Clean Prose to host edible book launch for Irenosen Okojie

London’s newly opened first co-working space for writers, Clean Prose, will host an edible book launch for author Irenosen Okojie on Thursday (5th December).

Irenosen Okojie’s second collection of short stories, Nudibranch (Dialogue Books), has been adapted into an edible experience where every short story is something to eat or drink by chef Esme Carr, known as London Afro Vegan, in collaboration with Clean Prose.

On Thursday evening guests will be greeted with a Nudibranch-inspired mocktail upon arrival and will be invited to explore the stories one by one. Writing desks will be transformed into shrines for each story in the collection, centered around an edible item to consume – pieces of liquorice, heartbreak cake, artichoke heart dip, chilled sencha tea. Okojie will read from Nudibranch and has curated a playlist for guests to enjoy as they experience the short stories.

Okojie, an award-winning Nigerian British writer and curator, said: "Clean Prose in collaboration with Esme Carr have created a unique, immersive, ingenious sensory experience encapsulating the breadth and imagination of the collection. The menu is a smorgasbord of delights. I'm thrilled and touched to see the thought and care in these edible translations of my tales on a night celebrating the wonder of short stories.”

Nudibranch focuses on offbeat characters caught up in extraordinary situations including a mysterious woman of the sea in search of love, who arrives on an island inhabited by eunuchs; dimensional-hopping monks, who, navigating a season of silence face a bloody reckoning in the ruins of an abbey; and an aspiring journalist becomes what she eats after a failed excursion to Sydney.

Clean Prose opened in Charlotte Road, east London, in October offering courses, workshops and events for authors.