Black Folk Could Fly: Selected Writings by Randall Kenan

Virtuosic in his use of literary forms, nurtured and unbounded by his identities as a Black man, a gay man, an Intellectual, and a Southerner, Randall Kenan was know for his groundbreaking fiction. Less visible were his extraordinary nonfiction essays.

Flying under the radar, these writings were his most personal and autobiographical: memories of the three women who raised him—a grandmother, a schoolteacher great-aunt, and the great-aunt's best friend; sensual evocations of the land, seasons, and crops of the eastern North Carolina lowlands where he grew up; and the food (oh the deliriously delectable Southern foods!) that sustained him. Here too is his intellectual coming of age: his passionate appreciations of kindred spirits as far-flung as Eartha Kitt, Gordon Parks, Ingmar Bergman, and James Baldwin. This powerful collection is a testament to a great mind, a great soul, and a great writer from whom readers will always wish to have more to read.