Acquisition: Angela Ajayi’s EVERYTHING IS FREEDOM

Forest Avenue Press has acquired world English rights to Angela Ajayi’s debut novel in stories, EVERYTHING IS FREEDOM, slated for fall 2026.

Born to a Nigerian father and Ukrainian mother in the 1970s, Talya struggles to make sense of the fluidity of her racial identity and the rigidity of the cultural norms that surround her. In Nigeria, she is frequently reminded of her proximity to whiteness while in Soviet Ukraine, which she visits with her mother every summer, it is her blackness that stands out. An unexpected personal loss and an increasingly dysfunctional family life, fueled by cultural and personality clashes, amid Nigeria’s patriarchal society make Talya’s  life almost unbearable.

When an opportunity to attend college in America presents itself, Talya grabs it, hoping for a brighter future with more individual freedom. But the long road ahead isn’t exactly flowing with milk and honey. Spanning three decades and continents, EVERYTHING IS FREEDOM is a book about the intertwining of racial and cultural identity, about survival in the face of grief and personal turmoil, and about the irrepressible human need for transcendence.

“EVERYTHING IS FREEDOM is a powerful examination of patriarchy and race, as told through the life of a young woman longing to escape societal expectations,” said Publisher Laura Stanfill. “Angela told us she wrote it ‘in the spirit of defiance against all forms of oppression,’ and that urgency strikes a ringing chord throughout this stunning debut novel in stories. We can’t wait to share Angela’s work with the world.”

Angela Ajayi’s story “Galina” appeared in Fifth Wednesday Journal and won the 2017 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Her essays, book reviews, and author interviews have appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Common Online, Wild River Review, and the Minnesota Star Tribune, where she is a contributing book critic. She lives in Minnesota.

Angela Ajayi