Critical Praise

"Brilliant. The language is soothing yet biting and you are constantly challenged by unique metaphors and fresh perspectives. Free is a stunning debut. "

———Yolanda Joe, author of This Just In

"The stories in Free are plainspoken, understated and deceptively complex. Anika Nailah makes everyday interactions between black and white, young and old, into capsules of insight about who we are culturally and how we interact across the barriers of race, age and class. There is an honest wisdom in this slim volume. "

———David Anthony Durham, author of Gabriel's Story

"As fluid as the turn of the page, Anika Nailah's timeless-often painfully so-debut collection quietly gives voice to those screaming to be heard. In lesser hands, clarity, strength and hope would not prevail. "

———Brian Keith Jackson, author of The View From Here and The Queen of Harlem