The Lion's Binding Oath and Other Stories

200-300 review copies (150 prepub, 150 postpub) sent to reviewers, booksellers, librarians, bloggers, others. Available as an e-ARC on Edelweiss and Netgalley. Blog tour with book giveaways. We will seek a blurb from Nuruddin Farah, Abdourahman Waberi, and others. We will strongly promote this collection as a crossover title for young adults as the narrators in all the stories are young people. Goodreads giveaway. We will seek features and reviews from newspapers as well as African studies journals. Promotion targeting literary journals such as World Literature Today, UTNE, The Atlantic, Harper's, Tin House, Kenyon Review, Paris Review, New England Review, Threepenny Review, Antioch Review, Agni. We will promote the book to academic markets through CBSD's Academic catalog and offer desktop copies. We will promote the book in the First Year Experience program. We will create a reading guide for book clubs and others interested in reading the book in a group setting. The reading guide will be printed in the book and will include a Q&A with the author. We will seek out book clubs who are interested in the book and offer the chance to win a SKYPE visit with the author. Promotion at book fairs and trade shows--ALA annual, ALA mid-winter, African Studies Association, etc. We will submit the book for relevant awards. Promotion online via Catalyst's website, email lists and social media (Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube) with author and publisher interviews, chats, and guest posts. Author will do events in and around St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Simultaneous e-book and print release.

"Me against my brother." Stories exploring the world of Somalia leading up to its explosive religious and ethnic war.Religious and ethnic conflict may be the Horn of Africa's most enduring recent legacy. But beneath its recent history of war and displacement lies human stories—families, clans, lovers, neighbors, and friends, all bound together through common cultural, religious, and historical ties. The Lion's Binding Oath, Ahmed Ismail Yusuf's collection of short stories, introduces readers to the people of Somalia and their struggles: their humanity, faith, identity, friendship, and family bonds, as whispers of war grow louder around them. Through stories that span the years before and during Somali's civil war, Yusuf weaves together Somalia's political, social, and religious conflicts with portrayals of the country's love of poetry, music, and soccer. Yusuf's collection is a powerful examination of love and resilience in a country torn apart by war, and written with deep compassion for the lives of its characters. Ahmed Ismail Yusuf has lived in Minneapolis since fleeing Somalia in the late 80s. He did not speak English when he arrived, he was a high-school dropout, and he was not sure what his actual age was. Today he has two college degrees and is the author of Somalis in Minnesota, published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press. In 2017, The History Theatre of St. Paul, Minnesota produced his short play, “A Crack in the Sky,” a memoir about how Yusuf found inspiration in Maya Angelou and Muhammad Ali during his early days as an immigrant to the U.S.