Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah | |
---|---|
![]() Adjei-Brenyah in 2019 | |
Born | c. 1991 (age 33–34) [1] [2] The Bronx, New York City, United States |
Language | English |
Alma mater | University at Albany, SUNY, Syracuse University |
Genre | Speculative fiction |
Notable works |
|
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is an American speculative fiction author who wrote the short-story collection Friday Black (2018) and his debut novel Chain-Gang All-Stars (2023). He was named one of "5 under 35 Authors" by the National Book Foundation in 2018 and won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award in 2019. [3] Chain-Gang All-Stars was shortlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction and The New York Times named it one of the ten best books of 2023. [4]
Adjei-Brenyah was born in Queens, New York City, but grew up in Spring Valley, New York. Both of his parents are from Ghana. [5] His father was a defense attorney and his mother was a kindergarten teacher. [1] Adjei-Brenyah started writing from a young age and wrote for his high school's literature magazine. [2]
Adjei-Brenyah went to the University at Albany, SUNY, for his undergraduate degree, where he learned from Lynne Tillman. [2] [5] He attended the graduate writing program at Syracuse University with the goal to study with George Saunders in the creative writing program. Saunders later became his thesis adviser and mentor. [1] Adjei-Brenyah went on to teach in the same program. [5]
After college, Adjei-Brenyah became interested in prison abolition and worked at the Rockland Coalition to End the New Jim Crow. [2]
Adjei-Brenyah's published works are set in near-future dystopias. They often explore the topics of exploitation, capitalism, and the societal acceptance of violence. [1] His non-fiction writing includes a foreword to How a Game Lives, a collection of critical essays by Jacob Geller. [6] [7]
Adjei-Brenyah's debut book is a collection of 12 satirical short stories exploring many topics, including racism in modern-day America, consumerism, school shootings, and generational violence. [5] Vulture described the book as "an irreverent, genre-bending approach to ripped-from-the-headlines subject matter". [2]
Adjei-Brenyah's first novel is set in a dystopian America where imprisoned people have the choice to leave prison by joining a gladiatorial system called the "CAPE" or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment program where they take part in televised duels to the death as part of alliances called Chain Gangs. If they manage to survive three years of battles, then they are freed. [8] [9] The book has a large cast and is written from the perspective of multiple people participating in the program, as well as activists fighting against it, fans, and the people running it. [8]
The book is a fictional novel but features many footnotes citing current laws and factual statistics about the incarceration system in the United States. [2] [10]
Chain-Gang All-Stars started as a short story for inclusion in Friday Black but became too long. [2] Adjei-Brenyah has said that he developed it into a novel because he felt he needed to spend more time exploring the main character, Loretta Thurwar. [9]
Chain-Gang All-Stars was shortlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] Kirkus Reviews gave it a starred review and chose the novel as one of the best books of 2023. [16] [17] The New York Times named it one of the 10 best books of 2023. [18]
Year | Work | Award | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | Friday Black | National Book Foundation: 5 Under 35 | Won | [19] |
John Leonard Prize for Best First Book | Finalist | [20] | ||
2019 | PEN/Jean Stein Book Award | Won | [21] [22] | |
Aspen Words Literary Prize | Shortlist | [23] | ||
Dylan Thomas Prize | Shortlist | [24] | ||
2020 | William Saroyan International Prize for Writing | Won | [25] | |
2023 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize | Shortlist | [26] |
National Book Award for Fiction | Shortlist | [27] | ||
Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction | Nominated | [28] | ||
Goodreads Choice Award for Debut Novel | Nominated | [29] | ||
2024 | Alex Award | Won | [30] | |
Aspen Words Literary Prize | Finalist | [31] |
Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead is an American novelist. He is the author of nine novels, including his 1999 debut The Intuitionist; The Underground Railroad (2016), for which he won the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; and The Nickel Boys, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction again in 2020, making him one of only four writers ever to win the prize twice. He has also published two books of nonfiction. In 2002, he received a MacArthur Fellowship.
Alice McDermott is an American writer and university professor. She is the author of nine novels and a collection of essays. For her 1998 novel Charming Billy she won an American Book Award and the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the International Dublin Literary Award and the Orange Prize. That Night, At Weddings and Wakes, and After This were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Her most recent novel, Absolution was awarded the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award.
