Chinelo Okparanta & Robin Coste Lewis answering questions after their superb reading at Rutgers-Newark
A subway rat (do you see it?)
Evie Shockley introducing Mendi+Keith Obadike at Penn State Conference on African American Literature and Language
Mendi+Keith Obadike presenting their work at CAALL
A musician in Washington Square Park
Painting wrought iron in the West Village
Décollage, SoHo
With Carter Mathes (left) and Evie Shockley (right) at the Ark of Bones event at Gallery Aferro in Newark
My colleague Mark Krasovic, an unidentified woman, Mrs. Loretta Dumas, Henry Dumas's widow, and my colleague Christina Strasburger at Gallery Aferro
Scarlet and Black: The newly issued scholarly anthology about Rutgers University's historical involvement with slavery
College Avenue, Rutgers (New Brunswick)
At the Westside Theater, before the start of Othello: The Remix
Mosaic mural featuring Frederick Douglass quotation, Midtown
Post-election Grief & Supportive Post-Its, Union Square Station tunnel, Manhattan
Those Post-Its
Subway performers
The Strand Bookstore's last copy (for now) of Counternarratives; they once had over 100+ copies of the hardcover AND the paperback. Thank you, readers!
Subway rider, with his 40
Rehab work at the Blue Man Group's theater, Astor Place
Cooper Square
Workers at the increasingly privatized, zombie urban hot spot, Astor Place
The famous Alamo Cube, cordoned off (and now longer movable by passersby)
Bikes and skateboards now forbidden at the branded, neoliberalized Astor Place
A few weeks ago, sound engineer and radio host Alain Cabaux spoke with Emmanuel Requette, from Brussel'sLibrairie Ptyx (Ptyx Bookstore), hosted a lively, enthusiastic conversation about the French edition of Counternarratives on Radio Campus, based at the Université Libre du Bruxelles.
It would take a while to translate the entire thing and they unfortunately do not provide a written transcript, but it was clear that both Cabaux and Requette enjoyed the book and were sparked to think quite a bit about it, even broaching a few topics that haven't received much discussion in US reviews, on topics such as religion.
If you speak French, you can hear the entire conversation here, as well as music by Matana Roberts and the great Bluesman Robert Johnson. Many thanks to both of them and to my brilliant translator, Bernard Hoepffner and publisher, Éditions Cambourakis, because of whom the book is on Librairie Ptyx's bookshelves. Enjoy! (H/t to James Oscar for telling me about meeting Mr. Cabaux, and his kind comments on the book, too.)
***
Also, in the French journal En Attendant Nadeau, Claude Grimal pens a throrough, praiseworthy review of Contrenarrations, titling it "Sujétion, Liberté et Imagination" (Subjection, Liberty, and Imagination), with the summary that "Le romancier américain John Keene fait preuve dans son Contrenarrations de beaucoup d’ambition, d’érudition et de talent. La force épique de son livre et l’extrême attention qu’il porte à l’écriture sont la preuve d’une foi énergique en la littérature." (Translation: "The American novelist John Keene show evidence of great ambition, erudition and talent in his book Counternarratives. The epic force of his book and his extreme attention to writing are evidence of an energetic faith in literature.")
The review continues in that very positive. He concludes the review by saying:
L’auteur, qui dote ses personnages d’une remarquable imagination afin de montrer qu’elle est en elle même émancipatrice, est pourvu comme eux de ce don. Il faudrait adapter pour lui les pensées qu’il attribue à Melle LaLa, flottant au dessus du sol, reliée par la bouche à son fil : « je voudrais suspendre la ville entière de Paris ou même la France elle-même à mes lèvres… je cherche à dépasser les limites imposées à moins que je ne les aies placées là, car c’est à cela que je pense quand je pense à la liberté ». Penser à la liberté est un chemin pour les écrivains, autant que pour les assujettis comme le montre, avec un brio acrobatique, les histoires de Contrenarrations.
(The author, who endows his characters with a remarkable imagination in order to show that it is in itself emancipatory, is provided like them with this gift. It would be necessary to adapt for him the thoughts he attributes to Miss LaLa, floating above the ground, connected by her mouth to her wire: "I want to suspend the entire city of Paris or even France itself from my lips...I aim to exceed every limit placed on me unless I place it there, because that is what I think of when I think of freedom." Thinking about freedom is a way for writers, as much as their subjects, as Counternarratives' stories show, with an acrobatic brio.)
Many thanks to Mr. Grimal for this reading, to En Attendant Nadeau for publishing it, and of course, to Bernard Hoepffner and Éditions Cambourakis.
***
Finally, on the other side of the English Channel, or La Manche, depending upon your perspective, a new prize, The Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses, has named Counternarratives to its Longlist! What's the rationale behind this prize? Here's what writer and publisher Neil Griffiths, its founder, has to say.
