Skye Papers

by Jamika Ajalon

A portrait of young Black artists in the 1990s London underground, whose existence is threatened by the rise of state surveillance.

Twentysomething and restless, Skye flits between cities and stagnant relationships until she meets Scottie, a disarming and disheveled British traveler, and Pieces, an enigmatic artist living in New York. The three recognize each other as kindred spirits—Black, punk, whimsical, revolutionary—and fall in together, leading Skye on an unlikely adventure across the Atlantic. They live a glorious, subterranean existence in 1990s London: making multimedia art, throwing drug-fueled parties, and eking out a living by busking in Tube stations, until their existence is jeopardized by the rise of CCTV and policing.

In fluid and unrelenting prose, Jamika Ajalon’s debut novel explores youth, poetry, and what it means to come to terms with queerness. Skye Papers is an imaginative, episodic group portrait of a transatlantic art scene spearheaded by people of color—and of the fraught, dystopian reality of increasing state surveillance.

Paperback | 272 pages | Amethyst Editions | 2021

Jamika Ajalon is a prolific author and interdisciplinary artist who works with different mediums independently, but also in multiple fusions—incorporating written and spoken text, sound/music, and visuals. Her poems, stories, and essays have been published in various publications internationally. She currently writes a regular column for Itchy Silk magazine, “queer plume: the fugitive diaries.” She has performed her audiovisual anti-lectures / sonic slam and exhibited across the globe, and has a BA in Film/Video and an MA in Communications in Culture and Society, from Goldsmiths University.