Helen Oyeyemi has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. Her story, “If a Book Is Locked There’s Probably a Good Reason for That, Don’t You Think?,” sees its protagonist arrive an office for work only to find “a mysterious locked diary.” Described by the judges as “brilliant,” her story is up against […]
Tag Archives: helen oyeyemi
On Helen Oyeyemi | An Essay
It was Helen Oyeyemi who first made me realize what I’d always found dissatisfying about short stories. A short story is not a story. A short story is an abridged novel. There is always a novel latent in every short story. And it prevents the short story from exhibiting what Oyeyemi calls “faith in storytelling.” A […]
Helen Oyeyemi, Angela Ajayi and Grace Oluseyi Win 2017 PEN America Awards
Some of the winners of the 2017 PEN America awards have been announced and, to our delight, they include Helen Oyeyemi, Angela Ajayi and Grace Oluseyi. Helen Oyeyemi’s collection of stories, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, won the $5,000 PEN Open Book Award, given “for an exceptional book-length work of literature by an […]
Aaron Bady Praises Helen Oyeyemi’s New Book for Being Twisted and Imperfect
It was published a couple of weeks ago, on March 8. The reviews are gushing in and— like Helen Oyeyemi’s five other books—What is Yours is Not Yours is raking up loads of stars from happy critics. The New York Times calls it “transcendent.” NPR says it’s “flawless.” Not surprising though. What is Yours is Not […]
Helen Oyeyemi Surprises Us With a New Book and the Ultimate Promo Photographs
Two years after Boy, Snow, Bird—one of the best novels of 2014—Oyeyemi surprises us with a collection of short stories titled What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours. Oyeyemi is the queen of playfully experimental fiction, always taking risks with her work and pushing the boundaries on what it means to tell stories about Africa, blackness, and […]
I hold a doctorate in English from Duke University and recently joined the Marquette University English faculty as an Assistant Professor. I love teaching African fiction and contemporary British novels. Brittle Paper is the virtual space/station where I play and experiment with ideas on how to reinvent African fiction and literary culture.
