×
Your location has been changed to St. Louis area.
LBB Presents: Chukwuebuka Ibeh with David Schuman - Blessings
Left Bank Books presents Chukwuebuka Ibeh for the launch event to celebrate his highly anticipated debut novel "Blessings"! Named one of "USA Today," "Esquire," & "Cosmopolitan"'s most anticipated books of 2024, we are excited to discuss this book by Ibeh who was profiled as one of the "Most Promising New Voices of Nigerian Fiction" by "Electric Literature." Currently a Washington University MFA student, Ibeh is certainly going to be an author to watch.
Ibeh will be in conversation with David Schuman, director of the MFA program at Washington University.
Ibeh will personalize and sign copies after the presentation! Personalized and signed copies will be available to be mailed anywhere in the country. For personalized copies, please order before noon on June 4th.
Join us at Left Bank Books
399 N. Euclid Ave
St. Louis, MO 63108
Please RSVP for this event: https://forms.gle/z2YGMx23VwxJ5CnU7
Order the Book: https://www.left-bank.com/book/9780385550642
Watch the livestream on Left Bank Books' YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/@LeftBankBooks/streams
About the Speakers:
CHUKWUEBUKA IBEH is a writer from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, born in 2000. His writing has appeared in "McSweeneys," "New England Review of Books" and "Lolwe," amongst others, and he is a staff writer at "Brittle Paper." He was the runner-up for the 2021 J.F. Powers Prize for Fiction, was a finalist for the Gerald Kraak Award, and was profiled as one of the "Most Promising New Voices of Nigerian Fiction" by "Electric Literature." He has studied creative writing under Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dave Eggers, and Tash Aw, and is currently a an MFA student at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
David Schuman currently directs the MFA program at Washington University in St. Louis and coordinates the creative writing concentration for undergraduate English majors. Schuman’s fiction, nonfiction and reviews have appeared in "Catapult", "Fence," "Joyland," "Missouri Review," "Conjunctions," "Black Warrior Review," "The Rumpus" and many other publications. His work has been anthologized, most recently in "Walking on Lava: Selected Works for Uncivilized Times," published by the Dark Mountain Project. He has been awarded a Pushcart Prize and his story, “Stay,” was listed as a distinguished story in "Best American Short Stories." He was recently awarded a MacDowell fellowship. Schuman's prose chapbook, "Best Men," is published by Tammy Press. He teaches a range of fiction and nonfiction courses, including The Short-Short, Sudden Fiction and Microfiction and Stories in the Suburbs.
About "Blessings":
"Chukwuebuka Ibeh's writing has a certain delicacy to it, so wonderfully observant, and so beautiful." --Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of "Americanah"
"Moonlight" meets "Purple Hibiscus" in this searing debut of self-acceptance, sexual awakening, and first love set in a Nigeria on the verge of criminalizing same-sex relationships
Obiefuna has always been the black sheep of his family--sensitive where his father, Anozie, is pragmatic, a dancer where his brother, Ekene, is a natural athlete. But when Obiefuna's father witnesses an intimate moment between his teenage son and another boy, his deepest fears are confirmed, and Obiefuna is banished to boarding school.
As he navigates his new school's strict hierarchy and unpredictable violence, Obiefuna both finds and hides who he truly is. Back home, his mother, Uzoamaka, must contend with the absence of her beloved son, her husband's cryptic reasons for sending him away, and the hard truths that they've all been hiding from. As Nigeria teeters on the brink of criminalizing same-sex relationships, Obiefuna's identity becomes more dangerous than ever before, and the life he wants drifts further out of reach.
Set in post-military Nigeria and culminating in the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act of 2013, "Blessings" is an elegant and exquisitely moving story that asks how to live freely in a country that forbids one's truest self, and what it takes for love to flourish despite it all.
Event Links
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/2428537-0
