On Culture: Honoring It, Examining It, and Evolving It in Our Writing

Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond

Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond is the author of four books. Her children’s 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, was named among the best of 2022 by NPR, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Kirkus Reviews, The Center for the Study of Multicultural Literature, Bank Street College of Education, and more. BLUE is on the 2023-2024 Texas Bluebonnet Master List; it has been honored with the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award® recognizing excellence in the writing of non-fiction for children; and it is an NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literature for Children. It was named to the American Library Association’s 2023 Notable Children’s Books and nominated for a 2025 Georgia Children’s Book Award. Brew-Hammond also wrote the young adult novel Powder Necklace, which Publishers Weekly called “a winning debut”, and she edited RELATIONS: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices. Kirkus Reviews called the anthology “smart, generous…a true gift” in its starred review. Her newest novel for adult readers, My Parents’ Marriage, was featured in The New York Times Book Review’s July 7, 2024 “…Also Out Now” column, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Booklist, and more. The author Melissa Rivero called it “a propulsive read that will take hold of you with its honesty, determination, and heart,” while the author Vanessa Walters described it as “an arrestingly evocative story…which dismantles immigrant clichés.” Brew-Hammond’s short fiction for adult readers is included in the anthologies Accra Noir edited by Nana-Ama Danquah, Africa39 edited by Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, New Daughters of Africa edited by Margaret Busby, Everyday People edited by Jennifer Baker, and Woman’s Work edited by Michelle Sewell, among others. Addittionally, her writing has appeared in Now2, African Writing, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Sunday Salon. From 2018-2023, Brew-Hammond was a Pa Gya! Literary Festival Guest Author, and she was a 2019 Edward Albee Foundation Fellow, a 2018 Aké Arts and Book Festival Guest Author, a 2018 Hobart Festival of Women Writers Guest Author, a 2017 Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar, a 2016 Hedgebrook Writer-in-Residence, a 2015 Rhode Island Writers Colony Writer-in-Residence, and in both 2015 and 2014, she was shortlisted for a Miles Morland Writing Scholarship. Passionate about Africa’s varied fashion traditions and techniques, Brew-Hammond was commissioned by the curators of Brooklyn Museum’s “Africa Fashion” exhibit to pen and perform an original poem for the museum’s companion short film of the same name. In the clip, she wore a look from the made-in-Ghana lifestyle line she co-founded with her mother and sister, Exit 14. The brand was featured on Vogue.com. Brew-Hammond’s fashion sense has been captured by New York Magazine, Essence Magazine, BFA, TheSartorialist.com, Paper Magazine, and The New York Times, among many other outlets. Every month, Brew-Hammond co-leads a writing fellowship whose mission is to write light into the darkness. Learn more about it at redeemedwritersgroup.com.