Nafissa Thompson-Spires Press Reviews
The kind of collection that makes you shake your head in delight. Her voice is fresh-laundry-clean: I have not read anything like it in years. The prose is cunning. It appears simple, but the overall effect is powerful. Her stories feel simultaneously like the poke of a stick and a comforting balm; a smack followed by a kiss. I'm so into it. -- Bim Adewunmi - Guardian
Every so often, a voice comes along that knocks you sideways; this debut collection of short stories was one such moment. From the first page there's an electricity and freshness to the voice that grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let me go -- Andrew McMillan - Observer
Vivid, fast, funny, way-smart, and verbally inventive, these stories by the vastly talented Thompson-Spires create a compelling surface tension made of equal parts scepticism towards human nature and intense fondness of it. Located on the big questions, they are full of heart -- George Saunders Her electric style is extrovert, erudite and hugely entertaining, despite the often grim subject matter... Thompson-Spires invigoratingly hits the mark... you end the collection greedy to read whatever is coming next from this unmistakable talent -- Anthony Cummins - The Observer
Thompson-Spires' stories are dark, have a cutting sense of humour, and are entertaining and essential -- Sarah Shaffi - Stylist
For the freshest voice in literature, look no further than Nafissa Thompson-Spires blisteringly clever short story collection, Heads of the Colored People... Sometimes, a voice comes around that is so singular, so funny, so wholly original, that you go back and reread each story once you finish it... In each of these humorous, intelligent vignettes, Thompson-Spires explores aspects of being Black and middle-class in today's America. This is a special collection. Buy it so you can read it more than once -- Elizabeth Kiefer - Refinery29
Superbly witty... The topics she takes on are often deadly serious, but every story flashes grim humor. She is also a brutally sharp observer -- Janet Maslin - New York Times
The stories here are dazzling, wise, wicked and tender. Nafissa Thompson-Spires' debut is a knockout -- Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble and Magic for Beginners Nafissa Thompson-Spires pulls no punches in her boundary-pushing short-story collection ... With gallows humour and brazen originality, the author plunges us deep into the interiorities of quirkily indelible characters ... Thompson-Spires's virtuosity is breathtaking ... Funny, smart and of the moment, this electrifying debut marks the emergence of a daring talent -- Morgan Jerkins - O Magazine
Nafissa Thompson-Spires creates characters whose fates become, in the space of just a few pages, crucially important to us. She's intelligent, she's funny, and at her best she's phenomenally good -- Chris Power, author of Mothers Every once in a while a book comes around that fills a need - that communicates ideas so effectively and humanely its social value leaps off the page. Heads, the debut of Nafissa Thompson-Spires, is such a book ... Stories run the gamut from intimate to uproarious to devastating ... Writing in versatile prose and with a penchant for naturalistic dialogue...she weaves timeless human conflict into a quietly political tapestry. -- David Canfield - Entertainment Weekly
An unusually intricate matrix of clear-eyed observation and devastating revelation about what it means to be a human being alive on this aching, raucous, unjust planet in the early 21st century. It is also, often, extremely funny, and is very smart on every page and gorgeously, rewardingly varied in its sentences and forms -- Laird Hunt Nafissa Thompson-Spires has taken the best of what Toni Cade Bambara, Paul Beatty, Morgan Parker...do plus a whole lot of something we've never seen in American literature, blended it all together and given us one of the finest short story collections I've ever read. The super thin lines between terror, intimacy, humor and hubris are masterfully toed, jumped and ultimately redrawn in the most exciting and soulful fiction I've read this century. The nation needed Heads of Colored People 40 years ago. Thankfully, we Nafissa Thompson-Spires gave it to us now. -- Kiese Laymon From the opening sentences of the opening story in Nafissa Thompson-Spires's debut collection, Heads of the Colored People, we're in a world of humour, provocation and deep reflection -- John Williams - New York Times
By turns hilarious, charming, ingenious, and heartbreaking, Thompson-Spires' debut is well worth checking out - LitHub
