S240. A Reading & Conversation with Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah & Rion Amilcar Scott, Sponsored by PEN America
Saturday, March 7, 2020
1:45 pm to 3:00 pm
PEN America is proud to present Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah in conversation with Rion Amilcar Scott, two writers known for their innovative approaches to genre, form, and writing beyond reality. Adjei-Brenyah was the recipient of the 2019 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award for Friday Black, a collection of short stories that imagines an America where racial injustice and capitalism continue to flourish unchecked. Scott’s debut story collection, Insurrections, was awarded the 2017 PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction and the 2017 Hillsdale Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers.
Participants
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is the New York Times best-selling author of Friday Black, which received the 2019 PEN/Jean Stein Award. Originally from Spring Valley, New York, he graduated from SUNY Albany and went on to receive his MFA from Syracuse University. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Esquire, Literary Hub, the Paris Review, Guernica, and Longreads. He was selected by Colson Whitehead as one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honorees.
Rion Amilcar Scott is the author of the story collection, The World Doesn't Require You (Norton/Liveright, August 2019). His debut story collection, Insurrections (University Press of Kentucky, 2016), was awarded the 2017 PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction and the 2017 Hillsdale Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers. His work has been published in journals such as the New Yorker, the Kenyon Review, and Crab Orchard Review.
