He is the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency.
His short story collection, Love Is Power, or Something Like That, was chosen as a “best book of 2013” by NPR. In 2014 he was named on the Africa 39 list of writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature.
In 2014, he was named on the Africa 39 list of writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature.
His first novel, Blackass, published in 2015, was nominated for the PEN Open Book Award, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the FT/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Awards, the Kitschies Golden Tentacle Award, and the Nommo Award for Best Novel.
In 2016, his novel Blackass was selected by the Chinese Foreign Literature Society as a winner of its 21st Century Best Foreign Novel Award. Barrett has twice served as a judge for the Graywolf Press Africa Prize.
QWPWinner 2019 to be announced December 15. Make a date.