Monday, May 11, 2026 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Uchenna Awoke will read from his new novel, A Siege of Owls, and will be joined in conversation with Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate, Reyumeh Ejue. Described as "An urgent and unforgettable work of magical realism following a young man coming of age in rural West Africa as he bears witness to the violence, upheaval, and hope in a rapidly changing society," A Siege of Owls is praised by The Malvern Observer as "a deeply human, urgent, and earnest story," while Chimezie Chika, author of Afrocritik, says: "A Siege of Owls is a masterpiece . . . If mythmaking—that is, mythmaking the becoming or unbecoming of our country—is Awoke’s goal in writing this novel, he immensely succeeds in mythologising the aggressive extremities of our times."