How Do You Write a Novel About Gentrification?

Sidik Fofana's short story collection can be best described as "addressing the notion that gentrification is complicated." Those were Fofana's words to NPR's Daniel Estrin as they talked about his debut book, Stories from the Tenants Downstairs. Fofana, who's also a public school teacher, uses the emotions he's felt growing up and situations of other people he's known, to ask: "How would I feel if this happened to me?" He writes them down in his collection as distinct voices and characters struggling to get by in a fictional high rise building in Harlem.

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