Eloghosa Osunde with Jake Morrissey: Necessary Fiction

​Join award-winning writer and multidisciplinary artist Eloghosa Osunde for this conversation about their new novel Necessary Fiction with editor and writer Jake Morrissey.

This event will take place in person at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library on the 7th Floor.

What makes a family? How is it defined and by whom? Is freedom for everyone?

In Necessary Fiction, Eloghosa Osunde poses these provocative questions and many more while exploring the paths and dreams, hopes and fears of more than two dozen characters who are staking out lives for themselves in contemporary Nigeria.

Across Lagos, one of Africa's largest urban areas and one of the world's most dynamic cities, Osunde’s characters seek out love for self and their chosen partners, even as they risk ruining relationships with parents, spouses, family, and friends. As the novel unfolds, a rolling cast emerges: vibrantly active, stubbornly alive, brazenly flawed. These characters grapple with desire, fear, time, death, and God, forming and breaking unexpected connections; in the process unveiling how they know each other, have loved each other, and had their hearts broken in that pursuit.

As they work to establish themselves in the city's lively worlds of art, music, entertainment, and creative commerce, we meet their collective and individual attempts to reckon with the necessary fiction they carry for survival.

To join the event in person | Doors will open 30 minutes before the program begins. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form 30 minutes before the program.

About the Speakers

Eloghosa Osunde is an award-winning writer and multidisciplinary artist. Winner of MoAD's African Literary Award, the Plimpton Prize for Fiction, and an ASME Award for Fiction, they are the author of the critically acclaimed novel Vagabonds!, which was a New York Times Editors Choice and a New Yorker Best Book of the Year. Their writing has been published in Paris Review, Granta, BASS, Georgia Review, Guernica, and elsewhere. They move between Nigeria, Nairobi, New York City, and wherever else their work calls.

Jake Morrissey is an editor and writer, for the last twenty years for Riverhead Books, where he edits both fiction and nonfiction by a variety of authors, including Marlon James, James McBride, Anne Lamott, and Daniel H. Pink.

Books by the Author

• Borrow: NYPL Catalog


• E-Book app: SimplyE, available on iOS and Android


• This event will also include signing and sales of the book by our Library Shop.

Don't have a New York Public Library card? Get one here!

ACCESSIBILITY NOTES

In-Person

• Assistive listening devices and/or hearing loops are available at the venue.


• You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email accessibility@nypl.org or use this Gmail template.


• This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs.

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Please submit all press inquiries to Connor Goodwin at least 48 hours before the event: email connorgoodwin@nypl.org.
 

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All programs are subject to change or cancellation. All programs are subject to recording and photography.

The 7 Stories Up Series at SNFL is made possible by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).