Ugandan author Ber Anena has secured a six-figure deal with Flatiron Books for her forthcoming memoir, The Lies We Tell for America, acquired in a pre-empt by editor Kukuwa Fraser for North American rights.

According to Publisher’s Marketplace, the memoir explores Anena’s time at Columbia University during the COVID-19 pandemic, reflecting on identity, immigration, and the complex realities of a Western education as an international student.

Anena, an acclaimed writer and poet, won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa in 2018 for her poetry collection A Nation in Labour. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The Atlantic, Brittle Paper, and the New Daughters of Africa anthology. An MFA graduate from Columbia, she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The Lies We Tell for America promises to bring a personal, nuanced perspective on navigating identity and belonging in an American academic setting, and the preemptive, six-figure acquisition signals strong anticipation for Anena’s voice and insight. Readers can expect this timely memoir to resonate with themes of cross-cultural experience and self-discovery.

 

 

 

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