Curriculum Vitae
2013 Master of Library and Information Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2010 Master of Fine Arts in Fiction, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY
2004 Bachelor of Arts, English and American Studies, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
Education
2021 Winner, American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation
2021 Winner, OCM Bocas Prize in Fiction
2021 Shortlist, OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature
2021 Finalist, Art Seidenbaum Award for First Novel, Los Angeles Times Book Prizes
2021 Finalist, Audie Award, Literary Fiction & Classics Category
2021 Finalist, Pen/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel
2021 Public Humanities Scholar, NJ Council for the Humanities
2020 Shortlisted, The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
2020 Winner, “Top of the List,” Adult Fiction, Booklist
2020 Editor’s Choice, Adult Books, Booklist
2020 Editor’s Choice, The New York Times
2020 “Best Debut Fiction of 2020,” Kirkus Reviews, New York, NY
2019 Pushcart Prize Nomination, “The True Death of Abel Paisley, AGNI
2018 Institute for Ethical Leadership Fellowship, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ
2004 Adelphic Scholarship, Wesleyan Writers’ Conference, Middletown, CT
Awards & Recognitions
Selected Publications
BOOKS
2020 THESE GHOSTS ARE FAMILY, Simon & Schuster, March 3, New York, NY
-Reviewed in: The Atlantic, Booklist, Book Page, Entertainment Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, New Orleans Review, The New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, The Star-Ledger, Washington Post
-Featured in: Buzzfeed, Domino, Electric Literature, The Millions, Oprah Magazine, Paste Magazine, Refinery29, Vogue, Vogue UK
-Winner of an American Book Award (2021), OCM Bocas Prize in Caribbean Literature (Fiction Category)
-Finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, Audie Award in the Literary Fiction & Classics Category, LA Times Book Prizes Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
-Italian edition from Edizioni Tion (November 2022)
FICTION ANTHOLOGIES
2023 “The Other You,” Peach Pit: 16 Stories About Unsavory Women, Dzanc Books (fall 2023)
2022 “The Line,” Can You Hear Me Now?: Stories Commissioned by the Toronto International
Festival of Authors 2021, Kobo Original eBook
SHORT FICTION
2020 Excerpt from These Ghosts are Family, Lit Hub, March 3, 2020
2019 "The True Death of Abel Paisley,” AGNI, September 2019
2016 “Past Life,” Liars’ League NYC, June 2016
2015 “Gratitude,” Sycamore Review, Spring 2015
2014 “Estelle’s Black Eye,” The Ampersand Review, April 2014
NONFICTION
2023 "First Fiction 2023: Interview with Tyriek White," Poets & Writers, July/August 2023
2021 “A Year in Reading,” The Millions, December 2021
2021 “Review of A Million Aunties by Alecia Mackenzie,” New York Times, November 17, 2021
2020 “7 of the Year’s Best Debut Novelists on Their First Literary Loves,” Lit Hub, Nov17, 2020
2020 “Teen at Newark Library Expands Peer-led Coding Club Online,” School Library Journal,
Nov. 2020
2020 “First Mothers,” The Paris Review Daily, September 2020
2020 “Brit Bennett on Her New Novel, Favorite Writers, and Zoom Fatigue,” Glamour Magazine,
August 2020
2020 “Fishnets,” Guernica, July 2020
2019 “School Libraries are Vital to Black and Latinx Teens,” School Library Journal, August 2019
2018 “Chance the Rapper, Langston Hughes, and Creative Self-Expression Inspire Teens in
Newark Library’s Spoken Word Workshop,” School Library Journal, July 2018
2017 “You Think You White,” Lenny Letter, September 2017
Selected Teaching Experience
Columbia University, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Fiction, New York, NY
Workshops Taught: Graduate Fiction Workshop (Fall 2022 & Fall 2023)
Thesis Advisor: Celine Aenlle-Rocha (Winter 2022)
Thesis Committee Member (MFA in Fiction):
Anthony William, Léa Aberlenc (Fall 2021)
Ryan Avanzado, Arnetta Randall, Ji Hyun Joo (Spring 2022)
Abhigna Mooraka, Ciera Robinson (Fall 2022)
Jacob Schultz, Benn Jeffries, Anna Schwartzman, Wyonia McLaurin (Spring 2023)
NJ Council for the Humanities/Piscataway Public Library, Public Humanities Scholar, Piscataway, NJ (2021-2022)
Community Writing Workshops taught:
Writing the First-Gen Experience
Writing Intercultural Stories
Writing the Personal Essay
Senior Writing Workshop
Memoir Writing Workshop
Senior Memoir Writing Workshop
Teen Fiction Workshop
Center for Fiction, Fiction Writing Instructor, Brooklyn, NY
Writing How People Talk: Composing Fiction in Nonstandard English (Summer 2022)
From Family Lore to Narrative Nonfiction, Virtual (Feb/Mar 2021)
Fiction Writing Instructor, Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop, Brooklyn, NY
(2020-2021)
Fiction I/II (2 sections)
Master Fiction (4 sections)
Adjunct Instructor of English, Essex County College, Newark, NJ (2011 - 2017)
English Foundations (1 section)
College Composition I (2 sections)
College Composition II (3 sections)
Major Black American Writers (4 sections)
Survey of African American Literature (3 sections)
Survey of Women’s Literature (2 sections)
Selected Editorial Experience
2021 - Present Fiction Editor, The Brooklyn Rail, Brooklyn, NY
2007 - 2009 Editorial Assistant, Americas Society, New York, NY