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Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond has previously written both a children\u2019s and a young adult book, but her latest release, My Parents\u2019 Marriage (Amistad, 2025), tackles new themes for a new audience. Set in Ghana and New York City in the 1970s, the adult novel follows Kokui, a young woman who grows disillusioned with her parents\u2019 lives and seeks out a different kind of romance for herself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In conversation with PEN America\u2019s communications intern Julia Goldberg for this week\u2019s PEN Ten, Hammond reflects on the challenges of writing fiction for an older audience, Kokui\u2019s strong bond with her sister, and the enduring nature of storytelling itself, which she says continues to give her hope amid escalating attacks on free expression. (Bookshop<\/a>; Barnes & Noble<\/a>).<\/p>\n You\u2019ve previously written a young adult novel (Powder Necklace) and, more recently, a children\u2019s book (BLUE: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky). How did you know that My Parents\u2019 Marriage should be an adult novel? What was most surprising or difficult about writing fiction for an older audience?\u00a0<\/p>\n I wrote My Parents\u2019 Marriage for adult and mature readers because, at its core, this novel is an invitation to consider how your parents\u2019 union might have impacted how you show up in relationships. I think you need some experience and maturity to be able to reflect on that with some level of humility, compassion, and grace. My Parents\u2019 Marriage is also about the nuanced weave of culture and class, tradition and modernity, religion and colonialism, patriarchy and womanhood\u2014with the characters making some complicated decisions at the intersections of each. Again, I think you need some life experience under your belt to appreciate the paths some of the characters choose, even if you don\u2019t agree with their choices.<\/p>\n As for my experience of writing fiction for an older audience, I\u2019d say one of the hardest parts of writing My Parents\u2019 Marriage was finding the sweet spot in articulating the inner transition of early adulthood\u2014when the self-righteous certainties you carry from youth confront life\u2019s many gray areas and you are now the adult who must decide how to respond to them. That\u2019s the journey my main character Kokui makes in this novel.<\/p>\n Early in the novel, Kokui describes herself as stuck in a \u201cdizzying circle of irony.\u201d\u00a0 Her family\u2019s wealth affords her the privilege of rejecting any man\u2019s sexual advance with ease, but it also enables her father to pursue as many wives as he\u2019d like, much to Kokui\u2019s dismay. What drew you to explore the relationship between class and gender\/sex in My Parents\u2019 Marriage?<\/p>\n I think privilege is such an interesting topic. With all of the comforts it affords and doors it can open, in many ways privilege can also be a prison. A prison of ignorance to the struggles of others. A penitentiary of unwieldy mores to maintain your position. A solitary confinement of fear and pretense that prevents people from getting close. I wanted to explore this irony in My Parents\u2019 Marriage and how acutely this tension plays out in Ghana where class divisions are so stark and the privileges that come with being male are pretty blatant.<\/p>\n Many of the relationships in the novel, whether between parent and child or husband and wife, are quite complex. Kokui and her sister, Nami, stand out as one true exception. Why did you choose to foreground such an uncomplicated, tender sibling relationship in the novel?\u00a0<\/p>\n Thank you so much for seeing that in Kokui and Nami\u2019s bond. I think of their relationship as complicated in its own way. Nami is overshadowed by Kokui\u2019s dramatic personality and overlooked in some ways because of it, while Kokui admires her sister\u2019s thoughtful, measured approach to life and wishes at least some of that came more naturally to her. But I guess, thinking more closely about your question, I chose to write their relationship in the way I did because I wanted to show their overarching instinct to protect one another as a counterpoint to the desperately competitive, adversarial dynamic between many of the other women in the book. With each other, the sisters\u2019 weaknesses are not vulnerabilities to exploit. Rather, when situations arise that require Kokui to be out front, Nami can exhale and trust her sister to push the door open for both of them. And when Kokui needs Nami\u2019s level head to sort through the details of whatever they\u2019re facing, she can be sure she has a true advocate looking out for both of their best interests.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I think privilege is such an interesting topic. With all of the comforts it affords and doors it can open, in many ways privilege can also be a prison. A prison of ignorance to the struggles of others. A penitentiary of unwieldy mores to maintain your position. A solitary confinement of fear and pretense that prevents people from getting close.