It’s not often, or ever, that I get to meet authors who have published their short stories in The New Yorker. Yeah, John Updike, Alice Munro, Roddy Doyle, they don’t do too much hanging out in Minnesota, much less at Jags’ house. But last night, wow, we got lucky.

Abam, a classmate of ours in Vodo’s class, is a good friend of Uwem Akpan. Uwem’s had two stories in The New Yorker, and his book Say You’re One of Them is coming out June 9th.

The New Yorker stories are amazing. “Ex-mas Feast” is about a young boy in Nairobi who lives in a shack with his family, and whose oldest sister becomes a prostitute to pay his school tuition.

The second story, “My Parents’ Bedroom” is about the genocide in Rwanda. The story is told from the point of view of a nine-year-old girl and is so masterfully written that I believed everything young Monique believes. The story is beautiful and devastating. It even made me cry. It’s a great, great story.

So last night a handful of us gathered at Jags’ house to meet Uwem and hear him read. It was one of those mind-blowing nights that you can’t believe you’re actually having. Uwem is so friendly, and modest. I mean, come on THE NEW YORKER! He told us all about the process it took to get his story in The New Yorker, how they called to tell him it had been accepted and he was so stunned he could do nothing but just walk for miles to clear his head. He told us about the grueling fact-checking process and how when that first story finally came out he was alone in Milwaukee and his editor at The New Yorker called some her friend to take him out to celebrate.

Uwem also told us about all the doors this opened for him and what it’s like to get an agent and a publisher. Talking with him was so educational that I felt like I should have paid him.

And then he read a story from his collection called (i think) “What Language is That,” about two little girls in Ethiopia. The story is in second person and when he was done he talked about why he chose second person (the whole time I was casting sly glances at Abam, because she wrote a story in second person and I totally nailed her for it — as you know, I am not a fan of second person), because he wanted to try it. Which, you know, is a good enough reason I guess.

Then we spent the next ten minutes talking about the second person point of view, and can I just tell you that anytime you are with a group of people who will talk about the second person for ten minutes it’s just sheer, sheer heaven.

Darling Ones, it was just such an amazing night I wish you all could have been there. And that was only the beginning because after everyone left I spent hours talking with Jags’ and her divine husband David about books, movies, and music. Hell yes.