The Unfortunates by JK Chukwu Release Party

Mark your calendars! We will be celebrating the much anticipated release of JK Chukwu's debut novel, The Unfortunates. She will be joined in conversation with young adult author Riley Redgate.

NY Times Review

About JK Chukwu: J K CHUKWU is a writer and visual artist from the Midwest. She holds an MFA in literary arts from Brown University and was a 2019 Lambda Fellow. Her work has appeared in Black Warrior Review, DIAGRAM, and TAYO.

The Unfortunates: An edgy, bitingly funny debut about a queer, half-Nigerian college sophomore who, enraged and exhausted by the racism at her elite college, is determined to reveal the truth about The Unfortunates—the unlucky subset of Black undergrads who Just. Keep. Disappearing.

Sahara is Not Okay. Entering her sophomore year, she already feels like a failure: her body is too much, her love life is nonexistent, she’s not Nigerian enough for her family, her grades are subpar, and, well, the few Black classmates she has are vanishing—or dying. Sahara herself is close to giving up: depression has been her longtime “Life Partner." She believes that this narrative—taking the form of an irreverent, no-holds-barred “thesis” addressed to the powerful University Committee that will judge her—may be her last chance to document the Unfortunates' experience before she joins their ranks...But maybe, just maybe, she and her complex community of BIPOC women aren't ready to go out without a fight.

About Riley Redgate: Riley Redgate majored in Economics at Kenyon College and is now based in Chicago, where she was an apprentice with the Onion. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Seven Ways We Lie; Noteworthy, a Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book and NYPL Best Book; and Final Draft, a Bank Street Book of the Year.