<\/p>\n Kokui repeatedly emphasizes that she craves nothing more than a husband who will stay loyal to her, sparing her the pain and humiliation that her mother suffered at the hands of her father. Did you develop the novel around this theme, or did you realize only later in the writing process that it would be central to your work?\u00a0<\/p>\n After many years of rewriting and revising an earlier narrative set in Ghana that spanned almost four decades, I arrived at this tighter time period and theme. The idea came to me as I found myself in a deepening relationship. I wanted marriage, but I had great anxiety connected to my own past relationships and many of the unions I had seen growing up. As I came to this realization, I started hearing the same in conversation after conversation with friends. I began to write into this realization with trepidation not sure I was willing to explore this in novel form, but I felt more and more emboldened as it became clearer that I had tripped over a well that was deeper than me and my friend group.<\/p>\n In the copyediting phase of My Parents\u2019 Marriage, I got another unexpected confirmation. Watching season six of the reality dating show Love Is Blind, I was riveted by the relationship between Amber Desiree \u201cAD\u201d Smith and Clay Gravesande because he repeatedly expressed fear of marriage due to the anguish he witnessed in his parents\u2019 union. After Clay declined to say \u201cI do\u201d to AD at the altar, I was so touched by the candid talk his mother had with Clay\u2019s dad about their son\u2019s struggle<\/a> and the discussion it sparked. Talk show host Tamron Hall<\/a> said it best: \u201cThere\u2019s a bigger conversation about this trauma and pain, and how it blocks love.\u201d<\/p>\n The novel is set in both Ghana and New York City in the 1970s. What drew you to these settings and this time period?<\/p>\n I set the book in the 1970s because it was an acutely rich moment in Ghanaian history and in women\u2019s history around the globe. It was the decade Nigerian singer and activist Fela Kuti released his hit \u201cLady<\/a>,\u201d in which he crooned about African women: \u201cshe go say him equal to man.\u201d It was the era when The Pill and abortion were being hotly contested in U.S. senate hearings<\/a>. And in Ghana, it was a period where powerful men invited women to trade their sexuality for financial spoils.<\/p>\n My Parents\u2019 Marriage opens in December 1972, eleven months into the military regime of Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. The Acheampong administration was noted for its men lavishing their girlfriends with extravagant gifts, including houses and cars, at the expense of the nation\u2019s purse. The practice even went on to inspire the crude colloquialism \u201cfa wo to, b\u025b gye Golf\u201d (\u201cbring your ass and get a [Volkswagen] Golf.\u201d). For many ambitious young women living during this government, financial ascendancy meant being attached to the right man.\u00a0<\/p>\n In general, Ghanaian culture is patriarchal so Acheampong\u2019s administration was not necessarily introducing anything new, however, the leadership\u2019s dalliances enshrined a Sugar Daddy subculture that my novel\u2019s protagonist Kokui had to confront in her desire to make independent choices about her future.<\/p>\n In your previous PEN Ten interview<\/a>, you mentioned that your Ghanaian identity was called into question when you lived in Ghana and that, as a result, you\u2019re hypersensitive to how those in Ghana receive your work. Did you have a specific readership in mind while writing this novel? To what extent did you consider how certain aspects of the novel, such as Kokui\u2019s disillusionment with her parents\u2019 lives, might be received by that readership?\u00a0<\/p>\n I wrote this novel thinking about the generations who lived through the transition from \u201cThe Gold Coast\u201d to Ghana, and their children. Prior to sitting with the ideas in this book and writing My Parents\u2019 Marriage, I had only thought of the switch from colonialism to Independence in political terms. With this novel, I really wanted to meditate on the personal. What did it feel like to be born and raised in a society that was, in real time, experiencing the push and pull of generations\u2019 old traditions and their hybridization, dilution, or demonization under colonialism and then Independence\u2014all while the political and economic situation began to grow more and more volatile? I wanted to examine what that felt like for them, even as they had to figure out all of the other issues of life like work, romance, and family. And I wanted to explore the impact their choices had on the generation that came after them\u2014not as an indictment but a bridge to mutual understanding of each other and where the culture stands now. I hope My Parents\u2019 Marriage opens up an opportunity for readers across Ghana\u2019s older and younger generations to sit together and discuss these things with candor and without judgment.\u00a0<\/p>\n With this novel, I really wanted to meditate on the personal. What did it feel like to be born and raised in a society that was, in real time, experiencing the push and pull of generations\u2019 old traditions and their hybridization, dilution, or demonization under colonialism and then Independence\u2014all while the political and economic situation began to grow more and more volatile?