Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires

The eleven vignettes in Heads of the Colored People elevate the unusual and expose the unseen, forming an original-and urgent-portrait of American life.” 'With devastating insight and remarkable style, Nafissa Thompson-Spires explores what it means to come to terms with one’s body, one’s family, one’s future. Nafissa Thompson-Spires is the real deal. 'This is one of the best short story debuts I’ve read in my whole life. Thankfully, Nafissa Thompson-Spires gave it to us now.” The nation needed Heads of Colored People 40 years ago. The super thin lines between terror, intimacy, humor and hubris are masterfully toed, jumped and ultimately redrawn in the most exciting and soulful fiction I've read this century.

“Nafissa Thompson-Spires has taken the best of what Toni Cade Bambara, Paul Beatty, Morgan Parker and Junot Diaz do plus a whole lot of something we've never seen in American literature, blended it all together and giving us one of the finest short story collections I've ever read. Located on the big questions, they are full of heart.' 'Vivid, fast, funny, way-smart, and verbally inventive, these stories by the vastly talented Thompson-Spires create a compelling surface tension made of equal parts skepticism towards human nature and intense fondness of it. Her stories are exquisitely rendered, satirical, and captivating in turn, engaging in the ongoing conversations about race and identity politics, as well as the vulnerability of the black body.'A bold new voice, at once insolently sardonic and incisively compassionate, asserts itself amid a surging wave of young African-American fiction writers.Thompson-Spires’ auspicious beginnings auger a bright future in which she could set new standards for the short story.' Thompson-Spires fearlessly shines a light on the simmering tensions and precariousness of black citizenship. Some are darkly humorous-from two mothers exchanging snide remarks through notes in their kids' backpacks, to the young girl contemplating how best to notify her Facebook friends of her impending suicide-while others are devastatingly poignant-a new mother and funeral singer who is driven to madness with grief for the young black boys who have fallen victim to gun violence, or the teen who struggles between her upper middle class upbringing and her desire to fully connect with black culture.

Each captivating story plunges headfirst into the lives of new, utterly original characters. A stunning new talent in literary fiction, Nafissa Thompson-Spires grapples with black identity and the contemporary middle class in these compelling, boundary-pushing vignettes.

'Calling to mind the best works of Paul Beatty and Junot Diaz, this collection of moving, timely, and darkly funny stories examines the concept of black identity in this so-called post-racial era.

Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires