Author: Patrice Nganang

YouTube Video VVVlV0dscXlEUW04OVoyenhrM2ZaRjRnLlNyck5GajIwbFcw

This recording is presented by Princeton Public Library. Patrice Nganang writes about his vibrant, animated youth in Cameroon, a period of upheaval and change in the country’s history and in his life. An extraordinary chronicle of youth that evokes the paradoxes of modern Africa—complex, contradictory, and full of conflict, tragedy, and joy.<br /><br />"Scale Boy" is a memoir that brings great brightness and joy to the tumultuous years of discovering oneself and one’s community; though there are moments of danger and confusion in his story, Nganang aims to present a new vision of a young Black African man’s coming-of-age.<br /><br />About the Author: <br />Patrice Nganang is a Cameroonian writer, author of more than 15 books including the novel "Dog Days" for which he won the Marguerite Yourcenar Literary Award and the Black African Literary Grand Prize. He is head of the Department of African, African American and Caribbean Studies (Africana) at the State University of New York, Stony Brook where he teaches literary and cultural theory.<br /><br />About the Moderator:<br />Colby Cedar Smith is an award-winning poet, novelist, and educator, and the author of two novels in verse: "The Siren and the Star" and "Call Me Athena." Her work has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, a Cybils Award Poetry Finalist, a Goodreads Choice Best Poetry nominee, a Kids’ Book Choice nominee, Independent Publisher Book Award winner, a Nautilus Award winner, a Michigan Notable Book, and a winner of the Midwest Book Award for YA Fiction. Colby has also been a recipient of the New Jersey Council on the Arts Fellowship in Poetry.<br /><br />This event was recorded on June 7, 2026.

June 8, 2026 2:47 pm

This recording is presented by Princeton Public Library. Patrice Nganang writes about his vibrant, animated youth in Cameroon, a period of upheaval and change in the country’s history and in his life. An extraordinary chronicle of youth that evokes the paradoxes of modern Africa—complex, contradictory, and full of conflict, tragedy, and joy.

“Scale Boy” is a memoir that brings great brightness and joy to the tumultuous years of discovering oneself and one’s community; though there are moments of danger and confusion in his story, Nganang aims to present a new vision of a young Black African man’s coming-of-age.

About the Author:
Patrice Nganang is a Cameroonian writer, author of more than 15 books including the novel “Dog Days” for which he won the Marguerite Yourcenar Literary Award and the Black African Literary Grand Prize. He is head of the Department of African, African American and Caribbean Studies (Africana) at the State University of New York, Stony Brook where he teaches literary and cultural theory.

About the Moderator:
Colby Cedar Smith is an award-winning poet, novelist, and educator, and the author of two novels in verse: “The Siren and the Star” and “Call Me Athena.” Her work has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, a Cybils Award Poetry Finalist, a Goodreads Choice Best Poetry nominee, a Kids’ Book Choice nominee, Independent Publisher Book Award winner, a Nautilus Award winner, a Michigan Notable Book, and a winner of the Midwest Book Award for YA Fiction. Colby has also been a recipient of the New Jersey Council on the Arts Fellowship in Poetry.

This event was recorded on June 7, 2026.

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