Chigozie Obioma was born in Nigeria. He has lived in Cyprus, Turkey and now the United States where he is a Helen Zell fellow at the University of Michigan. A recipient of Hopwood Awards in fiction and poetry, his fiction has appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review and Transition.
The Titanic Survivors Book Club (2024) Timothy Schaffert "In The Titanic Survivors Book Club, Timothy Schaffert takes the iconic tragic event of the Titanic and turns it into a story of chance encounters, entanglements, romance, and engagement with books. Set against the backdrop of the first world war, this is an ambitious novel that is as engaging and fast-paced as it is intellectually stimulating--like something written by Iris Murdoch."
A Kind of Madness (2024) Uche Okonkwo "To read Uche Okonkwo's A Kind of Madness is to have an experience: of complex characters grappling with life's many troubles, of a robust culture, of history, of the battle between the domestic and the public, and all the big themes of life woven together. Like Jhumpa Lahiri, Okonkwo's mastery of the form is as rich as some of the short story's best practitioners and deserves every recognition it is sure to get."
Crooked Seeds (2024) Karen Jennings "Karen Jennings is a modern master of the castaway novel. Her characters are often exiled from the world - physically or psychologically, sometimes both. Crooked Seed's Deidre and Trudy are unforgettable characters living on the margins of life. Together they make this an unsparing, yet profoundly beautiful novel."
Digging Stars (2023) Novuyo Rosa Tshuma "An utterly remarkable novel of real ambition and heft by a truly significant young writer."
Dioramas (2023) Blair Austin "Blair Austin's Dioramas is a novel of endless possibilities and conceptual fiction at its finest. While it bears resemblance to Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, this novel is a masterwork in its own right and a major artistic leap for a debut novel."
A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times (2022) Meron Hadero "Meron Hadero's collection, A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times brims with lives on the margins, collisions that do not fully happen, redemptions thwarted at the last minute. Yet, it is through these moments that the vastness of the modern lives of immigrants (or the "transposed") are examined and fully revealed. This style, which time and time again comes off the page as truly effortless, is what makes Hadero a new master of the form, and this collection a masterful one."
Velorio (2022) Xavier Navarro Aquino "Velorio is a novel reckoning with the tragic event of the great Puerto Rican hurricane and a vibrant examination of quiet lives in extremis. It is an assured, brilliant debut from a new, gifted writer."
Flight Risk (2021) Joy Castro "Funny, sexy, and transfixing, Joy Castro’s Flight Risk is a meditation on love, marriage, art, family, womanhood—and therefore, life itself. Castro skillfully builds tension, and the slow intensity with which the plot’s arc forms gives the novel its exquisite and powerful impact."
Via Negativa (2020) Daniel Hornsby "Daniel Hornsby's Via Negativa is a novel of daring possibilities. As brief as it is, its scope is as large as an epic as it tackles questions of theology, spirituality, and modernity, amongst others, in prose shot through with humor and grace. It is an assured novel waiting patiently to be noticed."
How Much of These Hills is Gold (2020) C Pam Zhang "Zhang writes with the clear-eyed lucidity of ancient myth-makers whose eyes are attuned to the vicissitudes of nature and humanity. Her characters inhabit this universe with a distinct and memorable presence that will haunt readers in this riveting and truly remarkable debut."
Small Country (2018) Gaël Faye "An evocative portrait of what it means to lose one’s freedom and innocence. Gaël Faye’s literary powers lie in his unbridled honesty and his effortless prose. He is a writer of great promise and grace."
