And Then He Sang a Lullaby

• And Then He Sang a Lullaby was the first manuscript acquired during the Roxane Gay Books bi-annual open submissions period, which accepts both agented and agented work.• Written entirely on his phone, And Then He Sang a Lullaby is Somtochukwu’s debut novel.Inspired by his experiences as a queer liberation activist, it is a brutal yet beautiful tale of love, identity, and freedom set in present-day Nigeria.• Narrated through the dual perspectives of August and Segun, And Then He Sang a Lullaby is a profound work of African fiction that lends a voice to queer existence relatively unexplored in modern fiction – that of those who strive to live, love, and survive in Nigeria.• The representation of African gay love is urgent and original, and Somtochukwu joins a short list of African writers who publish queer fiction. • Somtochukwu is the winner of the 2021 James Currey Prize for African fiction. His writinghas been published in The Enkare Review, The Rustin Times, Gertrude, Bakwa, and Plenitude Magazine, among others, and shortlisted for the Erbacce poetry prize, the ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award, and the Toyin Falola Prize. • The book is grounded in Somtochukwu's experience as a queer activist. He is the host of Rainbow Marxism, a YouTube channel that focuses on queer liberation in Africa, and the founder of the Queer Union for Economic and Social Transformation (QUEST), a radical queer group organizing towards queer liberation in Nigeria. He was a finalist for the 2020 Prize for Difference and Diversity and was the recipient of the SOGIESC Rights Activist of the year award (2019) presented by the Initiative for Equal Rights (TIERs).