Ep. 266 We Are the Ones Who Make the World with Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
The Stacks
Traci Thomas
4.8 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 10 May 2023
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Award-winning author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah joins us for a spoiler-free discussion of his new novel Chain-Gang All Stars. He shares the pressures of releasing his second book on a topic that asks so much from the reader, and his trepidation around serving the cause of abolition in the prison space. Plus, we find out what makes revision so important to Nana, and how he thinks about employing violence in the book to help tell this story.
The Stacks Book Club selection for May is This Boy We Made by Taylor Harris. We will discuss the book on May 31st with Nicole Chung.
You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks' website:
https://thestackspodcast.com/2023/05/10/ep-266-nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You guys, the live and the stacks tour is underway. |
| 0:03.8 | We had an incredible night in Oakland filled with bookish conversations, hot takes, games, |
| 0:08.8 | cocktails. If you missed it, I'm sorry, but don't worry, it's not too late to see the stacks live |
| 0:15.3 | in one of our next four stops. Join me in Chicago with Samantha Erby on August 27th |
| 0:21.6 | in Washington, D.C. with Jason Reynolds on September 24th in New York City with KSA |
| 0:26.9 | layman on September 25th and in LA on October 18th with some extra special guests that we will be |
| 0:33.6 | announcing real soon. Tickets are selling fast so head to the stackspodcast.com slash tour |
| 0:40.4 | and get your tickets before we sell out. |
| 0:52.6 | Welcome to the stacks, a podcast about books and the people who read them. |
| 0:56.0 | I'm your host Tracy Thomas and today we are joined by the New York Times best-selling author |
| 1:00.7 | Nana Kwame Ajay Braña. His much anticipated second book, Chain Gang All Stars was just released |
| 1:06.1 | last week and it is so good. The book takes on mass incarceration, capitalism and entertainment |
| 1:11.9 | through imagining a world where those convicted of the most brutal crimes can fight each other |
| 1:16.3 | to the death to earn their freedom. Chain Gang All Stars is a powerful, |
| 1:21.2 | satirical indictment of systemic racism, unfettered capitalism and the United States prison system. |
| 1:27.4 | I have no doubt that this novel will be one of the best things I read all year and if Nana's name |
| 1:33.6 | sounds familiar to you, it's because he's been on the stacks before. Back in 2019, we featured |
| 1:39.4 | his short story collection Friday Black as a stacks book club pick. Today Nana and I talk about |
| 1:45.4 | the pressure of a second book, ambition and storytelling and using writing to uncover what the writer |
| 1:51.8 | truly believes. Remember our main book club selection is this boy we made a memoir of motherhood |
| 1:57.6 | genetics and facing the unknown by Taylor Harris. We will discuss the book on May 31st with Nicole |
| 2:03.5 | Chung. Quick reminder, everything we talk about on each episode of the stacks can be found in |
... |
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