In “The Edge of Water,” A Prophecy Unravels a Nigerian Family’s Pursuit of the American Dream

Olufunke Grace Bankole’s debut novel The Edge of Water opens with a prophecy: “A storm is coming.” The order of things, the Iyanifa tells us, will be disrupted by a soul who defies her fate.  What follows is the story of three generations of Nigerian and Nigerian American women: Esther, who dreams of a different […] The post In “The Edge of Water,” A Prophecy Unravels a Nigerian Family’s Pursuit of the American Dream appeared first on Electric Literature. Continue reading at 'Electric Literature'

[ Electric Literature | 2025-02-04 12:00:00 UTC ]

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Secrets Live Inside My Son’s Ears

The Oracle by Joanna Pearson You name it, Lola’s found it in someone’s ear. A green Skittle, a watch battery, the tarnished back of a gold earring, a bunched-up bit of mint floss, a Lego head. Insects—yes, of course. Roaches of various sizes, a wasp, a small beetle. Hardened ear wax (cerumen,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-07-31 11:05:00 UTC ]
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Anita Gail Jones on Crafting Fiction From Family Heirlooms

For a decade while I was drafting it, my debut novel The Peach Seed had a different title, Peach Seed Monkey, which referred to a tiny monkey carved from a peach pit that had been a present to me and my sister when we were children. A book title has power to pique interest, crack […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-07-27 09:45:33 UTC ]
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Exclusive: See the cover for Phillip B. Williams’s debut novel, Ours.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Ours, the debut novel by award-winning poet Philip B. Williams, forthcoming from Viking in February. Here’s a bit about the book from the publisher: In this ingenious, sweeping novel, Phillip B. Williams introduces us to an enigmatic woman named... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-07-26 14:00:11 UTC ]
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I Can’t Offer Up My Culture for Consumption

As I prepare for the paperback launch of my debut novel The Girls in Queens, I share with a group of writers and artists that I’m putting together a Book Club Kit. This has become a fairly common digital offering; a colorful PDF of brief insights from the author, a recipe or two related to... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-07-25 11:12:00 UTC ]
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An annotated copy of Virginia Woolf’s difficult debut novel shows her evolution in action.

Virginia Woolf’s first novel, The Voyage Out, was published in the UK in 1915, after which she wanted to tweak some passages for the printing of the US edition. We know this thanks to the work of unsung hero Simon Cooper, a metadata officer at the University of Sydney, who found Woolf’s own copy... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-07-24 17:39:46 UTC ]
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Stories Are All about Taking up Space: A Conversation with Ekemini Pius, by Darlington Chibueze Anuonye

Stories Are All about Taking up Space: A Conversation with Ekemini Pius, by Darlington Chibueze Anuonye Interviews [email protected] Thu, 07/20/2023 - 15:08 Photo by Offlong EkpenyongThe first week of July, the Caine Prize for African Writing... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2023-07-20 20:08:39 UTC ]
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7 Novels That Reveal Librarians Behind the Shelves

It isn’t unusual for libraries to feature prominently in novels; novelists, after all, are merely adult versions of the little people who fell in love with books at public libraries. But what of librarians? The keepers of the books, the ones who know you prefer romance, science fiction, or... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-07-20 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Exclusive Cover Reveal of Jennifer Croft’s “The Extinction of Irena Rey”

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover for Jennifer Croft’s The Extinction of Irena Rey, which will be published by Bloomsbury Publishing on March 5th 2024. Preorder the book here. From the Booker International Prize-winning translator and Guggenheim fiction fellow, a propulsive,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-07-07 11:00:00 UTC ]
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This L.A. pharmacist's debut novel is loaded with sex and drugs. Don't tell her boss

Ruth Madievsky, a clinical pharmacist, insists her debut on sisters living dangerously is 'so fictional!' But it also channels her immigrant family's stories. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-07-06 13:00:43 UTC ]
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Letting a Wild Ride Be a Wild Ride: A Conversation with Amy Spangler, by Ipek Sahinler & Iclal Vanwesenbeeck

Letting a Wild Ride Be a Wild Ride: A Conversation with Amy Spangler, by Ipek Sahinler & Iclal Vanwesenbeeck Interviews [email protected] Wed, 07/05/2023 - 14:43 Amy Spangler is the co-translator (with Nermin Menemencioğlu) of Leylâ Erbil’s A... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2023-07-05 19:43:55 UTC ]
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Why a librarian’s debut novel explores forgiving the unforgivable

Debut novelist Terah Shelton Harris used to believe some actions were unforgivable. Then her mind was changed by survivors of a church shooting and a friend who was sexually assaulted. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2023-07-05 15:56:20 UTC ]
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Searching for Intimacy in the Gig Economy

Kathleen Cheng is having a hell of a Saturn Return. The late-20s protagonist of Jenny Xie’s debut novel Holding Pattern has just been dumped by the man she thought she’d spend her life with. Unmoored and questioning, she drops out of her cognitive psychology graduate program on the East Coast... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-07-05 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Yomi Adegoke: ‘There’s something inherently cringe about writing fiction’

The influencer and Slay in Your Lane co-author talks about her journey via Twitter to become a writer, and channelling her experience of social media into debut novel The List“Honestly, I’m a better painter than I am a writer,” says Yomi Adegoke, cackling, as she takes a sip of prosecco.... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-07-01 08:00:07 UTC ]
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15 Small Press Books You Should Be Reading This Summer

Small presses have been publishing excellent work by writers who you may not know (yet). From compelling short stories to heart-wrenching novels, these books will take you on a journey across states and countries, into the past or to the future, as well as deep into the minds of richly-drawn... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-30 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Writing a Book is an Act of Prayer

Lamya H’s powerful memoir Hijab Butch Blues is an honest grappling with what it means to be queer, to be a devout hijabi Muslim person who resists gender normativity, to love faith and community. Seeking other queer women in Islam as a young person, H wonders if Maryam, whom no man has touched,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-29 11:12:00 UTC ]
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Tom Rachman's debut novel was a joyful triumph. In his fourth, cynicism seeps in

Tom Rachman's 'The Imposters,' about an aging novelist spinning alternate histories, bears faint echoes of his acclaimed debut, 'The Imperfectionists.' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-06-26 13:00:23 UTC ]
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Coming Out of Two Closets Is Impossible Without a Sense of Humor

Greg Marshall’s memoir Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It is a brave and hilarious tour de force, taking us through his journey of self-acceptance as he grapples with cerebral palsy, queerness, and the early death of a parent. By offering us a front seat to the uproarious... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-22 11:01:00 UTC ]
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Black Women Are Being Erased in Book Publishing

Obsessively scratching her scalp, while simultaneously chiding herself not to, Kendra Rae Phillips sits on a MetroNorth train anxious and jittery. She’s worried about being found, after being found out. Every lingering eye incites more sweat, and more scratching. Relief only comes when her train... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-19 11:07:00 UTC ]
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Ashleigh Nugent: ‘Black stories were always about London’

The writer on the long gestation of Locks – his debut novel set in 90s Merseyside – his work in prisons and what Virginia Woolf has taught him Continue reading... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-06-17 17:00:19 UTC ]
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Turning Small Rebellions Into a Large Literary Revolution

Kenan Orhan’s debut, I Am My Country, feels like much more than just a book of imaginative short stories set in and around the author’s ancestral homeland of Turkey. The powerful collection could be said to comprise a series of real “small rebellions” — enacted by its characters, prose, and the... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-13 11:01:00 UTC ]
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