Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
{{Short description|American author (born c. 1991)}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2025}}
{{use mdy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{Infobox Author
| name = Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
| image = Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah 5182908.jpg
| caption = Adjei-Brenyah in 2019
| birth_date = c. {{Birth year and age|1991}}{{Cite news |last=Borrelli |first=Christopher |date=2023-05-24 |title='Chain-Gang' author Adjei-Brenyah on writing about violence |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-ent-nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-chain-gang-all-stars-20230524-27cjx7n5rrasnk4bha23iujwbu-story.html |url-status=live |access-date=2023-07-02 |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |archive-date=2023-07-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702094103/https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-ent-nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-chain-gang-all-stars-20230524-27cjx7n5rrasnk4bha23iujwbu-story.html }}{{Cite web |last=Rao |first=Mallika |date=2023-04-25 |title=Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Is Asking the Hard Questions |url=https://www.vulture.com/article/nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-chain-gang-all-stars-profile.html |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=Vulture |language=en-us |archive-date=2023-07-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702094056/https://www.vulture.com/article/nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-chain-gang-all-stars-profile.html |url-status=live }}
| birth_place = The Bronx, New York City, United States
| language = English
| alma_mater = University at Albany, SUNY, Syracuse University
| genre = Speculative fiction
| notable_works = {{Unbulleted list|Friday Black (2018)|Chain-Gang All-Stars (2023)}}
}}
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.{{Cite web |title=On protecting the magic of your creative work |url=https://thecreativeindependent.com/people/writer-nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-on-protecting-the-magic-of-your-creative-work/ |access-date=2023-11-19 |website=thecreativeindependent.com |archive-date=2023-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119194608/https://thecreativeindependent.com/people/writer-nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-on-protecting-the-magic-of-your-creative-work/ |url-status=live }} 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.{{Cite news |last=The New York Times Books Staff |date=November 28, 2023 |title=The 10 Best Books of 2023 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/books/review/best-books-2023.html |access-date=November 28, 2023 |newspaper=The New York Times |archive-date=November 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231128142545/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/books/review/best-books-2023.html |url-status=live }} In 2025, he was announced as a Guggenheim Fellow.{{cite web |title=Announcing the 2025 Guggenheim Fellows |url=https://www.gf.org/stories/announcing-the-2025-guggenheim-fellows |website=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation | date=April 15, 2025| access-date=May 4, 2025}}
Early life and education
Adjei-Brenyah was born in Queens, New York City, but grew up in Spring Valley, New York. Both of his parents are from Ghana.{{Cite news |last=Alter |first=Alexandra |date=2018-10-19 |title='Friday Black' Uses Fantasy and Blistering Satire to Skewer Racism and Consumer Culture |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/books/friday-black-nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-debut-collection.html |access-date=2023-07-02 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=2023-07-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702094058/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/books/friday-black-nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-debut-collection.html |url-status=live }} His father was a defense attorney and his mother was a kindergarten teacher. Adjei-Brenyah started writing from a young age and wrote for his high school's literature magazine.
Adjei-Brenyah went to the University at Albany, SUNY, for his undergraduate degree, where he learned from Lynne Tillman. 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. Adjei-Brenyah went on to teach in the same program.
After college, Adjei-Brenyah became interested in prison abolition and worked at the Rockland Coalition to End the New Jim Crow.
Writing career
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. His non-fiction writing includes a foreword to How a Game Lives, a collection of critical essays by Jacob Geller.King, Andrew. [https://www.thegamer.com/jacob-geller-book-youtube-creators-physical-media-how-a-game-lives/ "After Jacob Geller's Book, More YouTube Creators Should Release Their Work In Physical Form"], The Gamer, 15 March 2024. Retrieved 1 June 2024[https://www.lostincult.co.uk/ How a Game Lives], Lost in Cult. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
= ''Friday Black'' =
{{Main|Friday Black}}
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. Vulture described the book as "an irreverent, genre-bending approach to ripped-from-the-headlines subject matter".
