Gabriel Bump
Born:
Connection to Illinois: Bump grew up in South Shore, Chicago. Biography: Gabriel Bump's nonfiction and fiction have appeared in Slam magazine, the Huffington Post, Springhouse Journal, and other publications. He was awarded the 2016 Deborah Slosberg Memorial Award for Fiction. He received his MFA in fiction from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He lives in Buffalo, New York.
Awards:
- Everywhere You Don't Belong A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2020 Winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence A Electric Lit Favorite Novel of 2020 A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books of 2020 Starred Review, Library Journal, 2020
- The New Naturals A New York Times Notable Book for 2023
Web: https://www.workman.com/products/everywhere-you-dont-belong
Web: https://englishcomplit.unc.edu/faculty-directory/gabriel-bump/
Selected Titles
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Everywhere You Don't Belong ISBN: 9781616208790 OCLC: 1078894839 Algonquin 2020 A darkly funny and heartfelt debut novel about what it means to grow up young and black on the south side of Chicago when it feels like your choices are slim to none. |
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The New Naturals ISBN: 1616208805 OCLC: Algonquin Books 2023 An abandoned restaurant on a hill off the highway in Western Massachusetts doesn't look like much. But to Rio, a young Black woman bereft after the loss of her newborn child, this hill becomes more than a safe haven—it becomes a place to start over. She convinces her husband to help her construct a society underground, somewhere safe, somewhere everyone can feel loved, wanted, and accepted, where the children learn actual history, where everyone has an equal shot.She locates a Benefactor and soon their utopia begins to take shape. Two unhoused men hear about it and immediately begin their journey by bus from Chicago to get there. A young and disillusioned journalist stumbles upon it and wants in. And a former soccer player, having lost his footing in society, is persuaded to check it out too. But no matter how much these people all yearn for meaning and a sanctuary from the existential dread of life above the surface, what happens if this new society can't actually work? What then? From one of the most exciting new literary voices out there, The New Naturals is fresh and deeply perceptive, capturing the absurdity of life in the 21st century, for readers of Paul Beatty’s The Sellout and Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House. In this remarkable feat of imagination, Bump shows us that, ultimately, it is our love for and connection to each other that will save us. |