Chris Abani

Kwame Senu Neville Dawes

TJ Dema, Clifton Gachagua, Tsitsi Jaji, Nick Makoha, Ladan Osman, Warsan Shire, Len Verwey

Seven New Generation African Poets

"A richly detailed, poignant, and utterly fascinating look into another culture and how it is cross-pollinated by our own. It brings to mind the work of Ha Jin in its power and revelation of the new."--T. Coraghessan Boyle The sprawling, swampy, cacophonous city of Lagos, Nigeria, provides the backdrop to the story of Elvis, a teenage Elvis impersonator hoping to make his way out of the ghetto. Nuanced, lyrical, and pitch perfect, this is a remarkable story of a son and his father, and an examination of postcolonial Nigeria, where the trappings of American culture reign supreme.

A Novel

GraceLand

Determined to solve a series of murders before he retires, detective Salazar turns to Sunil Singh, a South African transplant who specializes in psychopaths, to help determine if a pair of conjoined twins he apprehended are the killers.

The Secret History of Las Vegas

From the author of the award-winning GraceLand comes a searing, dazzlingly written novel of a tarnished City of Angels Praised as “singular” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) and “extraordinary” (The New York Times Book Review), GraceLand stunned critics and instantly established Chris Abani as an exciting new voice in fiction. In his second novel, set against the uncompromising landscape of East L.A., Abani follows a struggling artist named Black, whose life and friendships reveal a world far removed from the mainstream. Through Black’s journey of self- discovery, Abani raises essential questions about poverty, religion, and ethnicity in America today. The Virgin of Flames, a marvelous and gritty novel filled with indelible images and unforgettable characters, confirms Chris Abani as an immensely talented writer.

The Virgin of Flames

In The Face: Cartography of the Void, acclaimed poet, novelist, and screenwriter Chris Abani has given us a brief memoir that is, in the best tradition of the genre, also an exploration of the very nature of identity. Abani meditates on his own face, beginning with his early childhood that was immersed in the Igbo culture of West Africa. The Face is a lush work of art that teems with original and profound insights into the role of race, culture, and language in fashioning our sense of self. Abani’s writing is poetic, filled with stories, jokes, and reflections that draw readers into his fold; he invites them to explore their own “faces” and the experiences that have shaped them. As Abani so lovingly puts it, this extended essay contemplates “all the people who have touched my face, slapped it, punched it, kissed it, washed it, shaved it. All of that human contact must leave some trace, some of the need and anger that motivated that touch. This face is softened by it all. Made supple by all the wonder it has beheld, all the kindness, all the generosity of life.” The Face is a gift to be read, re-read, shared, and treasured, from an author at the height of his artistic powers. Abani directs his gaze both inward and out toward the world around him, creating a self-portrait in which readers will also see their own faces reflected. Abani’s essay is part of a groundbreaking new series from Restless Books called The Face, in which a diverse group of writers takes readers on a guided tour of that most intimate terrain: their own faces. Visit www.restlessbooks.com/the-face-series for more information. Chris Abani is a novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright. Born in Nigeria to an Igbo father and English mother, he grew up in Afikpo, Nigeria, and has resided in the United States since 2001. His fiction includes The Secret History of Las Vegas, Song For Night, The Virgin of Flames, Becoming Abigail, GraceLand, and Masters of the Board. His poetry collections are Sanctificum, There Are No Names for Red, Feed Me The Sun - Collected Long Poems, Hands Washing Water, Dog Woman, Daphne’s Lot, and Kalakuta Republic.

Cartography of the Void

The Face

"Compelling and gorgeously written, this is a coming-of-age novella like no other. Chris Abani explores the depths of loss and exploitation with what can only be described as a knowing tenderness. An extraordinary, necessary book."--Cristina Garcia, author of Dreaming in Cuban "Abani's voice brings perspective to every moment, turning pain into a beautiful painterly meditation on loss and aloneness."--Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt "Abani's empathy for Abigail's torn life is matched only by his honesty in portraying it. Nothing at all is held back. A harrowing piece of work."--Peter Orner, author of The Esther Stories Tough, spirited, and fiercely independent Abigail is brought as a teenager to London from Nigeria by relatives who attempt to force her into prostitution. She flees, struggling to find herself in the shadow of a strong but dead mother. In spare yet haunting and lyrical prose reminiscent of Marguerite Duras, Abani brings to life a young woman who lives with a strength and inner light that will enlighten and uplift the reader. Chris Abani is a poet and novelist and the author, most recently, of GraceLand, which won the 2005 PEN/Hemingway Prize, a Silver Medal in the California Book Awards, and was a finalist for several other prizes including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His other prizes include a PEN Freedom-to-Write Award, a Prince Claus Award, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship. He lives and teaches in California.

