Randall Kenan
Encyclopedia
Randall Kenan is an American
author of fiction
and nonfiction. Raised in a rural community in North Carolina
, Kenan has focused his fiction on what it means to be black
and gay
in the southern United States
. Among his books is the collection of short stories
Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, which was named a New York Times Notable Book in 1992. Kenan is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship
, a Whiting Writers Award and the John Dos Passos Prize.
, North Carolina
, a rural community of fewer than a thousand people. The community later became the basis of the fictional Tims Creek, where all of Kenan's fiction is set.
Kenan attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
, from which he graduated in 1985 with degrees in English and Creative Writing. He studied with the author Doris Betts
. Based on an instructor's recommendation, and the help of novelist and editor Toni Morrison
, he was hired for a job with Random House
in New York City
.
, where he worked until 1989. That same year he began teaching writing at Sarah Lawrence College
and Columbia University
. Currently, an Associate Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, he has served as a visiting writer or writing in residence at a number of other universities, including the University of Mississippi
, the University of Memphis
, Duke University
and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
, was published in 1989. While a few critics praised the book, it did not receive much attention. This changed with the publication in 1992 of Kenan's second book, a collection of short stories
titled Let the Dead Bury Their Dead. The stories, based in the fictional community of Tims Creek, focused on (among other things) what it meant to be poor
, black
, and gay
in the southern United States
. The book was hailed as a revival of classic southern literature
and was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle
Award, and was named a New York Times Notable Book. The short story collection also brought renewed attention to his first novel, which was likewise set in Tims Creek.
Kenan strongly identifies with both his African American
and gay
identities, both of which were highlighted in his next two books. In 1993 he published a young adult biography of gay African American novelist and essayist James Baldwin
. Kenan has frequently stated that Baldwin is one of his idols. He then spent several years traveling across America and Canada
collecting oral histories of African Americans, which he published in Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century (1999).
Kenan has won a number of writing awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship
, a Whiting Writers Award, the Sherwood Anderson
Award, the John Dos Passos
Award, and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In 2007 Kenan published The Fire This Time, a book whose title was taken from James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time.
Kenan's latest book, "Only The Dead Know Chapel Hill" tells the tale of an abduction of African-American boys from Chapel Hill. This story is filled with walking contradictions, for example: Jesus became Beelzebub but is repeatedly referenced by both of his names.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author of fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
and nonfiction. Raised in a rural community in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, Kenan has focused his fiction on what it means to be black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
and gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
in the southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
. Among his books is the collection of short stories
Short Stories
Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...
Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, which was named a New York Times Notable Book in 1992. Kenan is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, a Whiting Writers Award and the John Dos Passos Prize.
Kenan's Early Years
Kenan was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 12, 1963. Initially raised by his grandparents, Kenan soon went to live with a great-aunt in ChinquapinChinquapin, North Carolina
Chinquapin is an unincorporated community in Duplin County, North Carolina.It is located at 34.8° N latitude and -77.82° W. longitude, at an elevation of .- References :...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, a rural community of fewer than a thousand people. The community later became the basis of the fictional Tims Creek, where all of Kenan's fiction is set.
Kenan attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
, from which he graduated in 1985 with degrees in English and Creative Writing. He studied with the author Doris Betts
Doris Betts
Doris June Betts is a short story writer, novelist, essayist and Alumni Distinguished Professor Emerita at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill....
. Based on an instructor's recommendation, and the help of novelist and editor Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
, he was hired for a job with Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Kenan's Professional Life
Kenan eventually transferred to the editorial staff of Alfred A. KnopfAlfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
, where he worked until 1989. That same year he began teaching writing at Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
and Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. Currently, an Associate Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, he has served as a visiting writer or writing in residence at a number of other universities, including the University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...
, the University of Memphis
University of Memphis
The University of Memphis is an American public research university located in the Normal Station neighborhood of Memphis, Tennessee and is the flagship public research university of the Tennessee Board of Regents system....
, Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Kenan's Writings
Kenan's first novel, A Visitation of SpiritsA Visitation of Spirits
-Plot introduction:Horace Cross, a black, gay teenager from North Carolina, wants to turn himself into a bird after he experiences discrimination from his community. Jimmy Greene, Horace's cousin, is a minister with no true convictions who struggles to know God....
, was published in 1989. While a few critics praised the book, it did not receive much attention. This changed with the publication in 1992 of Kenan's second book, a collection of short stories
Short Stories
Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...
titled Let the Dead Bury Their Dead. The stories, based in the fictional community of Tims Creek, focused on (among other things) what it meant to be poor
Poor
Poor is an adjective related to a state of poverty, low quality or pity.People with the surname Poor:* Charles Henry Poor, a US Navy officer* Charles Lane Poor, an astronomer* Edward Erie Poor, a vice president of the National Park Bank...
, black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
, and gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
in the southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
. The book was hailed as a revival of classic southern literature
Southern literature
Southern literature is defined as American literature about the Southern United States or by writers from this region...
and was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle
National Book Critics Circle
The National Book Critics Circle is an American tax-exempt organization for active book reviewers. Its flagship is the National Book Critics Circle Award....
Award, and was named a New York Times Notable Book. The short story collection also brought renewed attention to his first novel, which was likewise set in Tims Creek.
Kenan strongly identifies with both his African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
and gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
identities, both of which were highlighted in his next two books. In 1993 he published a young adult biography of gay African American novelist and essayist James Baldwin
James Baldwin (writer)
James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.Baldwin's essays, for instance "Notes of a Native Son" , explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America,...
. Kenan has frequently stated that Baldwin is one of his idols. He then spent several years traveling across America and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
collecting oral histories of African Americans, which he published in Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century (1999).
Kenan has won a number of writing awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, a Whiting Writers Award, the Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson was an American novelist and short story writer. His most enduring work is the short story sequence Winesburg, Ohio. Writers he has influenced include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, J. D. Salinger, and Amos Oz.-Early life:Anderson was born in Clyde, Ohio,...
Award, the John Dos Passos
John Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dos Passos was the illegitimate son of John Randolph Dos Passos , a distinguished lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, and Lucy Addison Sprigg Madison of Petersburg, Virginia. The elder Dos Passos...
Award, and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In 2007 Kenan published The Fire This Time, a book whose title was taken from James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time.
Kenan's latest book, "Only The Dead Know Chapel Hill" tells the tale of an abduction of African-American boys from Chapel Hill. This story is filled with walking contradictions, for example: Jesus became Beelzebub but is repeatedly referenced by both of his names.