Randall Kenan, a renowned author who depicted the lives of Black and gay people in the American South, passed away on August 28, 2020, at the age of 57. His death was confirmed by the University of North Carolina, where he taught as an English professor. No cause of death was announced, but he had suffered a stroke several years ago and had heart-related health problems.
A Prolific and Acclaimed Writer
Kenan was born in Brooklyn, New York, but moved to Duplin County, North Carolina, when he was only six weeks old. He grew up with his grandparents and his great-aunt Mary, who taught him how to read at the age of four. He developed a love for storytelling and literature, and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studied with the authors Max Steele and Doris Betts.
He moved to New York after graduating in 1985 and worked as a book editor at Knopf. He published his first novel, A Visitation of Spirits, in 1989. The novel explored the struggles of a young Black gay man in a rural community. His second book, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, a collection of short stories set in the fictional town of Tim’s Creek, North Carolina, received critical acclaim and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992.
Kenan also wrote a young adult biography of James Baldwin, The Fire This Time, which won the Lambda Literary Award in 2008. He edited and contributed to several anthologies of African American literature, such as Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century and The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings by James Baldwin.
His latest book, If I Had Two Wings, another collection of short stories set in Tim’s Creek, was published just this month. One of the stories, God’s Gonna Trouble the Water, appeared on the website for O, the Oprah Winfrey Magazine.
A Gentle and Fierce Soul
Kenan was not only a brilliant writer, but also a kind and generous person. His friend and colleague Daniel Wallace described him as “a gentleman of the old school” who never failed to bring flowers or chocolate to his wife when he visited them. His mentor Doris Betts praised him as “a fierce and gentle soul” who used all his identities to tell the stories only he could tell.
Kenan was also passionate about social justice and racial equality. He wrote an open letter earlier this month reflecting on his experience as a Black student at UNC in the ’80s and the changes prompted by civil unrest, demands for racial justice and the removal of Confederate statues across the South He said: “For me — a poor black boy from the swamps of Eastern North Carolina — the Civil War was far from a lost cause, let alone a done war. I had underestimated how unfinished.”
Kenan’s death is a huge loss for the literary world and for his students, friends and family. He leaves behind a legacy of powerful and beautiful stories that illuminate the complexity and diversity of human experience. He will be remembered as one of the finest writers to emerge from Southeastern North Carolina and as an heir to the legacy of James Baldwin.
