There’s Nothing Left for You Here

Allegra Solomon

Winner of the 2023 Kimbilio National Fiction Prize

Selected by Deesha Philyaw

A luminous debut of timely, vibrant stories, There’s Nothing Left for You Here by Allegra Solomon is the winner of the 2023 Kimbilio National Fiction Prize, an honor that celebrates excellence in contemporary fiction from writers of the African diaspora. Ranging in subject but joined by their keen attention to the lives of contemporary young women of color, these stories feature an eclectic cast of characters who are as fascinatingly complex as they are deeply relatable. In these pages, a heartbroken young woman named Salem starts over with her estranged best friend from college (Maida) and moves to LA, where she meets and becomes entangled with Theo, Maida’s mysterious wealthy benefactor; teens Nikita and Alexandria bind together to navigate the adolescent politics of high school and female friendship as the only two Black girls at their school;  and Ciara, a bookstore employee, agrees to house-sit for a white coworker named Angelina she hardly knows, only for Angelina to disappear with no notice and leave Ciara looking after her apartment and dog. In the words of Kimbilio Prize judge Deesha Philyaw, readers should prepare to find “these fresh, moody, unconventional stories…irresistible.”

From True Blue

People liked being friends with Alexandria because she knew how to shut the fuck up. This is what she always told Nikita—that was the difference between the two of them. The first time she said this was two weeks after the Tommy incident. The school’s wound was still raw, bellying with consequences. She said it in her basement, game controller cold in her hands. Their adolescent bodies were lain on the hard carpet of Alexandria’s floor, playing Street Fighter on the TV by the window.

It’s a science, Alexandria said. You just soften yourself—cloudlike. You laugh not when the joke is funny, but when it’s supposed to be. You smile and pout and bat your little eyes and say, Really? Never have an opinion. You are a “yes” man. You are kind and docile and dumb. They will pour themselves into you. It works every time. Alexandria began to bang on the controller.

Nikita watched the pale glow of the television screen bounce off Alexandria’s dark face, mixing with the daylight. The sun was everywhere.