Product Description
Heads of the Colored People
Author: Nafissa Thompson-Spires
Format: Paperback
National Book Award 2018
James Tait Black Memorial Prize 2019
Gordon Burn Prize 2019
A satirical and daring collection of short stories exploring black life from one of America's rising stars.
'Makes you shake your head in delight... Her stories feel simultaneously like the poke of a stick and a comforting balm; a smack followed by a kiss. I'm so into it' — Bim Adewunmi, Guardian
Heads of the Colored People interrogates our supposedly post-racial era to wicked and devastating effect, exposing the violence that threatens black Americans, no matter their apparent success.
A teenager is insidiously bullied as her YouTube following soars; an assistant professor finds himself losing a subtle war against his office mate; a nurse is worn down by the demand for her skills as a funeral singer. And across a series of stories, a young woman grows up, negotiating and renegotiating her identity.
This electric collection of short stories marks the arrival of a remarkable writer and an urgent new voice.
*Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction 2019*
*Shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2019*
About the Author
Nafissa Thompson-Spires is the author of the award-winning, National Book Award longlisted short story collection, Heads of the Colored People. She earned a doctorate in English from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Illinois. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in The Paris Review Daily, New York Magazine’s “The Cut,” The Root, The White Review, Ploughshares, 400 Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019, and The 1619 Project, among other publications.
In addition to a debut novel with Scribner, The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Rich Milford, her young adult debut is forthcoming with Make Me a World (Penguin Random House). She is the recipient of a 2024 United States Artists Grant and a 2019 Whiting Award.
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