RANDALL KENAN

Earlier this fall, Randall Kenan, writer, teacher, North Carolina native, and friend of Orange Literacy, passed away. In honor of his contributions to literature, culture and our community, we are including a copy of his collection of stories If I Had Two Wings (longlisted for the 2020 National Book Awards) with each donation to this event. To learn more about Randall, his work and the many lives he touched, please visit his memorial page here. 

After reading, we hope you’ll join us in January for a virtual book club event featuring If I Had Two Wings. 

Kenan’s first novel, A Visitation of Spirits, was published in 1989; and a collection of stories, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, was published in 1992. That collection was nominated for the LA Times Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was among The NY Times Notable Books of 1992. He is also the author of a young adult biography of James Baldwin (1993) and wrote the text for Norman Mauskoff ’s book of photographs — among other books.

Kenan was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Sherwood Anderson Award, the John Dos Passos Award and was the 1997 Rome Prize winner from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was awarded the North Carolina Award for Literature in 2005.