As a girl, I felt that God had made me the lowest form of human being, to be both Black and female. I felt this way because of the stories that I was told. Stories that demonized what is African (and female); criminalized what is Black (and female); and made degenerative, impractical, and useless what is both Black and female.

Fiction makes us human.

The word “soso adae” translates from Akan-Twi as “to dream.”*

SOSOADAE is my literary brand, an African American literary device I came up with to craft fiction about “all of the things we cannot tell” in order to transform those realities.

 

FAQ

 

Where can I find the young composer fellowship?

That is The American Maestra Fellowship for Young Composers/The Nannerl Fund, and you can find it via the site menus or by clicking here.

 

What is this word, “sosoadae”?

The word “soso adae” (soh-soh-ah-die) translates from Akan-Twi as “to dream.” However, it more literally means “to catch a dream” or “to catch rest,” as “adae” is also the name of the traditional Akan rest days, where one does no work but reflects on their personal rest and healing while honoring their resting ancestors. So, in full, it means to catch/have a dream and to catch healing and a resting place.

 

Where is your bio?

You can find my author bio here.

 

What do you mean by “all the things we cannot tell”?

SOSOADAE fiction explores the answers that are not allowed by “traditional (mainstream)” publishers and narrative. It’s fiction for readers who are tired of fiction that simply “witnesses” the problem or “finds autonomy” within the problem while the problem remains (I also hope that we will one day stop calling problems “tradition”).

The sosoadae device, in short, establishes a question (or condition), explores variations of that condition, answers that condition to create a new condition, and then explores the afterlife of those answers, where new questions arise.  Basically, ask a question, answer it, ask new questions that rise from that answer. 

One can never run out of questions, so refusing to answer the questions we have is peculiar.

 

Where can I see this SOSOADAE device in action?

For my book upcoming, click the “In Development” link or The Viennese Tale’ icon.

 

Why are you misspelling “beautiful?”

Beautyful is a reference to Ghanaian post-colonial author Ayi Kwei Armah’s 1968 novel, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. 

 

What is Manichean Leitmotif?

Manichean Leitmotif is a literary device that uses anti-Black and anti-feminine imagery to convey the degeneration of White power by White masculinity’s association with Black humanity (darkness) and women (femininity). We see and use its “short form” all the time in our everyday language when we describe things as “dark” when they are evil, cruel, or emotionally heavy and also when we degenerate people or things by “feminizing” them. We give a thing its ultimate degenerating insult when we both negroize/blacken and feminize it. This cultural imagination goes back to antiquity but became a focused intentional literary device in 19th c American literature. I wrote a more “academic” post about it here and will eventually return to make it more accessible.

 

Do you have a newsletter?

Yes! you can sign up for my newsletter here or by clicking the Support New Stories link on the home page. You can also fill out the contact form and just let me know you want to be on the newsletter list in the body of the message.

 

I am an agent; how can I contact you?

Please use the contact form or email me directly.

 

*Beautyful is a reference to Ghanaian post-colonial author Ayi Kwei Armah’s 1968 novel, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born.