Adults
Join the discussion with author Vincent Anioke as he talks about his debut story collection, Perfect Little Angels, a beautifully imagined collection set largely in Nigeria that explores themes of masculinity and repressed desires through the lens of (un)conditional love.
Vincent Anioke is a software engineer at Google. He was born and raised in Nigeria but now lives in Canada. His short stories have appeared in SmokeLong Quarterly, Masters Review, Split Lip Magazine, Passages North and The Rumpus. He is the 2021 Austin Clarke Fiction Prize Winner and was also shortlisted for the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. A previous version of Utopia was also longlisted for the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize. Vincent was also finalist for the 2023 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers From the Writers' Trust of Canada.
About Perfect Little Angels:
In this stunning debut story collection set largely in Nigeria, questions abound: What happens when we fall short of society's - and our own - expectations? When our personal desires conflict with the duties we are bound with? The characters in Perfect Little Angels confront these dilemmas and more in these brilliantly imagined tales.
In a boarding school, tensions brew between students and vengeful staff. An addict seeks a fresh start in pottery class. A man returns home from university abroad with confessions that unravel his mother's world. Amid winter storms, a ghost delights her grief-stricken partner. And atop a hill surrounded by rot and garbage, two lovers dare to embark on a secret, dangerous romance. Human desires - for connection, salvation, and understanding - imbue these deeply Nigerian stories with universal resonance.
In Vincent Anioke's tenderly written stories, characters seek love in different permutations from teachers, parents, dead partners, and even God. Perfect Little Angels is a nuanced exploration of masculinity, religion, marginalization, suppressed queerness, and self-expression through the lens of (un)conditional love.
Presented in partnership with Words Worth Books in celebration of 40 years.
Programmer: Nancy
Located on the west side of Waterloo, the John M. Harper Branch shares a building with the Stork Family YMCA. It features soaring ceilings, dedicated study space (including 3 bookable study rooms), a large Community Room and an outdoor courtyard.
