J K Chukwu - "The Unfortunates" - David MacLean

J K Chukwu will discuss The Unfortunates. They will be joined in conversation by David MacLean.

This event will be held in person at The Seminary Co-op. At this time, masks are required for in-store events.

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About the book: An edgy, bitingly funny debut about a queer, half-Nigerian college sophomore who, enraged and exhausted by the racism at her elite college, is determined to reveal the truth about The Unfortunates—the unlucky subset of Black undergrads who Just. Keep. Disappearing. Sahara is Not Okay. Entering her sophomore year, she already feels like a failure: her body is too much, her love life is nonexistent, she’s not Nigerian enough for her family, her grades are subpar, and, well, the few Black classmates she has are vanishing—or dying. Sahara herself is close to giving up: depression has been her longtime “Life Partner." She believes that this narrative—taking the form of an irreverent, no-holds-barred “thesis” addressed to the powerful University Committee that will judge her—may be her last chance to document the Unfortunates' experience before she joins their ranks...But maybe, just maybe, she and her complex community of BIPOC women aren't ready to go out without a fight.

About the author: J K Chukwu is a writer and visual artist from the Midwest. She holds an MFA in literary arts from Brown University and was a 2019 Lambda Fellow. Her work has appeared in Black Warrior Review, DIAGRAM, and TAYO. 

About the interlocutor: David Stuart MacLean is a winner of the PEN Emerging Writer Award for Nonfiction and author of the award-winning memoir The Answer to the Riddle Is Me. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Ploughshares, Guernica, and on This American Life. He has taught creative writing at the University of Chicago, Columbia College, and the School of the Art Institute; is co-founder of the Poison Pen Reading Series in Houston. How I Learned to Hate in Ohio is his debut novel.