Iowa-based short story writer, Jamel Brinkley, won the fourth annual Maya Angelou Book Award for Witness: Stories, the first short story collection to win the national award.

The 10 stories, set in New York City, question what it means to be a “witness” to life, as well as to witness life as it's lived. The reader becomes part of the stories, identifying with and witnessing the characters' experiences.

Brinkley and the Library's Anne Kniggendorf discuss the work and his diverse cast of characters – from children to ghosts – exploring what it means to passively or actively be a part of the life around us.

A native of the Bronx and Brooklyn, he now teaches at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has published work in The Paris Review, A Public Space, Ploughshares, and The Best American Short Stories, and others. His first collection, A Lucky Man, was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Named for the acclaimed Missouri-born memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist, the prize celebrates contemporary writers whose work demonstrates their commitment to social justice. It alternates annually between poetry and fiction, going this year to the author of a work of fiction.

The Kansas City Public Library, UMKC, the University of Missouri-Columbia, Missouri State University, and Northwest Missouri State, Truman State, and Southeast Missouri State universities established the award in 2020. It includes a $10,000 stipend, and Brinkley will conduct a book tour of the six Missouri universities that participate in the award.

This event is presented in partnership with the Carolyn Benton Cockefair Chair in Continuing Education at UMKC.