'Grace Jones', Irenosen Okojie
Listen to writer Irenosen Okojie read an excerpt from her short story 'Grace Jones'. Following an impersonator of the singer as she mourns the passing of her family, Okojie traces Jones as a symbol of black and queer resilience.
Irenosen Okojie is a writer and the author of Butterfly Fish (2015), the recipient of the 2016 Betty Trask Award, and Speak Gigantular (2016), a short story collection shortlisted for the 2016 inaugural Jhalak Prize and the 2017 Edge Hill Short Story Prize. She was fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018. Her new collection of stories, Nudibranch (Dialogue Books, 2019) was longlisted for the 2020 Jhalak Prize and the included story ‘Grace Jones’ won the 2020 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing. Okojie’s upcoming novel, Curandera, will be published by Dialogue Books in 2022.