The Literary World Cup

Just a short follow-up to my previous blog from May 24 about the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her book of short stories, "The Thing Around Your Neck." If you happen to read The New Yorker, or even if you don't, but you want to sound very literary while watching Nigeria play Argentina in the second group of the World Cup, you can mention that Adiche was just named to the prestigious list of "20 under 40" promising young fiction writers in the June 7 issue of The New Yorker.

In case your friends haven't thrown chips at you yet because they just missed Argentina score with a header at the end of the first half, you can add that the last time the New Yorker published the list was ten years ago, in 1999. That list included writers such as Junot Diaz, who went on to win the Pulitzer prize in fiction for The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Once the second half starts and your friends ask you why you are discussing literature during an extremely important sporting event, and why it can't wait until after the game and the three beers, you can eloquently point out that a young writer from Nigeria being chosen for the "20 under 40" list is the equivalent of scoring the tying goal in the second half. She may not win the whole game, but she just got herself in a damn good position to try.