Surprise! We’re back! And surprise! We’re joined by another author from the stellar Rick Riordan Presents line: Kwame Mbalia, author of Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky.

For those of you who still somehow don’t know, Rick Riordan Presents is an imprint (of Disney Hyperion) that tells the world’s mythology from an “own voices” perspective. We’ve been huge fans of these books from the beginning, and there hasn’t been a miss among them yet.

(Check out our conversations with imprint authors J.C. Cervantes, Yoon Ha Lee, and Rebecca Roanhorse. And of course listen to our conversation with Rick Riordan himself here.)

What’s most incredible about Tristan Strong is not its powerful characters or original storyline (though those are awesome), it’s that the book is Mbalia’s debut novel! It’s truly a staggering achievement.

On this episode, we talk about Tristan Strong the book, Tristan Strong the character as an Anansesem, cultural memory, and presenting timeless mythologies to an audience that might not be familiar with them.

You can listen on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, TuneIn, Stitcher, and YouTube; you can follow the RSS feed; or you can listen right here!

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Connect:

• Kwame Mbalia is online here and on Twitter here.
• The show is on Twitter here and Facebook here.
• Jamie is on Twitter and Instagram as @theroarbots.
• Shiri is on Twitter as @SWSondheimer.