We are thrilled to announce that Helen Oyeyemi’s “unconventional, intoxicating and deeply disquieting” (PW, starred review) coming-of-age novel White is for Witching has been nominated for the 2009 Shirley Jackson Award, established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.
“[Oyeyemi] knows that ghost stories aren’t just for kids. And White Is for Witching turns out to be a delightfully unconventional coming-of-age story . . . . As in Toni Morrison’s Beloved or Chris Abani’s Song for Night, the supernatural elements of White Is for Witching serve to remind the characters—and Oyeyemi’s readers—of horrifying historical circumstances . . . . Oyeyemi clearly appreciates that some crimes (like slavery or genocide or, in this case, institutional racism) are so heinous that the conventions of realist fiction seem woefully inadequate to describe them. She makes us glad to suspend disbelief.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Profoundly chilling . . . a slow-building neo-Gothic that will leave persevering readers breathless.”
—The Boston Globe
“Chilling . . . lyrical . . . If you’ve been missing Shirley Jackson all these many years, missing the creepy character-driven goodness of We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Hangsaman, here’s a writer who seems to be a direct heir to that lamented one’s gothic throne.”
—The Austin Chronicle