Yaa Gyasi Makes The National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 List for 2016
Life keeps getting sweeter for Ghanaian-American author Yaa Gyasi.
<p>The 26-year-old <a href="http://www.okayafrica.com/tag/homegoing/" target="_blank"><em><strong>Homegoing</strong></em></a> novelist has been hand-picked for <strong>The National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35</strong> list for 2016.</p><p>Her debut best-selling book that sold for over a million dollars traces the family tree of two half-sisters, Effia and Esi. Esi becomes a slave held captive in the dungeon of the very Cape Coast Castle that Effia resides in with her husband, a British soldier, until she is shipped to America where her descendents will be resigned to a similar fate. Gyasi explores themes such as Ghana’s collusion in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade as well as the unspoken tensions between African-Americans and African immigrants.</p><p><div class="preroll-video"></div><ora-player></ora-player></p><p>Gyasi tells <em>Al Jazeera </em>The Stream’s hosts <strong>Femi Oke</strong> and <strong>Malika Bilalin</strong> on Tuesday:</p><p></p><blockquote>The American dream is still very much denied [to] African-Americans. You still can have access to whole worlds as a black immigrant that you don’t get as African-American. I’ve certainly heard about how when percentages are given about how many black students are in a college, for example, typically there are large percentages of Ghanaians or Nigerians, or Haitians or Jamaicans or whatever, who also make up that group. Does that mean it’s denying African-Americans access to these same spaces? That’s a larger part of this conversation: what do we have access to and what don’t we have access to and what privileges are afforded African immigrants that aren’t afforded [African-Americans].</blockquote><p>It’s the 11th year for 5 Under 35, which recognizes the contributions of five fiction writers whose debut work promises to leave an indelible mark on the literary world. Each year, the honorees are selected by a committee comprised of National Book Award Winners and Finalists and those previously honored.</p><p>In the case of Gyasi, she was nominated by none other than <em>Between the World and Me</em> author and National Correspondent for <em>The Atlantic</em>, <strong>Ta-Nehisi Coates</strong>, who received the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction.</p><p>An invitation-only ceremony will held on November 14 where the distinguished guest of honor will each receive a $1,000 prize.</p><p>Big up to Gyasi.</p><p>Click <a href="http://www.nationalbook.org/5under35.html#.V-1bRfArI2y" target="_blank">here</a> for the full list of the 2016 honorees, and watch Gyasi's conversation with Al Jazeera's The Stream below.</p><p><div class="dfp_atf-slot" data-not-loaded="true"></div><script type="text/javascript">
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