Agymah Kamau’s novel, Pictures of a Dying Man (Coffee House Press, 1999), won the 2000 Library of Virginia Annual Literary Award, ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Award, and was listed in Village Voice Best Books of 1999. His novel, Flickering Shadows (Coffee House Press, 1996), was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, Quality Paperback Book Club’s New Voices Award, and was listed among the Library Journal's Top 20 First Novels of 1996. In 2003, he received the Whiting Writers Award and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Alumnus of the Year Award. Kamau teaches creative writing at the University of Oklahoma.