Join the bestselling author of Friday Black Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah for an electric virtual event to celebrate the publication of his hotly anticipated debut novel Chain-Gang All-Stars.

The event will initially be broadcast on 13 July at 6.30pm UK time. It will be available to view up to two weeks after the event has ended and can be accessed Worldwide. If you live in a time zone that does not suit the initial broadcast time you can watch it at any point after the initial showing for two weeks. 

If you have any questions, please email [email protected]

Welcome to Chain-Gang All-Stars - the highly popular, highly controversial profit-raising programme inside America's private prison system. Harkening back to the time of gladiators, but watched by millions of live-stream subscribers, prisoners compete for the ultimate prize: their freedom. Loretta Thurwar and Hamara 'Hurricane Staxxx' Stacker, teammates and lovers, are the fan favourites. If all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. But will the price be simply too high?

Nana was raised in New York and is a National Book Foundation’s ‘5 Under 35’ honouree, a winner of the PEN/Jen Stein Book Award and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. This electrifying, page-turning near-future dystopia is perfect for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale, Squid Game and Watchmen. Nana will be in conversation for this special virtual event to discuss the process of world-building, character forming and the inspirations behind this dynamic novel. This promises to be an engaging and informative event that seeks to interrogate the spectacle of violence and carceral systems. Mark you calendars and do not miss it.

“A defiant, awe-inspiring novel that will be read for generations” Jessamine Chan

“Makes explicit how the spirit erodes as the body becomes currency. Adjei-Brenyah writes sharply about the economy of spectacle and the fickle alchemy between futility and hope” Raven Leilani