Ep 123 NHPR Essie Chambers: SWIFT RIVER

2024-11-10

The third season of in-depth author interviews continues with Essie Chambers, author of "Swift River." Longlisted for The Center for Fiction 2024 First Novel Prize, there’s a lot to unpack in this novel. Sixteen year old Diamond is the only Black person in the town of Swift River, stuck in a town she hates it as much as it hates her. Her mother is a drug addict who can’t pay the bills, and making things even worse, Diamond is buried in an obese body she can’t escape, a symbol of the gener...

The third season of in-depth author interviews continues with Essie Chambers, author of "Swift River."

Longlisted for The Center for Fiction 2024 First Novel Prize, there’s a lot to unpack in this novel. Sixteen year old Diamond is the only Black person in the town of Swift River, stuck in a town she hates it as much as it hates her.

Her mother is a drug addict who can’t pay the bills, and making things even worse, Diamond is buried in an obese body she can’t escape, a symbol of the generational trauma that weighs on her every single day.

"Swift River" focuses on three generations of women in one family, the trauma they endure and pass on.

It also shows us the hope Diamond holds for her future, and a historic setting in a northern ‘sundown town,’ a town where Black people are only allowed to pass through during the day.

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