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The cohort of female writers making their literary debuts this year boasts a set of powerful and thought-provoking fact and fiction. Here are the ones you must read in 2018.
Emma Glass
The British writer’s surreal and visceral debut novel, Peach, was published at the beginning of the year. In it, she explores the impact of sexual violence and neglect through the story of college student Peach coping alone with the physical and psychological trauma of sexual assault. It is Glass’s use of poetic prose and at times painfully onomatopoeic language around starkly relevant themes that won her plaudits as a writer to watch right now.
Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinené
“The black girl bible”, Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinené’s captivatingly titled Slay In Your Lane brings together an inspirational cohort of high-profile industry leaders to share their stories of and their tools for success. Londoners Adegoke and Uviebinené, an award-winning journalist and marketing manager (until recently) respectively, set out to write a self-help guide speaking to and raising up the voices of the next generation of young black British women. The result features the likes of space scientist Maggie Aderin Pocock, author Malorie Blackman, and DJ Clara Amfo exploring issues and struggles around work, relationships, dating, beauty, health, money, and education.
Jenny Quintana
Jenny Quintana makes her publishing debut this year with gripping thriller The Missing Girl , a can’t-put-down tale about loss, grief and a decades-old mystery. Anna Flores, in dealing with the disappearance of her older sister, also disappears. She returns home 30 years later, following the death of her mother, to discover what really did happen to Gabriella. Expect twists and turns at every corner.
Chidera Eggerue
Aka The Slumflower to her some 130,000 followers (she set up her blog of the same name to provide fashion content that speaks to a more diverse community than she felt most fashion sites did), 23-year-old Chidera Eggerue penned her first book – What A Time To Be Alone: The Slumflower’s Guide To Why You Are Already Enough – to “make solitude great again”. She lays out her three-part approach to navigating the complexities of the modern world, which centers around learning how to celebrate you, not worrying about them and feeling the togetherness of us.
Mary Lynn Bracht
White Chrysanthemum marks the first novel of Mary Lynn Bracht, as the American-born author takes a hard look at Korean history and writes the fictional tale of two sisters separated during World WarII. The story was born out of a visit Bracht made to her South Korean mother’s childhood village, during which she learned about the “comfort women”, slaves used by Japanese military. It is a harrowing and powerful read, offering an insight into the widespread suffering of others during the war.
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This article first appeared on Vogue.co.uk
