Our regular Book Digest segment spotlights new books from Dzifa Benson, Nathaniel Bivan, and Yael Valencia Aldana.
Black Mestiza by Yael Valencia Aldana
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Date: January 21, 2025
Genre: Poetry
Language: English
Where to find it: University Press of Kentucky
Yael Valencia Aldana

Yael Valencia Aldana, an Afro-Latinx/e poet and writer, is the author of Alien(s). Aldana, her mother, her mother’s mother, and so on are descendants of the Indigenous people of modern-day Colombia. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and has appeared in Torch Literary Arts, Chapter House Journal, and Slag Glass City, among others. She teaches creative writing in South Florida and lives near the ocean with her son and too many pets. Find her online at YaelAldana.com.
Black Mestiza

In Black Mestiza, Yael Valencia Aldana reckons with her identity as a Caribbean Afro-Latinx/e woman with Indigenous, Black, and white roots and pays homage to the legacy, resilience, and fortitude of her ancestors. These stunning poems paint a vivid picture of everyday life and Aldana’s experiences as a mixed-race woman, daughter, and mother. The Pushcart Prize–winning poem “Black Person Head Bob” addresses how Black people silently yet soulfully acknowledge and see each other. “Why Don’t You Write About Joy?” speaks to the suffering that women of color endure while their cries and spirit remain resolute: because you cannot hear me / doesn’t mean I am not singing. “Small Dark and Moving” skillfully represents the poet’s journey and the souls she carries with her, evoking images of evolving landscapes and beings as they transition through different forms. The poet beautifully interweaves narratives regarding the constant presence and influence of her Caribbean parents and a desire for more connection with her Colombian grandmother and ancestry, capturing the essence of origins, blood ties, and the idea that nothing is ever truly lost. This collection is not only a testament to Aldana’s deep-rooted connection to her heritage, but also a compelling celebration and expression of pride, recognition, and a profound sense of community.
Monster by Dzifa Benson
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
Date: December 3, 2024
Genre: Poetry
Language: English
Where to find it: Bloodaxe Books,
Dzifa Benson

Dzifa Benson was born in London to Ghanaian parents and grew up in Ghana, Nigeria and Togo. She is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist whose work intersects science, art, technology, the body and ritual which she explores through poetry, prose, theatre, libretto, performance, curation, visual arts, immersive technologies, essays and criticism. She holds a Masters degree in Text & Performance from RADA and Birkbeck in London, and studied dramaturgy at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. She was shortlisted for the inaugural James Berry Poetry Prize in 2021. Her abridgement and adaption of the National Youth Theatre REP Company’s 2021 production of Othello, in collaboration with Olivier award-winning director Miranda Cromwell, toured the UK and she is currently in the pre-production, dramaturgical stage of her first full length play Black Mozart // White Chevalier.
Monster

The exciting and complex debut collection from Dzifa Benson, Monster is a bold and lyrical exploration of the Black female body as a site of oppression and resistance. At its heart is a study of the world of Sarah Baartman, aka the Hottentot Venus, a Khoikhoi woman from South Africa who was displayed in freak shows in 19th-century Europe. Baartman’s voice is framed within the social, political and legal structures of the day, offering a unique perspective.
Other poems draw clear parallels with Benson’s own experience as a Black woman born in London but raised in Ghana who returned to the UK at the age of 18. The collection is a mix of vivid lyricism, sometimes laced with dark humour, using complex poetry, monologue and theatrical devices. The influence of Shakespeare sits comfortably with references to Ewe mythology and history in a collection of wide scope and depth. This is a highly accomplished first collection by a mature voice. As one of a small group of published Black women poets, Benson makes an important contribution to current British poetry with the publication of Monster.
Boys, Girls and Beasts by Nathaniel Bivan
Publisher: Masobe Books
Date: November 15, 2024
Genre: Fiction, Speculative Fiction
Language: English
Where to find it: Masobe Books
Nathaniel Bivan

Nathaniel Bivan is a solutions and conflict journalist whose reporting has taken him to terror zones in Kaduna, Plateau, Niger, and Borno states of northern Nigeria. Until 2021, he was Arts Editor for Daily Trust, one of his country’s most influential newspapers. He was also Features Editor for HumAngle Media, arguably one of Africa’s fastest growing newsrooms, where he reported about the violent conflict plaguing the region. He has mentored journalists under the Solutions Journalism Africa Initiative and mostly contributes for The Christian Science Monitor among other newsrooms. His children’s storybook, Flowerblind, was published in 2018 under the African storybook project, and his memoir on the SSA to former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on Christian Religious Affairs titled My Time as Chaplian: An Account of Venerable Obioma Onwuzurumba was released in 2022.
Boys, Girls, and Beasts

Wars are not easy to forestall, nor are enemies—within or without—easy to destroy. In a world stitched together by fragile treaties and bound by the mysterious power of a super crop, the United Nations of West Africa has lived in fragile promise of peace—until it is shattered in a maelstrom of blood and smoke. For Jaka, a boy on the brink of manhood in the quiet village of Malovo, life is torn apart in an instant. War crashes down, sweeping him into a shadowy underworld ruled by forces darker than his worst nightmares. Captured and forced into the ranks of a brutal militia, Jaka becomes a pawn of the Zohrar, an ancient race whose warriors wield the power to channel primal beasts. With each passing day, the line between boy and beast blurs, his humanity slipping away, loyalty twisted into a deadly instinct that battles against faint memories of home, family, and a life that feels like a dream. As Jaka climbs through the ranks, uncovering the terrifying secrets of the Zohrar, he discovers he is now part of a mission older than humanity itself, a mission to conquer Earth. But when he is called to destroy the very land he once called his own, Jaka faces a choice that could alter the fates of two worlds. Boys, Girls & Beasts is a fierce journey through the heart of darkness, where identity and survival are locked in a brutal struggle, and the difference between hero and monster is blurred by shadow. Enter a world where myth rises to life, and innocence is the first casualty of war.
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