A Novella

Becoming Abigail

My Luck, a West African boy solider who has not spoken for three years, fights in a senseless war and embarks on a terrifying yet beautiful journey to find his lost platoon.

Song for Night

Chris Abani finds the sacred in a charged and broken world, to "build meaning from detritus."

Sanctificum

West Africa enters the Noir Series arena, meticulously edited by one of Nigeria's best-known authors.

Lagos Noir

Smoking the Bible

A self-described “zealot of optimism,” poet and best-selling novelist Chris Abani bravely travels the charged intersections of atrocity and love, politics and religion, loss and renewal. With language of devastating beauty and complexity, he investigates conflicted personal history and political tragedy, and how the human body fares against both.
 
A book-length sequence of linked poems, Sanctificum is Abani’s most intimate and ambitious book to date, a tour de force bringing together religious ritual, the Igbo language of his Nigerian homeland, and reggae rhythms in a complex, liturgical love song.

Masters of the Board

A gritty novel set against the backdrop of East L.A. follows a struggling artist named Black on a journey of self-discovery that reveals important questions about poverty, ethnicity, and religion in modern-day America. By the author of the award-winning GraceLand. Original. 50,000 first printing.

"A stellar cast of award-winning Nigerian authors ... a must-read for crime lovers looking for something different."'Brittle Paper In Akashic Books's acclaimed series of original noir anthologies, each book comprises all new stories set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. Now, West Africa enters the Noir Series arena, meticulously edited by one of Nigeria's best-known authors. In Lagos Noir, the stories are set in "a city of more than 21 million and an amazing amalgam of wealth, poverty, corruption, humor, bravery, and tragedy. Abani and a dozen other contributors tell stories that are both unique to Lagos and universal in their humanity ... This entry stands as one of the strongest recent additions to Akashic's popular noir series" (Publishers Weekly, starred review, pick of the week). The anthology includes stories by Chris Abani, Nnedi Okorafor, E.C. Osondu, Jude Dibia, Chika Unigwe, A. Igoni Barrett, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Adebola Rayo, Onyinye Ihezukwu, Uche Okonkwo, Wale Lawal, 'Pemi Aguda, and Leye Adenle. "The beauty of this book, which contains 13 stories from Nigerian writers, is that it serves as a travelogue, too."'Bloomberg, "The Darkest Summer Reading List for Those Bright, Beachy Days" "With writers like Igoni Barrett, Leye Adenle, and E.C. Osondu contributing, Lagos Noir offers wildly different perspectives on both the city itself and the state of noir fiction. This book is almost like a world in itself, one that you'll want to dive back into and get lost in again and again."'CrimeReads, "One of the 10 Best Crime Anthologies of 2018."

Roman

This powerful collection of poems details the harrowing experiences endured by Abani and other political prisoners at the hands of Nigeria’s military regime in the late 1980s. Abani vividly describes the characters that peopled this dark world, from prison inmates such as John James, tortured to death at the age of fourteen, to the general overseers. First published after his release from jail in 1991, Kalakuta Republic remains a paean to those who suffered and to the indomitable human spirit. ‘Reading Abani’s poems is like being singed by a red hot iron.’ Harold Pinter ‘Abani’s poetry resonates with a devastating beauty which cuts to the heart of human strength, survival and tyranny.’ Pride Magazine ‘Stunning poems … Abani conveys the experience in words shaped into art and made unforgettable by their quietness.’ New Humanist 'A beautiful work of art ... elevates art and humanity above meanness and inhumanity.' World Literature Today 'A brave and challenging book ... I was moved as much by what the poems have achieved as by what they have rescued from that nightmare world. Reading, I found myself in tears.' Sunday Tribune ‘An unheralded chunk of authentic literature’ New Statesman ‘Abani’s …poems contain moments of grace, humanity and humor.’ Susannah Tarbush, Diwaniya ‘Chris has emerged with poems that are graceful pieces of art, almost ready to be hung in a gallery for others to come and enter them and rest in them and weep in them and admire them.' Kwame Dawes, professor of English literature, University of Columbia, South Carolina, USA

