I published a feature article about Shigeru Mizuki’s phenomenal Showa graphic novels in this month’s World Literature Today. Shigeru Mizuki is a pioneer of Japanese manga who only has one arm!
The article is not online but it is beautifully laid out in the magazine — grab yourself a copy by ordering it here.
I was thrilled to be featured as recommended reading in The Guardian. You can read the article here.
I was honored to read from my short story We Are the Olfanauts at the launch of Watchlist: 32 stories from persons of interest, published by O/R Books. The reading took place at babycastles, a cool video game hacker space in the West Village of Manhattan.
You can get a copy of Watchlist here or read my short story in Electric Literature here.
photo credit: Peter Micek
I’m getting excited for the new film Jurassic Park World. I’m an admirer of Michael Crichton, so much so that I published a piece in the New York Review of Science Fiction called How to Write Your Own Jurassic Park.
You can read it on Medium here.
I’ll admit that the poster of actor Chris Pratt riding a motorcycle with a pack of velociraptors does not inspire confidence. Why? First, it’s dangerous to ride a motorcycle without a helmet. Second, a helmet would protect him from deadly velociraptor attacks. And third (this is the one that I fear the most), it may be that his character has tamed the animals somehow with an embedded chip (the Internet of Dinosaurs) and for some reason, some completely ridiculous reason, they are now running beside him and following his orders with the docility of bloodhounds.
But this photo, of a mosasaurus eating a great white shark, does get me excited.
Why? Because I played (and finished) this Jurassic Park game by Telltale Games. The mosasaurus level was among the most creative and enjoyable to play. Let’s see if it has translated to the full screen.
I was honored to be reviewed by The Guardian in Nigeria, one of the most popular newspapers in the country. The review was written by Tade Ipadeola, winner of the Nigeria Prize — the most prestigious literary prize. (I highly recommend you read Tade Ipadeola’s The Sahara Testaments.)
As he writes:
Among the things that Deji Olukotun has done, in this novel, is an anatomy of that divide between potential and actuality, promise and fulfilment, responsibility and perplexing irresponsibility. The novel is also a visceral plumbing of the depths of dreams and nightmares and how one sometimes morphs into the other. This novel is also a fine example of the relationship between the nation and the imagination.