Becoming Abigail and Essence

Everybody's probably seen that Essence second pick was Becoming Abigail by Chris Abani. That's a big win for Chris and for independent publishing (Congrats to Johnny and Johanna of Akashic books, the publisher).

Anyway, I went to Chris's reading at Barnes and Noble at Astor Place in NYC. It was pretty amazing. Because Chris is a poet, he reads like a poet, so the words just came alive. The book is pretty intense and hearing Chris read, bought a new dynamic to it. I was impressed.