Kalakuta Republic

“A devastating portrait of a boy holding onto the shreds of his innocence during a war that deliberately, remorselessly works to yank it away.”—Los Angeles Times Part Inferno, part Paradise Lost, part Sunjata epic, Song for Night is the story of a West African boy soldier’s terrifying yet oddly beautiful journey through a nightmare landscape of brutal war in search of his lost platoon. The mute protagonist—his vocal cords cut to lower the risk of detection by the enemy—writes in a ghostly voice about his fellow minesweepers, the things he’s witnessed, and the things he’s done, each chapter headed by a line of the sign language these children invented. This “immersive and dreamlike” novella (Publishers Weekly, starred review) by a PEN/Hemingway Award winner is unlike anything else written about an African war. “Not since Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird or Agota Kristof’s Notebook Trilogy has there been such a harrowing novel about what it’s like to be a young person in a war. That Chris Abani is able to find humanity, mercy, and even, yes, forgiveness, amid such devastation is something of a miracle.”—Rebecca Brown, author of The End of Youth “Impressive and fast-paced…narrated with such dry and lucid precision that it brings to mind Babel, Hemingway, McCarthy.”—Esquire

Seven New Generation African Poets: Seven new generation African poets: an introduction in two movements

Chris Hedges

Jonathan Shay

Brian Turner

Rachel Bentham

Emily Warn

Sinon Antoon

John Stallworthy

Andrew Himes

The Voices in Wartime Anthology explores the experience of war through the literary arts from ancient times to the present. The anthology includes the voices of US veterans of the Iraq war; experts on war trauma and the history of war; and poets from around the world. It includes poetry, essays, and narratives based on interviews conducted for the feature-length documentary film Voices in Wartime. The book features active-duty soldiers, veterans, torture victims, war correspondents, the families of the disappeared and the dead, poets, peace activists--the compelling responses of unique, individual human beings to the experience of war. Their poetry springs from unrelenting honesty, personal grief and deep compassion, and is infused with an understanding of hardship and suffering.The Voices in Wartime Anthology explores the experience of war through the literary arts from ancient times to the present. The anthology features the voices of US veterans of the Iraq war; experts on war trauma and the history of war; and poets from around the world. It includes:Jose Diaz, US Army Reserve military policeman and father of two. He returned to the US in the fall of 2004 after serving a year's deployment in Iraq as a military police sergeant in the Army Reserves. Brian Turner, who earned an MFA in Creative Writing (poetry) from the University of Oregon, and then served in the US Army for seven years. He was an infantry team leader in Iraq for a year beginning November 2003, and served with the Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Lt. General William Lennox, superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on American war poetry. Paul Mysliwiec, US Army First Lieutenant who led his unit through the invasion of Baghdad in spring 2003 and then spent months searching for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Jonathan Shay, psychiatrist for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in Boston. Shay treats combat veterans with severe psychological injuries and is the author of the best-selling books "Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character," and "Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming." Emily Warn, a poet, teacher, and activist--and the author of "The Novice Insomniac" and three other collections of poetry. Chris Hedges, a former "New York Times" war correspondent with 15 years of experience in places such as El Salvador, Kosovo, and the Persian Gulf. He shared a 2002 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of global terrorism. Andrew Himes, Executive Producer of Voices in Wartime and director of Beyond Wartime. David Connolly, poet and veteran who served honorably in Vietnam with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. Wilfred Owen, British soldier-poet during the First World War. Died in combat a week before the Armistice in 1918. Alix Wilber, novelist and Co-Executive Producer of Voices in Wartime. Jonathan Schell, author of Unconquerable World, and Fate of the Earth. Craig White, NBC cameraman, embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division, one of the first US Army units to enter Baghdad in April 2003. Sinan Antoon, Iraqi poet, filmmaker, and human rights activist. Chris Abani, Nigerian human rights activist and refugee. Nguyen Duy, widely considered the most important Vietnamese poet of his generation. Antonieta Villamil, Columbian poet, peace and human rights activist. Sheila Sebron, disabled, African-American Air Force veteran living with chronic PTSD and severe pain. John Henry Parker, veteran and founder of Veterans and Families. "If history and literature have taught us anything," said anthology editor and film producer Andrew Himes, "it is that in the midst of trauma, violence and death, it is the poets who help us make sense of the senseless. In a world turned upside down, listening attentively to the stories of others can open our hearts, our minds, and point the way to change."

Chris Abani

Books

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