<\/p>\n In that interview, you also identified Buchi Emecheta, Tayari Jones, Zadie Smith, Janet Fitch, Sharon Draper, and Chinua Achebe as your \u201cliterary north stars.\u201d Which of these authors and their works most inspired the content and style of My Parents\u2019 Marriage?\u00a0<\/p>\n Buchi Emecheta\u2019s The Joys of Motherhood is the first book I read that examined the passage from young womanhood to wifehood to motherhood with such detail and care\u2014and the first time I remember really considering who my parents were before they had us children. Tayari Jones\u2019 Silver Sparrow and An American Marriage are both a master class in conveying the myriad ways the tensions endemic in a wider culture can seep into personal relationships and families. Janet Fitch\u2019s White Oleander so beautifully navigates the subtleties that distinguish the mother-daughter relationship. I love that Zadie Smith canonizes characters and communities who are usually ignored in \u201cgreat literature,\u201d and does so with fresh wit and humor. I also admire how Sharon Draper\u2019s writing in Copper Sun presents history in a way we don\u2019t often hear, and that it feels so current and urgent. Chinua Achebe\u2019s Man of the People is a powerful study of the human susceptibility to compromising core values. These works didn\u2019t directly inspire the content of My Parents\u2019 Marriage, but reading these authors\u2019 nuanced explorations of marriage, family, and the systems that make up culture inspired me to explore the same in my own way.\u00a0<\/p>\n Every month, you co-lead the Redeemed Writers Group, which is open to writers of all genres, including journalists, songwriters, graphic novelists, and comedians. How do you facilitate sessions for such a wide array of participants? What do you hope writers of such varying styles can learn from one another?\u00a0<\/p>\n We structure sessions with the goal of supporting writers on their faith journey and on their writing journey. In a usual meeting, we spend the first half discussing a passage of scripture and considering the ways it informs our everyday experiences as writers managing the demands of finding time and space to write, figuring out how to navigate social media, handling rejection, and handling success, for example. We talk, too, about what it means to us to be a writer and a Christian in the world: What does loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves practically look like as writers?\u00a0<\/p>\n Then, we move into a time of sharing our works in progress for open critique. It\u2019s wonderful listening to writing from such a mixed group, and sharing and receiving feedback. I feel like the speculative fiction writers in the group have made me more cognizant of the world I\u2019m building in my stories, and more confident about conveying the things that make it unique.\u00a0<\/p>\n Also, we are all over the map in terms of career stages, and have expertise in a range of disciplines from podcasting to marketing to illustration, so we share skills and advice and encourage collaboration.<\/p>\n PEN America\u2019s most recent banned books report<\/a> found that during the 2023-2024 school year, 36% of all banned titles featured characters of color. In May, PEN America also identified over 350 words<\/a> \u2014\u00a0including \u201cimmigrant,\u201d \u201cminority,\u201d and \u201cwomen\u201d \u2014 that have been banned or flagged on government websites and documents. Amid growing attacks on free expression, what continues to bring you hope as an author?\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m encouraged by all of the good people who work exceedingly hard with meager resources to deliver stories to readers with the goal of helping them articulate their own lives or inviting them to learn about others. But what gives me the most hope is the enduring nature of storytelling itself. Telling stories is as old as humanity. It\u2019s part of who we are, how we connect with one another, and how we understand our existence\u2014that\u2019s why stories survive migration, and get passed down for generations. We will always tell stories, and we will always share the stories that mean something to us. That gives me comfort and helps me stay focused.\u00a0<\/p>\n I hope My Parents\u2019 Marriage opens up an opportunity for readers across Ghana\u2019s older and younger generations to sit together and discuss these things with candor and without judgment.\u00a0<\/p>\n You\u2019ve now published fiction, poetry, and edited an anthology of your own. What\u2019s next for you?\u00a0<\/p>\n I am at the very beginning stages of a new novel for adult readers, and I have two children\u2019s picture books coming to follow. Blue\u2014Yellow releases in summer 2026 and Red in fall 2027.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond is the author of the children\u2019s picture book Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky, illustrated by Caldecott Honor Artist Daniel Minter; and the young adult novel Powder Necklace. Her short fiction for adults has been included in the anthologies Accra Noir, Africa39, New Daughters of Africa, Everyday People, and Woman\u2019s Work. Learn more at nanabrewhammond.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n