Iheoma Nwachukwu’s debut short story collection, Japa and Other Stories, has been named a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. The $25,000 award, which honours an author’s first collection for its distinguished literary achievement and promise of future greatness, places Nwachukwu among a select group of emerging writers whose work is redefining the American literary canon.
Published by the University of Georgia Press, Japa and Other Stories stands alongside other finalists—Softie by Megan Howell, I’ll Give You a Reason by Annell López, The Man in the Banana Trees by Marguerite Sheffer, and Sad Grownups by Amy Stuber—in a celebration of bold, innovative storytelling.
Nwachukwu’s collection, comprising eight poignant and unflinching stories, captures the fragmented dreams of young Nigerian immigrants navigating unfamiliar terrains. From the deserts of Utah to the streets of Finland, the characters—thieves, misadventurers and displaced souls—grapple with the weight of forging connections far from home. The title Japa, a Nigerian slang term meaning to flee or emigrate, encapsulates the restless yearning that pulses through the collection. These are not stories of return but of anchoring oneself in strange new realities, often at great personal cost.
The judges—acclaimed authors Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, Leah Hampton, and Wendy Wimmer—recognised Japa for its muscular prose and haunting exploration of identity.
Nwachukwu, a fiction writer and poet who has garnered fellowships from the Mississippi Arts Commission, the Michener Center, and the Chinua Achebe Center, draws from his own experiences orienting himself in the United States between 2017 and 2021, a period marked by shifting attitudes toward immigrants. His characters, while deeply tied to Nigeria, have no intention of returning, embodying a diaspora that is both rootless and resilient.
Critics have lauded Japa for its ambition and originality. Elizabeth McCracken, author of The Hero of This Book, calls it “a triumph: funny and ruthless, about every variety of longing there is on this earth.” Elaine Chiew, in Foreword, describes its displaced souls as “blown hither and thither, like bees that have lost their homing instinct.” Billy Kahora, author of The Cape Cod Bicycle War, praises its “Pynchonesque America” and “seductive strangeness,” noting its settings in Utah and Tallahassee, alongside vivid depictions of Zanzibar and Equatorial Guinea. Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Olen Butler hails Nwachukwu as “a literary artist of the highest order,” whose ravishing voice allows readers to inhabit the souls of his characters.
The collection’s eclectic scope—gorillas in Malaysia, U-Haul trucks in Utah, soccer matches in Finland—tests the boundaries of the short story form while weaving a universal thread of human longing. Published in paperback for $25.95, Japa has earned a 4.9/5.0 rating on Bookshop.org, backed by over 21,000 reviews praising its emotional depth and narrative daring. Nwachukwu’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, the Southern Review, and AGNI, cementing his reputation as a formidable talent.
As an assistant professor at Eastern University in Pennsylvania, Nwachukwu continues to shape the literary world both as a writer and educator. His finalist nod for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize signals not just a debut but a clarion call for future work that will undoubtedly push boundaries further.
