An extraordinary debut novel, Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side." Unsettling, heartwrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater is a sharp evocation of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that illuminates how we all construct our identities.
Ada begins her life in the south of Nigeria as a troubled baby and a source of deep concern to her family. Her parents, Saul and Saachi, successfully prayed her into existence, but as she grows into a volatile and splintered child, it becomes clear that something went terribly awry. When Ada comes of age and moves to America for college, the group of selves within her grows in power and agency. A traumatic assault leads to a crystallization of her alternate selves: Asụghara and Saint Vincent. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind and these selves--now protective, now hedonistic--move into control, Ada's life spirals in a dark and dangerous direction.
Narrated by the various selves within Ada and based in the author's realities, Freshwater dazzles with ferocious energy and serpentine grace, heralding the arrival of a fierce new literary voice.
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4 books in catalog
Exploring the boundaries between corporeality and the spirit world, speculative fiction and non-traditional memoirs centered on queer indigenous Black realities have reshaped contemporary literature. Akwaeke Emezi is a Nigerian writer and multidisciplinary artist whose debut novel Freshwater introduced readers to a narrative framed through Igbo metaphysics and non-binary embodiment. Born in Umuahia and raised in Aba, Nigeria, Emezi uses storytelling, visual art, film, and music to center radical possibilities and re-indigenization as essential paths toward liberation.
Emezi relocated to Brooklyn in the early 2010s as a poet and filmmaker, earning recognition when their short film Ududeagu won Best Short Experimental at the 2014 BlackStar Film Festival. After pursuing creative writing studies at Syracuse University, they published their debut novel Freshwater in 2018, earning widespread acclaim and nominations for the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize, and the Women's Prize for Fiction. Named a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree and a Time Next Generation Leader, Emezi published seven books over the next four years across multiple genres. These include the young adult novel Pet, a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, and the New York Times bestselling novel The Death of Vivek Oji. In 2021, they released Dear Senthuran, a memoir in letters that won the 2022 Stonewall Book Award for Nonfiction. Emezi expanded into music with their debut EP Stop Dying, You Were Very Expensive! in March 2024, followed by their eighth book, Little Rot, published in June 2024 by Riverhead Books. Represented by Jacqueline Ko at The Wylie Agency and by United Talent Agency, Emezi is based in liminal spaces and has forthcoming 2025 releases including Somadina and Son Of The Morning.
Emezi's creative work is deeply rooted in the metaphysics of Black spirit, using indigenous ontologies as a lens to focus on embodiment, ritual, incarnation, and rememory. By exploring the space between human existence and spiritual realms, Emezi constructs narratives that center non-binary, spirit, and queer realities. Their writing spans speculative fiction, romance, poetry, YA literature, and memoir, deliberately subverting Western narrative structures and rigid categorical distinctions. Combining poetic language with emotional vulnerability, Emezi frames re-indigenization not merely as a thematic focus, but as a philosophy and essential rite for Black liberation.
