Red Emma’s

We're thrilled to welcome back Jasmine Kumalah, who worked with the RE's books team as a bookseller right after we moved into our new space! Jasmine will be presenting her debut novel Holding Demons in Small Jars!!Three boys are brutally killed in a neighborhood in Diamante, the capital city of Bantunia, a fictional country healing from a tragic civil war. Follow the story of Detective Alu as he tries to piece together the story of their deaths.Jasmine Kumalah is a Belgian born, Sierra Leonean and Togolese- American writer. She writes stories, poetry and pursues other creative endeavors. Holding Demons in Small Jars is her first published work. “'There is a war inside that slips outside.' So begins Jasmine Kumalah’s penetrating story-in-verse about war, lost innocence, and the 'small horrors' people carry in their hearts. Spare and sharp, disturbing and original, vivid in its details of place, Holding Demons in Small Jars is an impressive debut by an exciting new voice.”--Kim Church, author of the novel, Byrd.“Lyrical and brutal, Jasmine Kumalah’ s Holding Demons in Small Jars brilliantly relays a true tale we need to hear, especially in the West.  Written in verse, the story tells of the deaths of boy soldiers, small vessels, discarded after war like currencies of failed states.  But the trauma that stalks their country is hungry and they are the victims of one last rite, shockingly unfolded from the perspective of a police officer.  His witness makes the boys’ story a tribute to love and life, a prayer for survival and recovery.”--Elaine Neil Orr, author of A Different Sun: a Novel and Gods of Noonday: A White Girl’s African Life.