Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond.

Ghanaian-American author Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond is hosting an online reading group on contemporary African novels with The Center for Fiction over 5 months, starting January 10. Sign up for the group ASAP!

Brooklyn-based literary nonprofit organization The Center for Fiction aims to celebrate the creation and enjoyment of fiction. This Zoom reading group will be a conversational, participant-driven discussion experience, aiming to glean a deeper understanding of African novels and their contexts.

Read the full description below:

Africa is a continent of 54 countries and three territories, covering 11,724,00 square miles, populated by an estimated 1.216 billion people who speak thousands of languages and practice thousands of cultures. Its history and politics are storied, as are its resources, and though much has been written about the ways colonialism and the slave trades have impacted Africa and Africans, and how politics and poverty have gutted its economies, there just aren’t enough books, nor is there enough time, to fully grasp its richness or diversity. With this course, we eschew broad strokes and generalizations for the nuance of stories anchored in highly specific contemporary scenarios and regional settings with the hope that what we glean will inspire deeper understanding and a hunger to read even more.

The sessions and meeting dates are as follows, all held over Zoom on Wednesdays, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM EST. Please read The Eternal Audience of One by Rémy Ngamije in advance of the first session.

Session I, Jan 10: The Eternal Audience of One by Rémy Ngamije

Session II, Feb 7: The Tent by Miral al-Tahawy

Session III, March 6 : Things They Lost by Okwiri Oduor

Session IV, April 3: Mr. Fix-It by Richard Ali A Mutu

Session V, May 1: The Nigerwife by Vanessa Walters

Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond is the author of the children’s picture book Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky, illustrated by Caldecott Honor Artist Daniel Minter. Named among the best books of 2022 by NPR, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Kirkus Reviews, and more, Blue was honored with the 2023 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award recognizing excellence in the writing of non-fiction for children, included on the Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List, and nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Brew-Hammond also wrote the YA novel Powder Necklace, and edited Relations: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices.

You can either purchase the reading group as is for $225.00 for all five sessions, or the ‘With Books’ option for $319, which includes all titles required for this group at a 10% discount from the bookstore.

Sign up for Brew-Hammond’s exciting reading group here.