With 10 short stories set in NYC, WITNESS is a nuanced collection following various Black families through their joy, grief, love, and loss. I adore how diverse the stories are in their characters—ranging from children to grandmothers to ghosts. In each story, through a different lens, Brinkley asks what it means to bear witness? What does it cost to take action?

Comfort follows a woman reeling from unimaginable loss and grief and her (not always healthy) coping mechanisms. In Arrows, Brinkley explores the balance of moving on while one's parents grow old and the urge to hold on to everything through a genealogy of ghosts. Bystander explores the plight of a modern family when a teenage girl suffers from social media discourse. Witness, my favorite of the collection, explores how medicine fails Black patients and the grief that tears apart those who bear witness to this ongoing injustice.