Randall Kenan (March 12, 1963 – August 28, 2020) was an American author. Born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, at six weeks old Kenan moved to

Duplin County, North Carolina Duplin County ()
, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the

...

, a small rural community, where he lived with his grandparents in a town named

Wallace Wallace may refer to: People * Clan Wallace in Scotland * Wallace (given name) * Wallace (surname) * Wallace (footballer, born 1986), full name Wallace Fernando Pereira, Brazilian football left-back * Wallace (footballer, born 1987), full name ...

. Many of Kenan's novels are set around the area of his home in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. The focus of much of Kenan's work centers around what it means to be black and gay in the

southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. Some of Kenan's most notable works include the collection of short stories ''Let the Dead Bury Their Dead'', named a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' Notable Book in 1992, '' A Visitation of Spirits'', and ''The Fire This Time''. Kenan was the recipient of a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

, a

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Mrs. (American English) or Mrs (British English; standard E ...

, and the

John Dos Passos Prize The John Dos Passos Prize is an annual literary award given to American writers. The Prize was founded at Longwood University in 1980 and is meant to honor John Dos Passos John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) ...

Biography

Early life

Randall Kenan was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York, but at only six weeks old he moved to a small town named Wallace, where he lived with his grandparents. Kenan's grandparents ran a dry-cleaning business, and most of the time they were too busy to take care of Kenan themselves, so they hired someone to take care of him. On the weekends, Kenan's great-aunt Mary and great-uncle Redden would take him to their family farm which was located in Chinquapin, only about 15 miles east of Wallace. When Kenan was three years old, his great-uncle Redden died unexpectedly, and Kenan's grandfather suggested to his great-aunt Mary that she keep Kenan because she was alone. Kenan recalled the conversation, after which he remained with his great-aunt Mary for the remainder of his adolescent years. Kenan's great-aunt Mary, whom he eventually called "Mama", became a mentor for him, and she taught him how to read at the age of four. Mary was a kindergarten teacher, so she heavily supported education and began Kenan's education at a young age. He grew up loving to read everything, ranging from novels to comic books to the Bible, and he eventually developed a love for storytelling. Kenan attended the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

, beginning in the fall of 1981 and he graduated in 1985 with degrees in English and Creative Writing. In his freshman year of college Kenan was pursuing a physics degree, but found himself confused on what to pursue because he was not enjoying his classes. He then decided to enroll in a writing class led by Max Steele, an editor for ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

''. Kenan also studied with the author

Doris Betts Doris Betts (June 4, 1932 – April 21, 2012) was a short story writer, novelist, essayist and Alumni Distinguished Professor Emerita at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was the author of three short story collections and six novels ...

, who tried to get Kenan a job in publishing in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Her efforts were not immediately successful, and it was not until a few months after graduation that Kenan received an offer to work for the book publisher

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

in New York City.

Professional life

Kenan was hired at Random House originally because the company "had gotten into trouble with the Equal Opportunity Commission" and they wanted to increase the number of minorities they had working at the company. After doing odd jobs at Random House, Kenan was able to secure a job at

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

as a receptionist, where he had opportunities to study his craft. Kenan worked at Knopf for only two months before he was promoted to assistant to the executive vice president, where he remained in that position for five years. While in the assistant position, until 1989, Kenan had the opportunity to edit dozens of books, which helped him improve in his own craft of storytelling. The experience working at Knopf helped Kenan in finalizing what would become his first published novel, ''A Visitation of Spirits'', in 1989. After publishing ''A Visitation of Spirits'', Kenan began teaching at three universities part time. He taught at

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, and

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

once a week each, which gave him plenty of time to work on his own writing. Kenan was a full-time professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He also served as a visiting writer or writing in residence at a number of other universities, including the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

, the

University of Memphis } The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students. The university maintains the Herff College of Engineering ...

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, and the

University of Nebraska-Lincoln A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

Writings

Kenan's first novel, '' A Visitation of Spirits'', was published in 1989. While a few critics praised the book, it did not receive much attention; however, this situation 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 Southern United States literature consists of American literature written about the Southern United States or by writers from the region. Literature written about the American South first began during the colonial era, and developed significan ...

and was nominated for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the

National Book Critics Circle The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization ( 501(c)(3)) with more than 700 members. It is the professional association of American book review editors and critics, known primarily for the National Book Critics C ...

Award, and was named a ''

'' Notable Book. The short-story collection also brought renewed attention to his first novel, which was likewise set in Tims Creek. In 1993, Kenan published a young adult biography of gay African-American novelist and essayist

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...

. Kenan frequently stated that Baldwin was one of his idols. He then spent several years traveling across the United States 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 won a number of writing awards, including a

, a

, the

Sherwood Anderson Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941) was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and ...

Award, the

, and the Rome Prize from the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

. In 2007, Kenan published ''The Fire This Time,'' a non-fiction book whose title references James Baldwin's 1963 ''

The Fire Next Time ''The Fire Next Time'' is a 1963 non-fiction book by James Baldwin, containing two essays: "My Dungeon Shook: Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation" and "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region of My Mind". Th ...

''. In August 2020, Kenan published ''If I Had Two Wings'', a short-story collection. In August 2022, ''Black Folk Could Fly: Selected Writings'' was published posthumously. The book is a collection of essays written by Kenan, largely published in "magazines and quarterlies."

Death

Kenan died on August 28, 2020, at his home in Hillsborough, North Carolina, aged 57. At his death, he left an unfinished book titled ''There's a Man Going 'Round Taking Names''.

Bibliography

* '' A Visitation of Spirits'', Grove Press, 1989; Vintage, 2000 (). Kenan's first novel. * ''Let the Dead Bury Their Dead'', Harcourt, Brace, 1992 (). Short story collection. * ''James Baldwin: American Writer (Lives of Notable Gay Men & Lesbians)'', Chelsea House Publications, 1993, 2005 (). Young adult biography. * ''A Time Not Here: The Mississippi Delta'', Twin Palms Publishers, 1997 (). Kenan wrote the text for this collection of photographs by Norman Mauskoff. * ''Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century'', Alfred A. Knopf, 1999; Vintage, 2000 (). Nominated for the Southern Book Award. * ''The Fire This Time'',

Melville House Publishing Melville House Publishing is an American independent publisher of literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The company was founded in 2001 and is run by the husband-and-wife team of Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians in Hoboken, New Jersey. T ...

, 2007 () * ''If I Had Two Wings'', W. W. Norton & Company, 2020 (). Longlisted for the National Book Award. * ''Black Folk Could Fly: Selected Writings'', W. W. Norton & Company, 2022 (). Essay collection, with an introduction by

Tayari Jones Tayari Jones (born November 30, 1970) is an American author and academic known for '' An American Marriage'', which was a 2018 Oprah's Book Club Selection, and won the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction. Jones is a graduate of Spelman College, the ...

. Published posthumously.

References

External links

Randall Kenan's homepage at the University of North Carolina

* ttp://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/randall-kenan#/ Profile at The Whiting Foundation* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kenan, Randall 1963 births 2020 deaths 20th-century African-American writers 20th-century American biographers 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century African-American writers 21st-century American biographers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers African-American male writers African-American novelists American gay writers American male biographers American male novelists American male short story writers Duke University faculty Historians from New York (state) Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction winners LGBT African Americans LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT people from North Carolina Novelists from New York (state) Novelists from North Carolina People from Duplin County, North Carolina Sarah Lawrence College faculty University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Writers from Brooklyn