Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah was raised in Spring Valley, New York, and now lives in the Bronx. His debut collection Friday Black was a New York Times bestseller and won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize. 

His first novel Chain-Gang All-Stars was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, the Books Are My Bag Awards, and selected as a New York Times Top Ten Books of the Year. 

Nana is a National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honoree and the current Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

In December, 2025, with “Chop Wood, Carry Water”, he became the thirteenth Literatea interviewee in Doek Literary Magazine’s ongoing interview series focusing on storytelling craft.

More from and about Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah: “Everything Is Lava” (The Chronicles Of Now) • “Friday Black” (Esquire) • “Nabokov” (Soundcloud) • “Polywrath Freestyle” (YouTube) • “Pontius Pilate” (YouTube) • “The Era” (Guernica) • “The Hermitage” (personal website) • “The Hospital Where” (Longreads) • “The Pisces Sciatica” (YouTube) • “Voyages” (personal website) • “Why Do You Write Political Stories?” (The Paris Review) • “Zimmer Land” (LitHub)

Author image: Mark M Phillips