Safia Elhillo. Photo from TCB Book Club.

The prize-winning Sudanese poet Safia Elhillo has had the North America rights to her debut Young Adult novel acquired by Make Me a World, an imprint of Penguin Random House. The book, Nima on the Other Side, is a novel in verse. It “melds the real with the surreal, as teenage Nima struggles to fit into her white suburban town, while grappling with the phantom of a life not chosen and a girl who may be more real than she seems.”

Nima on the Other Side is set for a Spring 2021 release.

Elhillo shared the news on Instagram.

Elhillo, who was a guest editor for 20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, last month donated, along with the poet Dalia Elhassan, proceeds from sales of her poetry collection to the Sudan Revolution.

Congratulations to Safia Elhillo.