View source for Nana Nkweti

{{short description|American fiction writer}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
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| name         = Nana Nkweti
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| occupation   = Writer
| nationality  = American, Cameroonian
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| genre        = Fiction
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| notableworks = ''Walking on Cowry Shells''
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| awards       = [[Whiting Award]]
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| alma_mater   = [[Rutgers University]], [[University of Iowa]]
| website      = {{URL|https://nanankweti.com}}
}}
'''Nana Nkweti''' is an American Cameroonian writer and the author of the short story collection ''Walking on Cowry Shells'', which won a [[Whiting Award]].<ref>{{cite web |title=University of Alabama's Nana Nkweti earns national acclaim |url=https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/story/news/2022/05/09/university-alabama-creative-writing-professor-earns-acclaim/7321049001/ |website=Tuscaloosa News |access-date=July 10, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Nana Nkweti - 2022 Winners |url=https://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/nana-nkweti#/ |publisher=The Whiting Awards |access-date=July 10, 2023}}</ref>
== Education ==
Nkweti obtained a BA in Political Science from [[Rutgers University]] and is assistant professor of creative writing at the [[University of Alabama]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Nana Nkweti - Department of English |url=https://english.ua.edu/people/nana-nkweti/ |publisher=The University of Alabama |access-date=July 10, 2023}}</ref> She attended the [[Iowa Writers' Workshop]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Chikaonda |first1=Michelle |title=Cameroonian American Stories About Rejecting Societal Expectation |url=https://electricliterature.com/cameroonian-american-stories-about-rejecting-societal-expectation/ |website=Electric Literature |date=29 June 2021 |access-date=July 10, 2023}}</ref>
== Career ==
Her collection of stories, ''Walking on Cowry Shells'', was published by [[Graywolf]] in 2021. ''[[The New York Times Book Review]]'' hailed it as a "raucous and thoroughly impressive debut" with "utterly original stories" that "range from laugh-out-loud funny to heartbreaking, and are often both."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Philyaw |first1=Deesha |title=Nana Nkweti's Tales of Cameroonians at Home and in America |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/books/review/walking-on-cowrie-shells-nana-nkweti.html |website=The New York Times Book Review |access-date=July 10, 2023}}</ref>
[[NPR]] called Nkweti "a linguistic pole vaulter" who "bends language like a master."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Martha Anne |first1=Toll |title=These Stories Dance Deftly Between America And Cameroon |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/06/07/1003380153/these-stories-dance-deftly-between-america-and-cameroon |publisher=NPR |access-date=July 10, 2023}}</ref> ''[[The Los Angeles Review of Books]]'' praised how "Nkweti uses genre tropes to subvert our expectations. She employs the zombie story, the fairy tale, and the confessional in order to invert conventions."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Thomas |first1=Lee |title=Future Selves: On Nana Nkweti's "Walking on Cowrie Shells" |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/future-selves-on-nana-nkwetis-walking-on-cowrie-shells/ |website=The Los Angeles Review of Books |date=30 June 2021 |access-date=July 10, 2023}}</ref>
In a profile of Nkweti, ''[[Open Country Mag]]'' wrote that "the stories also speak to the universal idea of people charting next steps, growing and evolving along the way", going on to note: <blockquote>The title “Walking on Cowrie Shells” is a play on the English idiom. She deploys it in the book to embody that sense of being in a threshold, in liminal spaces, of teetering between choices, between cultures or identities. Her characters are tentative; they are about becoming and figuring life out, who they are, who they want to be.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Willie-Okafor |first1=Paula |title=Nana Nkweti on Writing Cameroonian American Experiences & Crossing Genres |url=https://opencountrymag.com/nana-nkweti-on-writing-cameroonian-american-experiences-crossing-genres/ |website=Open Country Mag |date=9 April 2022 |access-date=July 10, 2023}}</ref></blockquote>
''[[The New Yorker]]'' wrote that the stories are "Lively and fast-paced, funny and tragic" and that they "refuse a singular African experience in favor of a vivid plurality."<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Briefly Noted |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/06/14/phase-six-walking-on-cowrie-shells-the-house-of-fragile-things-and-there-plant-eyes |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=July 10, 2023}}</ref>
Nkweti made her television debut as a writer on the episode "Gone" of the series ''[[The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-03-04 |title=What time does The Walking Dead The Ones Who Live air tonight (March 3) |url=https://undeadwalking.com/posts/what-time-does-the-walking-dead-the-ones-who-live-air-tonight-march-3 |access-date=2024-03-04 |website=Undead Walking |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Publications ==
* ''Walking on Cowry Shells'' (Graywolf, 2021)
== References ==
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[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American writers]]
[[Category:Cameroonian writers]]
[[Category:Rutgers University alumni]]
[[Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni]]
[[Category:University of Iowa alumni]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]