The winner will be chosen based on two criteria, perfectly expressed on the Galley Beggar website as ‘hardcore literary fiction and gorgeous prose’.
Eligible publishers will have a maximum of five fulltime paid people working for them.
The prize is open to UK and Irish publishers.
One novel or single author collection of short stories per publisher can be summited in the calendar year. With one wild card entry per judge.
"Whatever one thinks about awards in the arts, they do tend to attract attention, boost sales, and provide a little momentum – which is always a good thing. And even though the money won’t be Booker or Costa levels, any money is always welcome. And if the prize can include the independent bookshops – as judges and points of sale – then everyone wins".
It also noted that the 9 judges are "Griffiths, his co-chair Marcus Wright, and the booksellers Sam Fisher (Burley Fisher Books, London) Gary Perry (Foyles, London) Anna Dreda (Wenlock Books, Shropshire) Helen Stanton (Forum Books, Northumberland) Lyndsy Kirkman (Chapter One Books, Manchester), Emma Corfield (Book-ish, Crickhowell, Wales) and Gillian Robertson (Looking Glass Books, Fife, Scotland)." The Guardian also wrote it up.
Originally, the Longlist wasn't to be announced until November 30, but it appears to have been moved up. The Shortlist won't be determined until next January, and the prize won't be awarded until March 2017. At the Review 31 site, Mr. Griffiths elaborates on the prize, and writes blurbs about each of the book. Here's the marvelous summary he wrote about Counternarratives, which is the kind of comment you can't pay for!
Fitzcarraldo Editions for Counternarratives by John Keene
Counternarratives is a work of great distinction, a once in a generation addition to short form fiction. It moves the form on; it deepens it. Few works of fiction operate on this kind of intellectual and textural level and still remain rooted in the human experience. Spanning four centuries, many countries, using different narrative forms as inspiration, each story unfolds with a control and wisdom that is startling. When compared to this, most other prose seems oddly ingratiating, as if Keene has decided that to ask for our indulgence is to undermine some fundamental truth being enacted in the stories. Few novels are works of art and few works of art are moral acts – this is one of them. And what’s more it’s a pleasure to read. That this set of stories and novellas has not made every shortlist its eligible for is a travesty.
Here's Mr. Griffith's announcement of the prize:
Whatever happens, it's wonderful for the book and its British publisher to receive some recognition, and many thanks to Mr. Griffiths, his committee, and Fitzcarraldo Editions!
The results of yesterday's election, in which Republicans Donald J. Trump and Michael Pence defeated Democrats Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine by winning a majority of Electoral College votes (about 290 so far) versus 230 and despite losing the popular vote, was a difficult day for so many of us. Making it even worse, the obstructionist GOP caucus also retained control of the US Senate and House, and will now have the power to give President Trump whatever he asks for--or they can convince him wants, including a far-right jurist to fill the seat of the late Antonin Scalia. As I told a friend
and colleague, we've lived through times as tough as these and worse,
and we'll get through it if we stick together, though we'll suffer along the way.
The first step, though, is acknowledge that Trump's victory occurred, recognizing the many people and things that made it possible, and then not throwing up our hands in sorrow, anger and apathy, and allowing him to steamroll over everyone and everything.
This election
reminds me a lot of 2000, only torqued up a few hundred notches. That one also included a Democratic duo winning the popular vote yet losing to the Republican ticket, after over a year of grotesque media malpractice, and lots of liberal handwringing about how the successor of a popular president could lose. Republicans and the media salivated over having an allegedly "compassionate conservative" "businessman" take over the reins of government, promising us reform and a new path. Most voters then, as now, and particularly African American and Latinx voters, rejected it. The true outcome, however, would become clear shortly thereafter when the US suffered through rolling blackouts, the beginnings of warantless wiretapping, a major trading firm (Enron) collapse, and finally, in spite of warnings and red flags, the worst terrorist attacks on US soil on September 11, 2001. I hope and pray that horrors of this magnitude do not befall us under Trump and Pence, though after the experience of that earlier election, I am trying to steel myself for whatever may unfold, and remind myself, organization, coalition-building, dialogue, and resistance, in every way are key.
There
were some bright spots in yesterday's election, however: The US Senate
will now have the most women of color in its history, with the election
of Kamala Harris (CA), Tammy Duckworth (IL), and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV)
joining Mazie Hirono (HI), all of whom are progressive Democrats. Also, the
Democrat Maggie Hassan eked out a win for the New Hampshire Senate seat, so the Democrats will have 48 votes
(46 + Bernie Sanders and Angus King), meaning they'll be able to provide
some semblance of a check on Trump, McConnell and Ryan. I'm holding on
to this, and to the knowledge that we won't give up, because we cannot, and will keep
fighting for a better future for all of us. That's what my ancestors
did, what my parents did, and that's what we must do.
