Witness

Jamel Brinkley is the author of Witness, a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. His debut collection, A Lucky Man, was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Story Prize, the John Leonard Prize, the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; and winner of a PEN Oakland Award and the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. He has received an O. Henry Award, the Rome Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His writing has appeared in A Public Space, The Paris Review, American Short Fiction, The Believer, and Tin House, and has been anthologized three times in The Best American Short Stories. He was raised in the Bronx and in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

‘Extraordinary … Confirms Brinkley’s place among the most moving, compelling and virtuosic practitioners of the short form’ Observer‘Exhilarating … Each story is a gift’ New York Times‘An important new voice … Taut and convincing’ Guardian‘Brinkley’s sentences are daggers. He writes about the shifting intimacies of community and love with wit and warmth’ Raven Leilani, author of Luster‘Virtuosic, fine-tuned and thrillingly assured’ Colin Barrett, author of Homesickness‘Each story in Witness brings a novel's worth of richness and complexity … Dazzling’ Yiyun Li, author of The Book of Goose‘Jamel Brinkley is brilliant, the real thing, a revelation’ Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You‘Stories of rare beauty and insight, that glitter with humour and hurt’ David Hayden, author of Darker With the Lights On‘Beautiful, original … I will revisit this collection again and again’ Rachel Connolly, author of The Lazy City‘One of the best story writers we have … A book of psychological acuity, of graceful sentences, of devastation and heart’ Justin Torres, author of We the Animals'Read Witness and allow yourself the pleasure of seeing the world as Brinkley sees it' Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House‘There is all the involvedness and complexity of a novel in each story … Brilliant’ Caoilinn Hughes, author of The Wild Laughter‘Brinkley’s voice is unflinching, his eye panoramic’ Saba Sams, author of Send Nudes‘One of the finest young writers working today’ Vulture ‘One of the year’s most anticipated works’NPR ‘Brinkley’s stories carry a rich veneer worthy of such exemplars of the form as Chekhov, Eudora Welty, Alice Munro … A grand master of the short story’ Kirkus