clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Novelist Akwaeke Emezi talks writing a nonbinary novel

The author of The Death of Vivek Oji spoke with the Vox Book Club for our April live event.

If you buy something from a Vox link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Constance Grady is a senior correspondent on the Culture team for Vox, where since 2016 she has covered books, publishing, gender, celebrity analysis, and theater.

The Vox Book Club is linking to Bookshop.org to support local and independent booksellers.

The Vox Book Club spent April reading Akwaeke Emezi’s The Death of Vivek Oji, a ferocious and kaleidoscopic novel about the mysterious death of a young man in Nigeria. And at the end of the month, we met with Emezi live on Zoom to talk the whole thing through. Together, we discussed who Emezi thinks of themself as writing for, how the love story of Vivek Oji came together, and why Emezi currently has a list of 17 books to write. (One of them is a romance novel!)

You can relive our full conversation in the video above (click the “cc” button at the bottom right corner of the player to turn on captions). And to keep up with what’s ahead for the Vox Book Club as well as general book news, sign up for our newsletter, which goes out roughly twice a month. Next up, we’re getting ready to talk about our May book, Sanjena Sathian’s Gold Diggers.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for Vox Recommends

Get curated picks of the best Vox journalism to read, watch, and listen to every week, from our editors.