wood of Diva Magazine praising Osman's "vivid and intimate" style; Will Davis, writing in Attitude Magazine, likewise noted that Fairytales for Lost Children was "a rich, complex and lyrical set of tales," adding that "this collection of stories is sure to move and enthral in equal measure.

"[2] Dominique Sisley of Dazed & Confused commended the collection for exploring subjects "often ignored by mainstream media – namely being LGBT in Africa, and being torn between your sexual impulses and your cultural heritage".

"[16] Osman was praised by Brittle Paper as being "a master of the surreal",[16] and by novelist, Sofia Samatar, as "an artist of glittering style" whose "writing is similarly streetwise and mystical, inspired by jazz, hip-hop, the rhythms of prayer, and the syncopated sounds of multilingual urban slang.

"[4] Writing in Another Africa, Elmi Ali notes that Osman's images, "which usually feature female heroines, adorned in intricate lines, decadent and colourful", are "reminiscent of the Art Nouveau masters of the past[...] The Austrian artist Gustav Klimt is hinted at but his work finds an uncanny kinship in Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, a brilliant Scottish artist also of the Art Nouveau period."

[21] To this end, Osman's piece The Goddess Complex – Aquatic Arabesque, which he painted during a three-week commission for an Omani-English couple with whom he was friends, features a poem entitled "Your Love" by the Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani.

[22] Osman's At The Altar of Imagination, a non-commissioned drawing, likewise contains Hebrew script in addition to Arabic verses by the Sufi poet Ibn ‘Arabi.