Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, breakout bestselling author and UAlbany English Department alum, is the author of the debut novel, Chain-Gang All-Stars (April 2023), the story of two top women gladiators fighting for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America’s own.

 

Author Kiese Laymon said in advance praise, “I’ve never read satire so bruising, so brolic, so tender and really, so pitch-perfect. It’s nuts brilliant. Just read it!”

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Adjei-Brenyah took the literary world by storm with his first story collection, Friday Black (2018), a satirical look at what it’s like to be young and Black in America. In 2018, he was named a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree by Colson Whitehead.