Heads of the Colored People
by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
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Pub Date 9 Aug 2018 | Archive Date 8 Sep 2018
Random House UK, Vintage Publishing | Chatto & Windus
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Description
**Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction 2019**
**Longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction 2018**
*Finalist for the Kirkus Prize 2018*
*Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize 2019*
In this crackling debut collection Nafissa Thompson-Spires interrogates our supposedly post-racial era. To wicked and devastating effect she exposes the violence, both external and self-inflicted, that threatens black Americans, no matter their apparent success.
A teenager is insidiously bullied as her YouTube following soars; an assistant professor finds himself losing a subtle war of attrition against his office mate; a nurse is worn down by the demand for her skills as a funeral singer. And across a series of stories, a young woman grows up, negotiating and renegotiating her identity.
Heads of the Colored People shows characters in crisis, both petty and catastrophic. It marks the arrival of a remarkable writer and an essential and urgent new voice.
Advance Praise
Vivid, fast, funny, way-smart, and verbally inventive, these stories by the vastly talented Thompson-Spires create a compelling surface tension made of equal parts scepticism towards human nature and intense fondness of it. Located on the big questions, they are full of heart
– GEORGE SAUNDERS
The kind of collection that makes you shake your head in delight. Her voice is fresh-laundry-clean: I have not read anything like it in years. The prose is cunning. It appears simple, but the overall effect is powerful. Her stories feel simultaneously like the poke of a stick and a comforting balm; a smack followed by a kiss. I’m so into it.
– BIM ADEWUNMI, GUARDIAN
For the freshest voice in literature, look no further than Nafissa Thompson-Spires blisteringly clever short story collection, Heads of the Colored People… Sometimes, a voice comes around that is so singular, so funny, so wholly original, that you go back and reread each story once you finish it… In each of these humorous, intelligent vignettes, Thompson-Spires explores aspects of being Black and middle-class in today’s America. This is a special collection. Buy it so you can read it more than once
– ELIZABETH KIEFER, REFINERY 29
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781781090633 |
| PRICE | £16.99 (GBP) |
| PAGES | 224 |
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