Dead Ink Books seizes 'blue collar, heavy metal' debut by Navajo author Louis

Liverpool-based publisher Dead Ink Books has seized Navajo author Bojan Louis’ short story collection Sinking Bell.

Managing director Nathan Connolly acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Katie Dublinski, associate publisher at Graywolf Press, and the book will be published on 22nd February 2024.

The collection won a Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award and was named one of NPR’s best books of 2022. The synopsis reads: "Set in and around Flagstaff, the stories in Sinking Bell depict violent collisions of love, cultures and racism.

"In his gritty and searching fiction debut, Bojan Louis draws empathetic portraits of day labourers, metalheads, motel managers, aspiring writers and musicians, construction workers, people passing through with the hope of something better somewhere else."

Connolly said: “I feel lucky that Dead Ink gets to bring Louis’ work to the UK. Sinking Bell is both a deeply personal collection imbued with heart and personality, and a flexing of some serious authorial craft. It brings to mind the great American short story writers of the 20th century while also being very much a child of the 21st. Louis’ writing is blue collar, heavy metal, kitchen-sink honesty delivered with personality, style and a guitar riff.”