I don’t feature enough short stories on Linda’s Book Bag so it gives me great pleasure to spotlight Speak Gigantular by Irenosen Okojie. Speak Gigantular is published today 15th September 2016 by Jacaranda and is available for purchase here.

Speak Gigantular

Speak Gigantular is a startling short story collection from one of Britain’s rising literary stars. These stories are captivating, erotic, enigmatic and disturbing. Irenosen Okojie’s gift is in her understated humour, her light touch, her razor-sharp assessment of the best and worst of humankind, and her unflinching gaze into the darkest corners of the human experience.

In these stories Irenosen Okojie creates worlds where lovelorn aliens abduct innocent coffee shop waitresses, where the London Underground is inhabited by the ghosts of errant Londoners caught between here and the hereafter, where insensitive men cheat on their mistresses and can only muster enough interest to fall for one- dimensional poster girls and where brave young women attempt to be erotically empowered at their own peril.

Sexy, serious and at times downright disturbing, this brilliant debut collection sizzles with originality.

About Irenoson Okojie

Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian-British writer and Arts Project Manager. Her debut novel Butterfly Fish won a Betty Trask Award in 2016 and she was selected by Ben Okri as an emerging writer to watch during the London Short Story Festival 2015.

Her writing has been featured in the Guardian and the Observer and her short stories have been published internationally, including Kwani 07 and Phatitude.

Irenosen has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Southbank Centre and the Caine Prize. She was a selected writer by Theatre Royal Stratford East and Writer in Residence for TEDx East End. She is the Prize Advocate for the SI Leeds Literary Prize and was a mentor for the Pen to Print project supported by publisher Constable & Robinson. She lives in east London.

You can find out more about Irenosen by following her on Twitter and visiting her website.