The Texas Book Festival is a free annual book festival held in downtown Austin, Texas. The festival takes place each fall in October or November and includes programming for children and adults. It is one of the largest and most critically acclaimed book festivals in the United States.
The William Saroyan International Prize for Writing is a biennial literary award for fiction and nonfiction in the spirit of William Saroyan by emerging writers. It was established by Stanford University Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation to "encourage new or emerging writers rather than recognize established literary figures;" the prize being $12,500.
Jesmyn Ward is an American novelist and a professor of English at Tulane University, where she holds the Andrew W. Mellon Professorship in the Humanities. She won the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction for her second novel Salvage the Bones, a story about familial love and community in facing Hurricane Katrina. She won the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction for her novel Sing, Unburied, Sing.
Christina Lauren, the combined pen name of Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, is an American author duo of contemporary fiction, teen fiction and romance novels.
Kwame Alexander is an American writer of poetry and children's fiction.
Amie Kaufman is an Australian author. She has authored New York Times bestselling and internationally bestselling science fiction and fantasy for young adults. She is known for the Starbound Trilogy and Unearthed, which she co-authored with Meagan Spooner; for her series The Illuminae Files, co-authored with Jay Kristoff; and for her solo series, Elementals. Her books have been published in over 35 countries.
Rebecca Albertalli is an American author of young adult fiction and former psychologist. She is known for her 2015 debut novel, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, which was adapted into the 2018 film Love, Simon and inspired the spin-off television series Love, Victor. Albertalli has subsequently published seven additional novel-length works of young adult fiction, along with 2020's novella Love, Creekwood, from which Albertalli has donated all proceeds to The Trevor Project.
Lisa Lucas is an American publishing executive. From 2020 to 2024, she was senior vice president at Knopf Doubleday, and from 2016 to 2020 she was executive director of the National Book Foundation.
Carmen Maria Machado is an American short story author, essayist, and critic best known for Her Body and Other Parties, a 2017 short story collection, and her memoir In the Dream House, which was published in 2019 and won the 2021 Folio Prize. Machado is frequently published in The New Yorker, Granta, Lightspeed, and other publications. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the Nebula Award for Best Novelette. Her stories have been reprinted in Year's Best Weird Fiction, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, Best Horror of the Year, The New Voices of Fantasy, and Best Women's Erotica.
Friday Black is the 2018 debut book by author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. The collection of short stories explores themes surrounding black identity as it relates to a range of contemporary social issues. The stories are set in a variety of twisted near-future and dystopian settings. The book received an overall positive reception, including the naming of Adjei-Brenyah as one of the "5 Under 35 Authors" for 2018 by the National Book Foundation.
The National Book Award for Translated Literature, is one of five annual National Book Awards, recognising outstanding literary works of translation into English and administered by the National Book Foundation. This award was previously bestowed from 1967 to 1983 but did not require the author to be living and was for works of fiction only. It was reintroduced in its current form in 2018 and is open to living translators and authors, for works of both fiction and non-fiction.
In the Dream House is a memoir by Carmen Maria Machado. It was published on November 5, 2019, by Graywolf Press.
The Tristan Strong series is a mythology book trilogy written by Kwame Mbalia. The series currently consists of three books. The first book, Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, was published on October 15, 2019, and the second installment, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, was released a year later on October 6, 2020. Book three, the last in the trilogy, Tristan Strong Keeps Punching, was announced on February 8, 2021, and released on October 5, 2021. All three books are about African-American folktales.
Shawn Andre Cosby is an American author of "Southern noir" crime fiction. He resides in Gloucester, Virginia, on the York River. Cosby has published four crime novels: My Darkest Prayer, Blacktop Wasteland, Razorblade Tears, and All the Sinners Bleed.
Heartstopper is an ongoing LGBTQ+ young adult graphic novel and webcomic series written and illustrated by British author Alice Oseman. It follows the lives of Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring as they meet and fall in love. The series is a prequel to Oseman's 2015 novella, Nick and Charlie, although the characters originally appeared in her 2014 novel, Solitaire.
Chain-Gang All-Stars is the 2023 debut novel by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. It was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction, as well as other awards.
The New York Times' 100 Best Books of the 21st Century is a ranked list of the 100 best novels published in the English language since January 1, 2000.
Moon Palace Books is an independent bookstore in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 2012 by Angela and Jamie Schwesnedl, it sells rare and used books and, after having moving twice since its establishment, is currently located on Minnehaha Avenue near Lake Street.