The CASITA MARIA BOOK CLUB* is a fun way to participate in a supportive community of readers. JOIN US!

A finalist for the New American Fiction Prize, LOCKED GRAY LINKED BLUE is a glinting and razor-sharp collection of linked short stories draws power from Ukwu’s crystalline characterization and a voice that is as singular as a champion slam-poet’s.

REGISTER at www.bit.ly/lockedgray. Purchase Locked Gray / Linked Blue at www.bookshop.org/shop/onebookonebronx or your favorite independent bookseller.

DISCUSSION SCHEDULE
Wednesdays 7pm
July 15: pgs 1-34
July 22: pgs 35-86
July 29: pgs 87-140
Aug 5: pgs 141-194
Aug 12: pgs 195-246

.....................................................................

Family dynamics, bad romance, work, and money haunt the New Yorkers in these stories as they nevertheless triumph. A sister is faced with the individual, human reality of family separation; a daughter navigates her difficult mother’s wedding-day crisis; an unexpected proposal from a neighbor represents hope and resignation in equal measure.

These stories invite readers into the most private of hearts with clear, forceful, and memorable prose. Ukwu wields the constraints of the short story as if she had invented them expressly to connect us to each other.

Born and raised in the Bronx, Kem Joy Ukwu’s fiction has appeared in PANK, BLACKBERRY: a magazine, Carve, TINGE, Blue Lake Review, Jabberwock Review, Auburn Avenue, The Brooklyn Quarterly and Day One. Her short story collection manuscript, Locked Gray / Linked Blue, was named as a finalist for the 2016 New American Fiction Prize