= ''Chain-Gang All-Stars'' =
{{Main|Chain-Gang All-Stars}}
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.{{Cite magazine |last=Bellot |first=Gabrielle |date=2023-05-23 |title=Chain-Gang All-Stars Is Gladiator Meets the American Prison System |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2023/05/chain-gang-all-stars-book-review/674143/ |access-date=2023-07-02 |magazine=The Atlantic |language=en |archive-date=2023-06-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230630085855/https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2023/05/chain-gang-all-stars-book-review/674143/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite magazine |last=Parham |first=Jason |title=Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Is the New Maestro of the Genre Novel |language=en-US |magazine=Wired |url=https://www.wired.com/story/nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-chain-gang-all-stars-wired30/ |date=May 2, 2023|access-date=2023-07-02 |issn=1059-1028 |archive-date=2023-07-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702094058/https://www.wired.com/story/nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-chain-gang-all-stars-wired30/ |url-status=live }} 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.
The book is a fictional novel but features many footnotes citing current laws and factual statistics about the incarceration system in the United States.{{Cite news |last=Shariatmadari |first=David |date=2023-07-08 |title=Author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah on policing in America: 'It's a kind of poison' |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/08/author-nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-on-us-policing-its-a-kind-of-poison |access-date=2023-11-19 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=2023-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119195235/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/08/author-nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-on-us-policing-its-a-kind-of-poison |url-status=live }}
Chain-Gang All-Stars started as a short story for inclusion in Friday Black but became too long. 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.
Chain-Gang All-Stars was shortlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction.{{Cite web |last=Harris |first=Elizabeth A. |date=October 3, 2023 |title=Here Are the Finalists for the 2023 National Book Awards |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/03/books/national-book-award-finalists-2023.html |access-date=October 3, 2023 |website=The New York Times |archive-date=October 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231003151412/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/03/books/national-book-award-finalists-2023.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite magazine |date=September 15, 2023 |title=The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist: Fiction |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-2023-national-book-awards-longlist-fiction |access-date=September 18, 2023 |magazine=The New Yorker |archive-date=September 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230917074624/https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-2023-national-book-awards-longlist-fiction |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |date=September 15, 2023 |title=Here's the longlist for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction. |url=https://lithub.com/heres-the-longlist-for-the-2023-national-book-award-for-fiction/ |access-date=September 18, 2023 |website=Literary Hub |archive-date=September 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929135630/https://lithub.com/heres-the-longlist-for-the-2023-national-book-award-for-fiction/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |last=Nguyen |first=Sophia |date=October 3, 2023 |title=Here are the finalists for the 2023 National Book Awards |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/10/03/national-book-awards-shortlist/ |access-date=October 3, 2023 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}{{Cite web |date=2023-10-05 |title=The End of the World, According to Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah |url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a45236201/nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-profile/|first=Leah |last=Greenblatt |access-date=2023-11-19 |website=Esquire |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119194749/https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a45236201/nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-profile/ |url-status=live }} Kirkus Reviews gave it a starred review and chose the novel as one of the best books of 2023.{{Cite web |title=Best of 2023 |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/best-of/2023/fiction/books/ |access-date=2023-11-21 |website=Kirkus Reviews |language=en |archive-date=2023-11-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231120033011/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/best-of/2023/fiction/books/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |date=January 24, 2023 |title=Chain-Gang All-Stars |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah/chain-gang-all-stars/ |access-date=December 3, 2024 |website=Kirkus Reviews}} The New York Times named it one of the 10 best books of 2023.{{Cite news |last=The New York Times Books Staff|date=November 28, 2023 |title=The 10 Best Books of 2023 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/books/review/best-books-2023.html |access-date=November 28, 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=November 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231128142545/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/books/review/best-books-2023.html |url-status=live }}
Awards and nominations
Publications
- {{Cite book |ref=none |last=Adjei-Brenyah |first=Nana Kwame |title=Friday Black |title-link=Friday Black |date=2018 |publisher=Mariner/HarperCollins |isbn=978-1-328-91124-7 |language=en |author-mask=2}}
- {{Cite book |ref=none |last=Adjei-Brenyah |first=Nana Kwame |title=Chain-Gang All-Stars |title-link=Chain-Gang All-Stars |date=2023 |publisher=Pantheon/Knopf/Random House/PRH |isbn=978-0-593-31734-1 |language=en |author-mask=2}}
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
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Category:21st-century African-American writers
Category:21st-century American novelists
Category:21st-century American short story writers
Category:American people of Ghanaian descent
Category:American speculative fiction writers
Category:People from Spring Valley, New York
Category:Syracuse University alumni