The Black Mountain Institute presents a free reading with Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of the new novel Chain-Gang All-Stars and acclaimed story collection Friday Black.

Chain-Gang All-Stars, Adjei-Brenyah’s highly anticipated debut novel, imagines a near-future world in which incarcerated people can trade their sentences to compete in to-the-death combat with other prisoners, televised as pay-per-view sporting events. The book offers a bracing critique of America’s real-world treatment of prisoners as the story follows top competitor Loretta Thurwar, who is on the brink of winning the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment (CAPE) network's ultimate prize: her freedom.

Adjei-Brenyah's work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Esquire, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. He was a National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honoree, the winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the Saroyan Prize, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award for Best First Book, along with many other honors. A book signing will follow the reading.

Copies of Adjei-Brenyah’s books will be available for sale on-site by The Writer’s Block.