Spears Books has announced the signing of Makuchi, the pen name of Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi, for the publication of her upcoming short story collection, Woman of the Lake, scheduled for release in the Summer of 2026. For readers of Cameroonian and African diaspora literature, mark your calendars.

Born in Cameroon and educated at the University of Yaoundé and McGill University, Makuchi currently serves as Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at North Carolina State University, where she is also Associate Dean of Faculty and Staff Development and Success. She is a past president of the African Literature Association, and her fiction, including Your Madness, Not Mine: Stories of Cameroon and The Sacred Door and Other Stories: Cameroon Folktales of the Beba, has established her as one of the most consistently compelling voices in African short fiction writing in English.

The title story has already demonstrated its pull: “Woman of the Lake” was previously nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and “Land of My Dreams,” another story from her recent work, earned an honorable mention in the 2023 Best Short Story award category from the African Literature Association. That two stories from this body of work have already attracted that kind of recognition before the collection is even out is a very good sign of what the full book promises.

Spears Books is an independent publisher dedicated to bringing outstanding African and Africana fiction, children’s literature, poetry, and academic titles to a global audience. Woman of the Lake will be available later this summer. Follow Spears Books for pre-order details as they are announced.