Speak Gigantular

"Precise and illuminating." - Bernardine Evaristo OBE.

Shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, the Saboteur Awards, the Shirley Jackson Award and the Jhalak Prize.

Lovelorn aliens abduct innocent coffee shop waitresses. Ghosts of errant Londoners haunt the Underground, caught between here and the hereafter. Brave young women seek erotic empowerment... at their own peril.

These are the worlds of Speak Gigantular, the startling debut short story collection from acclaimed author Irenosen Okojie MBE. Understated in her humour and razor-sharp in her observations of humankind, Okojie's eclectic anthology offers an unflinching gaze into the darkest corners of the human experience.

Sexy, serious, and often downright disturbing, this brilliant debut collection sizzles with originality.

"A work of rare confidence, luminous imagery and full of hidden sharp edges." - Nina Allan, winner of the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire.

"Irenosen Okojie's Speak Gigantular should, if there is any literary justice, place her in a circle with writers like Shirley Jackson, Margaret Atwood, and Angela Carter." - New Orleans Review.

Irenosen Okojie MBE is a British-Nigerian writer and Arts Project Manager. Her debut novel Butterfly Fish won the 2016 Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for an Edinburgh International First Book Award. Her short story collection Speak Gigantular was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize, the Shirley Jackson Award and the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. Her novel Nudibranch was featured in Vanity Fair, and was championed by Margaret Atwood as a wild, recommended read and selected as one of the best books of the year in the Guardian and Observer Review by Bernardine Evaristo and Diana Evans.

Irenosen has been a judge for The Society of Authors, The London Short Story Prize, The Royal Society Of Literature, the Berlin Writing Prize, Henley Literary Festival and Mslexia Short Story Competition. She was a judge for the 2020 BBC National Short Story Award and the 2021 Gordon Burn Prize. She is currently a judge for the Women's Prize 2022 Discoveries development programme, the International Dylan Thomas Prize and The British Book Awards. She has moderated panels for The Testaments tour, the Southbank Centre, Africa Writes, English PEN, Birmingham Literature Festival, Writing on The Wall Festival in conversation with Marlon James and others. She was the first Writer in Residence for Words of Colour, and was awarded an MBE for Services to Literature in 2021.