World Literature: Teju Cole, “Tremor”

World Literature returns with fan-favorite moderator and curator for World Literature, Anderson Tepper, in conversation with Teju Cole, the owner of a “mind so agile that it’s easy to follow him anywhere” (The New Yorker). The two friends will discuss Teju’s most recent release, Tremor, which has received incredible acclaim, including the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and recognition as a Best Book of the Year from Time, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Vulture, the Chicago Public Library, and more. 

“Teju Cole’s books are events in themselves. They manage to freeze time and capture a moment—its preoccupations, premonitions, and faultlines. Open City, published in 2011, shifted the cultural landscape. Tremor, his latest, explores the undercurrents of a pre-pandemic calm, moving between an American college campus and Nigerian club scene. How do the pieces fit together, and what do they say about our shared present?” —Anderson Tepper, City of Asylum Curator for World Literature

A weekend spent antiquing is shadowed by the colonial atrocities that occurred on that land. A walk at dusk is interrupted by casual racism. A loving marriage is riven by mysterious tensions. And a remarkable cascade of voices speaks out from a pulsing metropolis.

Tremor is a startling work of realism and invention that engages brilliantly with literature, music, race, and history as it examines the passage of time and how we mark it. It is a reckoning with human survival amidst “history’s own brutality, which refuses symmetries and seldom consoles,” but it is also a testament to the possibility of joy. As he did in his magnificent debut, Open City, Teju Cole once again offers narration with all its senses alert, a surprising and deeply essential work from a beacon of contemporary literature.

You can purchase a copy of Teju’s book, Tremor, at City of Asylum Bookstore.

About the Author:

Teju Cole is a novelist, essayist, and photographer. He was the photography critic for The New York Times Magazine from 2015 to 2019. He is currently the Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing at Harvard and a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine. His novella, Every Day is for the Thief, was named a book of the year by The New York Times and others, and shortlisted for the PEN/Open Book Award. His novel, Open City, also featured on numerous “Book of the Year” lists and won the PEN/Hemingway Award, among other honors. His most recent book is the novel Tremor (2023), which was named a book of the year by Time, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, The Times (UK), and The Financial Times, among others. It was shortlisted for the National Critics Circle Book Award and was awarded the 2024 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction. Teju has contributed to The New York Times, The New Yorker, Granta, Brick, and numerous other magazines. His photography column at The New York Times Magazine, “On Photography,” was a finalist for a 2016 National Magazine Award. He serves as a board member for several periodicals and arts organizations, and has participated in many literary and photography juries. Teju Cole was born in the US in 1975 to Nigerian parents and was raised in Lagos. He currently lives in Cambridge, MA. More at: https://www.tejucole.com/about-2/ 

About the Moderator:

Anderson Tepper is City of Asylum’s Curator of World Literature. He has been a guest curator of PEN America’s World Voices Festival and is a longstanding member of the international committee of the Brooklyn Book Festival. He writes on books and authors for a variety of publications, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and World Literature Today. Anderson also serves on the City of Asylum Advisory Board.

About Your Visit: 

The in-house restaurant, Cucina Alfabeto, is closed on Sundays and Mondays, but a cash wine bar will be available.