John Keene (writer) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Keene
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Keene in 2022
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| Born | 1965 (age 59–60) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
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John R. Keene Jr. (born in 1965) is an American writer, translator, and professor. He is also an artist. In 2018, he received a special award called the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship. His book of poems, Punks: New & Selected Poems, won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2022.
Contents
About John Keene's Life
Early Life and Education
John Keene was born in 1965. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and in Webster Groves. He went to Catholic schools. Later, he graduated from the Saint Louis Priory School.
He studied at Harvard College. There, he was part of a group called Harvard Black Community and Student Theater. He also helped with the Harvard Advocate magazine. After Harvard, he earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree from New York University.
Teaching and Community Work
John Keene used to be a professor at Northwestern University. Now, he is a Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University-Newark. He also leads the African American and African Studies department. He teaches creative writing there too.
He has taught at other universities like Brown University and New York University. For many years, he has been on the board of the African Poetry Book Fund. This group helps share poetry by African poets. They do this through books, contests, and workshops.
John Keene's Creative Writing
His First Books
John Keene's first novel, Annotations, came out in 1995. Publishers Weekly magazine said it was a very important book. They called it "experimental" and said it showed a new way for fiction writing.
In 2006, he published a book of poems called Seismosis. This book was created with artwork by Christopher Stackhouse.
Counternarratives and Its Awards
In 2015, John Keene released Counternarratives. This book is a collection of short stories and novellas. A novella is a story longer than a short story but shorter than a novel.
Publishers Weekly described the book as "suspenseful, thought provoking, mystical, and haunting." They praised Keene's writing style. Christine Smallwood, writing for Harper's Magazine, called it "an extraordinary work of literature."
For this book and his other works, Keene received a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction in 2016. In August 2016, Counternarratives also won an American Book Award.
International Recognition
A British publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions, released Counternarratives in the UK in 2016. A reviewer named Kate Webb wrote in TLS that the book was very ambitious and smart. She said it "achieves no less than an imaginative repositioning of the history of the Americas."
In 2017, Fitzcarraldo Editions won the first Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses for publishing Counternarratives. The judges said Keene's collection was "a once in a generation achievement." They praised its different voices and serious purpose.
Other Works
In 2016, Keene worked with photographer Nicholas Muellner on a project called GRIND. It was a mix of art and poetry. He also published a small book of poems called Playland in 2016.
John Keene's Translation Work
John Keene is also a translator. This means he changes books or poems from one language to another. He has translated works from French, Portuguese, and Spanish. Some writers he has translated include Alain Mabanckou and Jean Wyllys.
He also writes and gives talks about translation. In one essay, he talked about the importance of translating poetry by Black poets. He believes more works by poets of African descent should be translated.
John Keene's Artistic Projects
Besides writing, John Keene also creates art. He has done public art projects. One of these is called the "Emotional Outreach Project." He has shown his art in galleries in Brooklyn and Berlin. In 2014, he presented "Emotional Outreach Project 6.0: The Emotional Exercises."
Awards and Honors
John Keene has received many awards for his writing and artistic work:
- 1990: Fellowship in Fiction, Artists Foundation of Massachusetts.
- 2000: AGNI John Cheever Short Fiction Prize.
- 2003: Fellowship in Poetry, New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
- 2005: Whiting Award for fiction/poetry.
- 2016: American Book Award for Counternarratives.
- 2016: Lannan Foundation Residency.
- 2016: Lannan Literary Award for Fiction.
- 2017: Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses (UK), to Fitzcarraldo Editions, for Counternarratives.
- 2018: Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in Fiction.
- 2018: MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Fellowship.
- 2019: Harold D. Vursell Award for Distinguished Prose, American Academy of Arts and Letters.
- 2019: Fellow, New York Institute for the Humanities.
- 2022: Thom Gunn Prize, The Publishing Triangle.
- 2022: Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry.
- 2022: National Book Award for Poetry.
