Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is the young New York Times Bestselling author of the story collection Friday Black and Chain Gang All Stars. But what experiences have shaped the brilliant mind behind this cutting edge work of fiction? Nana and Gabe discuss what it was like for him to grow up Ghanian-American with his family in Spring Valley, Rockland County, NY. Nana & Gabe talk about his rapping, including his song Nabokov, which he does on the show and even breaks down his lyrics.

Visit Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's website and follow him on Twitter and Instagram

Buy Nana's story collection Friday Black

Read about Nana in New York Times

Watch Nana on YouTube

More episode resources and links

Email Gabe Hudson: [email protected]

Follow Gabe on Twitter and Instagram

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Elizabeth McCracken (author of The Hero of This Book)

Rafia Zakaria (author of Against White Feminism)

Rebecca Makkai (author of The Great Believers)

Tressie McMillan Cottom (NYT's columnist)

Merve Emre (contributing writer at The New Yorker)

Charles Yu (National Book Award Winner)

About the Host:

Gabe Hudson is the award-winning author of 2 books published from Knopf. His honors include being named one of Granta’s “Best of Young American Novelists,” PEN/Hemingway Award Finalist, the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, the John Hawkes Prize in Fiction from Brown University, a fellowship from Humanities War & Peace Initiative at Columbia University, and Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His writing has appeared in Granta, The New Yorker, The Believer, McSweeney’s, and The New York Times Magazine. He was Editor-at-Large for McSweeney’s for 10+ years. He served in the Marine Corps. He teaches at Columbia University.  

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