Witness

‘Brinkley’s sentences are daggers’ Raven Leilani, author of Luster ‘A dazzling collection by a masterful storyteller’ Yiyun Li, author of The Book of Goose ‘Read everything this man writes, and regard the world anew’ Justin Torres, author of We the Animals An electric new collection of stories set in contemporary New York, from the award-winning author of A Lucky Man and National Book Award finalist, Jamel Brinkley. What does it mean to take action? To bear witness? What does it cost? These stories take us into the heart of contemporary New York City and its residents’ lives. We meet children, grandmothers and even ghosts as they strive to connect, to stand up for, and to really see each other. Their relationships shape not only their own futures but those of their families and their city. In its portraits of families and friendships, Witness enacts its own testimony. Here is a world where fortunes can be made and stolen in a generation, where strangers sometimes show kindness while those we trust—doctors, employers, siblings—too often turn away, where joy comes in snatches. With prose as upendingly beautiful as it is artfully crafted, Jamel Brinkley offers nothing less than the full scope of life and death and change in the great, unending drama of the city. ‘Jamel Brinkley is brilliant, the real thing, a revelation’ Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You ‘A fully formed, entirely distinctive new voice … reinvigorating the short story itself’ Observer ‘Brinkley writes like a dream, mixing intoxicating, rhythmic street talk with high poetry, his beautiful seductive sentences rich with insight’ Big Issue ‘Read Witness and allow yourself the pleasure of seeing the world as Brinkley sees it' Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House

Praise for Witness: ‘Jamel Brinkley’s sentences are daggers. He writes about the shifting intimacies of community and love with wit and warmth’ Raven Leilani, author of Luster ‘Jamel Brinkley reminds one of iconic short-story writers Edward P. Jones and Mavis Gallant … Each story in Witness brings a novel's worth of richness and complexity. This is a dazzling collection by a masterful storyteller’ Yiyun Li, author of The Book of Goose ‘Jamel Brinkley is brilliant, the real thing, a revelation’ Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You ‘Jamel Brinkley is one of the best story writers we have. Witness is a book of psychological acuity, of graceful sentences, of devastation and heart. Read everything this man writes, and know the world anew’ Justin Torres, author of We the Animals 'Read Witness and allow yourself the pleasure of seeing the world as Brinkley sees it' Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House Praise for Jamel Brinkley: ‘Dazzling … a fully formed, entirely distinctive new voice … reinvigorating the short story itself’ Observer ‘Sure-footed and elegant … Brinkley writes like a dream, mixing intoxicating, rhythmic street talk with high poetry, his beautiful, seductive sentences rich with insight. The toughened, fragile, good-hearted men in Brinkley's stories will burrow into your heart. Lovers of musical language, fill your boots’ Big Issue 'Full of subtle poignancy … each story is a trenchant exploration of race and class, vividly conveying the tension between social codes of masculinity and the vulnerable, volatile self' New Yorker ‘Through pages of peerless prose and startlingly sharp sentences, what emerges is a constantly reframed argument about the role and power of masculinity’ L.A. Times

Jamel Brinkley is the author of A Lucky Man, which won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and was a finalist for the National Book Award, the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, the Story Prize, the John Leonard Prize, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. The title story from Witness was chosen by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as a 2021 O. Henry Prize winner. He has also received the Rome Prize, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, and a Lannan Foundation Fellowship. His work has appeared in The Paris Review, A Public Space, Ploughshares, and The Best American Short Stories. He was raised in the Bronx and Brooklyn and currently teaches at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.