Blackass

A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in 1979 and lives in Lagos. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short story collection, Love is Power, or Something Like That, was published in 2013. In 2014 he was named on the Africa39 list of sub-Saharan African writers under 40. Blackass is his first novel.

"Gripping... This is a memorable, richly allusive story, skillfully interweaving thoughts from Kafka to the poet Elizabeth Bishop. Barrett probes not only the surface but the depths of who we are" -- Anita Sethi Observer "An inventive and playful take on power and identity in modern Nigeria... [with] nods to Achebe and Yeats" -- Sarah Gilmartin Irish Times "A highly original story about selfishness, inequality and perceptions" Voice "Provocative, exciting, unique and relevant. " Big Issue "Ingenious... and immediately funny. A clever cypher for all kinds of questions about identity, social prejudice and public perception versus self-invention. Barrett's conclusions aren't the obvious, cliched ones you're expecting...an amusing, thought-provoking read." Big Issue