Tobi Ogundiran’s debut short story collection Jackal, Jackal is out this month with Undertow Publications, and he will be in Seattle at the Central Library in conversation with Nisi Shawl on Wednesday, July 26th at 7pm. Third Place Books is our community partner on the event.
We asked him to share a bit about his nightstand reads.
On my nightstand:
I’ve just finished Moses Ose Utomi’s The Lies of the Ajungo. A brilliant fable about truth and lies and surviving in a harsh world inspired by medieval West Africa.
I’m reading Yvette Lisa Ndlovu’s collection Drinking From Graveyard Wells. A masterful storyteller, each story is a little treat that I allow myself each night before bed. A must-read!
Next up is The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. I love pirates and I love adventures. Two of my favourite things in one book make me feel so spoiled, but I’m not complaining! Chakraborty shines the spotlight on the Indian Ocean, one of the oldest sailing routes in human history—an underrepresented region in fantasy and she does it well.
R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface is a phenomenal book. Scathing, funny, and satirical, it puts publishing’s dark underbelly on display and I love it.
Finally, Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is a book that deserves praise.
From the Publisher about Jackal, Jackal:
From the Shirley Jackson award-nominated author comes a highly anticipated debut collection of stories full of magic and wonder and breathtaking imagination!
In “The Lady of the Yellow-Painted Library,” a hapless salesman flees the otherworldly librarian hell-bent on retrieving her lost library book. “The Tale of Jaja and Canti” sees Ogundiran riffing off of Pinocchio, but this wooden boy doesn’t seek to become real. Wanting to be loved, he journeys the world in search of his mother—an ancient and powerful entity who is best not sought out. “The Goatkeeper’s Harvest” contains echoes of Lovecraft, where a young mother living on a farm finds that goats have broken into her barn and are devouring all her tubers. As she chases them off with a rake, a woman appears claiming the goats are her children, and that the young woman has killed one of them and must pay the price: a goat for a goat.
Check out Tobi Ogundiran’s website and this short video on his writing journey as well!
~Posted by Misha S.
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