# Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is an American speculative fiction author who wrote the short-story collection Friday Black (2018) and his debut novel Chain-Gang All-Stars (2023). He was named one of "5 under 35 Authors" by the National Book Foundation in 2018 and won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award in 2019. Chain-Gang All-Stars was shortlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction and The New York Times named it one of the ten best books of 2023.

## Early life and education

Adjei-Brenyah was born in Queens, New York City, but grew up in Spring Valley, New York. Both of his parents are from Ghana. His father was a defense attorney and his mother was a kindergarten teacher. Adjei-Brenyah started writing from a young age and wrote for his high school's literature magazine.
Adjei-Brenyah went to the University at Albany, SUNY, for his undergraduate degree, where he learned from Lynne Tillman. He attended the graduate writing program at Syracuse University with the goal to study with George Saunders in the creative writing program. Saunders later became his thesis adviser and mentor. Adjei-Brenyah went on to teach in the same program.
After college, Adjei-Brenyah became interested in prison abolition and worked at the Rockland Coalition to End the New Jim Crow.

## Writing career

Adjei-Brenyah's published works are set in near-future dystopias. They often explore the topics of exploitation, capitalism, and the societal acceptance of violence. His non-fiction writing includes a foreword to How a Game Lives, a collection of critical essays by Jacob Geller.

### Friday Black

Adjei-Brenyah's debut book is a collection of 12 satirical short stories exploring many topics, including racism in modern-day America, consumerism, school shootings, and generational violence. Vulture described the book as "an irreverent, genre-bending approach to ripped-from-the-headlines subject matter".

### Chain-Gang All-Stars

Adjei-Brenyah's first novel is set in a dystopian America where imprisoned people have the choice to leave prison by joining a gladiatorial system called the "CAPE" or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment program where they take part in televised duels to the death as part of alliances called Chain Gangs. If they manage to survive three years of battles, then they are freed. The book has a large cast and is written from the perspective of multiple people participating in the program, as well as activists fighting against it, fans, and the people running it.
The book is a fictional novel but features many footnotes citing current laws and factual statistics about the incarceration system in the United States.
Chain-Gang All-Stars started as a short story for inclusion in Friday Black but became too long. Adjei-Brenyah has said that he developed it into a novel because he felt he needed to spend more time exploring the main character, Loretta Thurwar.
Chain-Gang All-Stars was shortlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction. Kirkus Reviews gave it a starred review and chose the novel as one of the best books of 2023. The New York Times named it one of the 10 best books of 2023.

## Awards and nominations

Awards for Adjei-Brenyah's writing :
| Year | Work | Award | Result | Result |
| 2018 | Friday Black | National Book Critics Circle Award | John Leonard Prize | Finalist |
| 2018 | Friday Black | National Book Foundation | 5 Under 35 | Won |
| 2019 | Friday Black | Aspen Words Literary Prize | — | Shortlisted |
| 2019 | Friday Black | Dylan Thomas Prize | — | Shortlisted |
| 2019 | Friday Black | PEN/Jean Stein Book Award | — | Won |
| 2020 | Friday Black | William Saroyan International Prize for Writing | — | Won |
| 2023 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award | Fiction | Finalist |
| 2023 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Center for Fiction First Novel Prize | — | Longlisted |
| 2023 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Goodreads Choice Awards | Science Fiction | Nominated |
| 2023 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Goodreads Choice Awards | Debut | Nominated |
| 2023 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Gordon Burn Prize | — | Longlisted |
| 2023 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | National Book Award | Fiction | Finalist |
| 2023 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize | — | Shortlisted |
| 2024 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Alex Awards | — | Finalist |
| 2024 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence | Fiction | Longlisted |
| 2024 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Arthur C. Clarke Award | — | Finalist |
| 2024 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Aspen Words Literary Prize | — | Shortlisted |
| 2024 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Chautauqua Prize | — | Shortlisted |
| 2024 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | International Dublin Literary Award | — | Longlisted |
| 2024 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Locus Award | First Novel | Finalist |
| 2024 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award | — | Longlisted |
| 2024 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Publishing Triangle Awards | Ferro-Grumley Award | Finalist |
| 2024 | Chain-Gang All-Stars | Young Lions Fiction Award | — | Finalist |

## Publications

* —— (2018). Friday Black. Mariner/HarperCollins. ISBN 978-1-328-91124-7.
* —— (2023). Chain-Gang All-Stars. Pantheon/Knopf/Random House/PRH. ISBN 978-0-593-31734-1.