Friday Black

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is an American author who has written two books, the 2018 short story collection Friday Black and the 2023 novel Chain-Gang All-Stars. His father was a defense attorney whose special interest was in prison abolition. His mother is a former kindergarten teacher who lost her job when Adjei-Brenyah was in middle school, prompting their family to move several times while he was growing up. In high school, Adjei-Brenyah found work as an apparel salesman and discovered his love for literature on his lunch breaks when he frequented the nearby Barnes & Noble. This interest led him to participate in the production of his high school literature magazine in Spring Valley, New York. He then pursued his love for writing at SUNY Albany, where he studied under novelist Lynne Tillman. Tillman was responsible for introducing Adjei-Brenyah to the work of fictionist George Saunders, who became a massive influence on his work. Adjei-Brenyah later went on to pursue his graduate degree in creative writing at Syracuse University, where Saunders taught (Rao, Mallika. “Now That He Has Your Attention… Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Dystopic First Book Was a Surprise Hit. He’s Using His Second to Ask Harder Questions.