Randall Kenan facts for kids

Randall Kenan (March 12, 1963 – August 28, 2020) was an American author. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, but moved to Duplin County, North Carolina when he was just six weeks old. He lived with his grandparents in a small town called Wallace. Many of Kenan's books are set in the area where he grew up in North Carolina. His stories often explore what it means to be Black in the southern United States. Some of his most famous works include the short story collection Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, which was named a New York Times Notable Book in 1992, and A Visitation of Spirits. Kenan won several important awards, such as a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Whiting Award.

About Randall Kenan

Growing Up and Learning

Randall Kenan was born in Brooklyn, New York. When he was only six weeks old, he moved to Wallace, North Carolina, to live with his grandparents. His grandparents ran a dry-cleaning business. They were often busy, so they hired someone to help care for him.

On weekends, Kenan's great-aunt Mary and great-uncle Redden would take him to their family farm. This farm was in Chinquapin, about 15 miles from Wallace. When Kenan was three, his great-uncle Redden passed away. His grandfather suggested that great-aunt Mary keep Kenan since she was now alone. Kenan stayed with his great-aunt Mary throughout his childhood. He later called her "Mama."

His great-aunt Mary became a very important person in his life. She was a kindergarten teacher and strongly believed in education. She taught Kenan to read when he was only four years old. He grew up loving to read all kinds of books, from novels to comic books and even the Bible. This love for reading soon turned into a passion for storytelling.

College and First Job

Kenan started college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1981. He first planned to study physics. However, he found he wasn't enjoying his classes. He then decided to take a writing class. This class was taught by Max Steele, an editor for The Paris Review.

Kenan also studied with the author Doris Betts. She tried to help him get a job in publishing in New York City. It took a few months after he graduated in 1985, but Kenan eventually received a job offer. He began working for the book publisher Random House in New York City.

Starting His Writing Career

Randall Kenan was hired at Random House partly because the company wanted to hire more people from diverse backgrounds. After doing various tasks, Kenan got a job as a receptionist at Alfred A. Knopf. This gave him chances to learn more about writing.

He worked at Knopf for only two months before being promoted. He became an assistant to the executive vice president. He stayed in this role for five years, until 1989. During this time, Kenan helped edit many books. This experience greatly improved his own storytelling skills. Working at Knopf helped Kenan finish his first published novel, A Visitation of Spirits, which came out in 1989.

After publishing his first book, Kenan started teaching part-time. He taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Columbia University, and Vassar College. He taught once a week at each school, which gave him plenty of time to work on his own writing. Later, Kenan became a full-time English professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He also taught as a visiting writer at other universities, including Duke University.

His Books and Stories

Kenan's first novel, A Visitation of Spirits, was published in 1989. It didn't get much attention at first. But things changed with his second book in 1992. This was a collection of short stories called Let the Dead Bury Their Dead.

These stories were set in a made-up community called Tims Creek. They explored what it was like to be Black and poor in the southern United States. The book was praised as a new classic of southern literature. It was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was named a New York Times Notable Book. This success also brought new attention to his first novel, which was also set in Tims Creek.

In 1993, Kenan wrote a biography for young adults about the African-American novelist James Baldwin. Kenan often said that Baldwin was one of his heroes. He then spent several years traveling across the United States and Canada. He collected stories from African Americans, which he published in Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century (1999).

Kenan won many writing awards for his work. These included a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, and the John Dos Passos Prize. In 2007, he published The Fire This Time, a non-fiction book. Its title was a reference to James Baldwin's famous book The Fire Next Time.

His last book, If I Had Two Wings, a collection of short stories, was published in August 2020.

His Passing

Randall Kenan passed away on August 28, 2020. He was 57 years old and died at his home in Hillsborough, North Carolina. At the time of his death, he was working on another book called There's a Man Going 'Round Taking Names, which he did not finish.