SONDER: THE DIARY ENTRIES PROJECT
In Perfect Little Angels, perspective is critical. How people shift under new light. In that spirit, I reached out to some of my favourite writers in December 2023 to sketch the interiority of background characters: people with only one or two lines of detail in the book. It has been so thrilling expanding the world of Perfect Little Angels through their judicious eyes. Biweekly, starting on Friday, I will present new micro stories—heartbreaking, humorous, and shocking—from:
TAYLOR BYAS
INNOCENT CHIZARAM ILO
ADEDAYO AGARAU
ZILLA JONES
CLARIE GOR
CHANEL SUTHERLAND
EXODUS OKTAVIA BROWNLOW
SOMTO IHEZUE
BRYAN OKWESILI
GILLIAN O’SHAUGHNESSY
NATHAN XIE
ZAK JONES
OLA HALIM
In Perfect Little Angels, Vincent Anioke writes with candour and tenderness, deep humanity, and an exacting eye for the details that reveal the inner truths of our lives. He creates a rich and nuanced world, unveiling the dynamics and the emotional and psychological toll of societal and interpersonal brutality, and he breathes life and complexity into his characters - we feel for them, ache for them, and root for them, recognizing ourselves in their struggles for belonging, wholeness, and transcendence. These stories are searing and unforgettable. -Helen Elaine Lee, author of Pomegranate
Steeped in violence, family turmoil, and broken dreams, Perfect Little Angels captures the rawest of emotions in the finest of prose. This debut collection marks the arrival of a phenomenal talent. Vincent Anioke writes with an honesty rivalled only by his compassion, and I'm first in line for whatever he does next. -Jennifer Wortman, author of This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love.
Perfect Little Angels is a brilliant debut bookended by blood; Vincent Anioke's prose slices with the heft and certainty of a meat cleaver. Readers will hang on the fates of goats and the voices of lost family, while betrayal, shame, and circumstance enlace and entangle as characters' desires meet dogma. A vivid reminder of the danger, joy, and depth of love. -Derek Mascarenhas, author of Coconut Dreams and 100 Chapatis
Vincent Anioke has created such a compelling, memorable cast of characters in Perfect Little Angels, where the lines between victim and perpetrator are blurred and where surviving the stranglehold of a pietistic society is not always a given. Anioke is a masterful storyteller. -Christopher Allen, publisher of SmokeLong Quarterly
Vincent Anioke's brilliant, harrowing short story collection Perfect Little Angels is populated by characters who are struggling, for the sake of those who in equal measure love them and judge them, to become someone else: someone with sanctioned desires. In these brutal, sad, funny stories, Anioke considers what culture demands from men and women and how to survive these demands intact. -Kim Magowan, author of How Far I've Come