Inner Reflections
The latest creative offerings from our faculty and alumni.
SCALE BOY: AN AFRICAN CHILDHOOD
BY PATRICE NGANANG
In January 2026, MacMillan Publishers released Scale Boy: An African Childhood, a memoir by Patrice Nganang, professor and chair of Africana Studies at Stony Brook University. Ngang’s latest book details his childhood in Cameroon during the eighties. A turbulent time, but also a time during which his character and craft was shaped.
Nganang was born in Cameroon and is an award-winning novelist, a poet and an essayist. His novel Dog Days received the Prix Marguerite Yourcenar and the Grand Prix littéraire d’Afrique noire. He is also the author of Mount Pleasant (MacMillan, 2017 US edition), When the Plums Are Ripe (MacMillan, 2019 US edition), and A Trail of Crab Tracks (MacMillan 2022 US edition).
“In this unhurried, lyrical memoir, a novelist remembers his youth in Cameroon in the nineteen-seventies and eighties. Anchored by Nganang’s years as a ‘scale boy’— weighing people and products for a small fee — the narrative wends through anecdotes that depict a young man discovering his artistic and intellectual powers along with his nation’s colonial history.” — The New Yorker
ON REMEMBERING MY FRIENDS, MY FIRST JOB AND MY SECOND-FAVORITE WEEZER CD
BY FRANCISCO DELGADO, PHD ’17
On Remembering My Friends, My First Job and My Second-Favorite Weezer CD, a fiction novella by Francisco Delgado, PhD ’17, won the 2024 Clay Reynolds Novella Prize and was published by Texas Review Press.
According to the publisher, the story follows Cody Taitano, a CHamoru man reflecting on his teenage years in 1999, his first job at McDonald’s, and his friendships, prompted by his son finding a Weezer CD during the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring themes of race, class and identity.
Delgado, a CHamoru writer of fiction and poetry, teaches at Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY, where he created the first course devoted exclusively to the literatures of Native North America and the Indigenous Pacific.
TLC FOR THE SAVVY STUDENT
BY JOAN DICKINSON, MA ’12
Inspired by her 27 years in leadership positions at Stony Brook University, along with 10 years as a part-time adjunct teaching honors and first-year students, Joan Dickinson, MA ’12 wrote TLC For The Savvy Student: Teamwork, Leadership and Communication Coaching for the Teen and College Years.
Whether you’re in college or planning to get there, TLC for the Savvy Student provides guidance to help teenagers ignite their path to success. The book outlines the foundational skills in teamwork, leadership and communication that are essential to getting there.
This is DIckinson’s second book published within the past year. She also authored a children’s picture book, It’s Halloween-a-doon!
Learn more at dickinsonkeyescomm.com
Brookmarks welcomes submissions of books, albums or films by SBU faculty, students, staff or alumni that have recently debuted or will debut within the year. Email with the details: SBUMagazine@stonybrook.edu.