Black writers around the globe

[Benny Profane]

I forgot to add Itamar Vieira, Marcelino Freire, Jeferson Tenorio and other more recent authors.

I only put the classics as Carolina Maria de Jesus, Machado de Assis, Lima Barreto etc.

 

[Leseratte]

I will attest to that. I found Barreto (Policarpo Quaresma, if my memory is accurate) enjoyable but difficult because, even with detailed notes, you simply can't appreciate a book without having a feel for the context. And I finally gave up on reading the notes and tried to just appreciate the work. Hard.

Yes. Having to worry about too many notes, may indeed kill the reading pleasure. I think, Policarpo Quaresma fictionalizes mainly early Brazilian republican times (the so called Old Republic) and the rise of the lower social classes with it´s dreams and disappointments.

 

[Leseratte]

I only put the classics as Carolina Maria de Jesus, Machado de Assis, Lima Barreto etc.

It´s ok, Benny, there certainly are other ones!

 

[Leseratte]

I'm familiar with William Melvin Kelley, though I've never read him. Although several of his books from the 1960s were reprinted in paperback in the U.S. following his death, I would say he's largely forgotten here. Actually, I'm not sure he was ever a big name - even fifty years ago. It's interesting, though, that one of his novels was published in hardcover in Austria in 2019. Guess we have to sometimes look abroad to learn about who to pay attention to in our own backyard. By the way, I just learned Kelley is credited for being the first to use the term "woke" in print.

I only know Ralph Ellison, who I like very much and I think I have a book by Claude McKay.

 

[Benny Profane]

I'm familiar with William Melvin Kelley, though I've never read him. Although several of his books from the 1960s were reprinted in paperback in the U.S. following his death, I would say he's largely forgotten here. Actually, I'm not sure he was ever a big name - even fifty years ago. It's interesting, though, that one of his novels was published in hardcover in Austria in 2019. Guess we have to sometimes look abroad to learn about who to pay attention to in our own backyard. By the way, I just learned Kelley is credited for being the first to use the term "woke" in print.

It's a sensitive question. It's happened the same with Astolfo Marques.
Recently, it's been having a revival of W. E. B. Du Bois' work The Souls of Black Folk here. But there is a work by Astolfo Marques called O 13 de Maio (the Abolition Day here) that is about the same thing and was written before the work of Du Bois.
Nobody knew who was Astolfo Marques (neither did I, until recently).

The brazilian literature still remains very unknow and obscure including for ourselves. We brazilians suffer what we call "complexo de vira-latas" (when we don't care about our things and demonize all the things of our country).
A classic example: there is an avant-garde book here called O Bom Crioulo by Adolfo Caminha ("The Good Ni**er" in a literal translation or "The Good Slave" in a suitable translation) which was published before The Picture of Dorian Gray and has the same plot (in fact, even more scandalous than Dorian Gray). O Bom Crioulo was translated into English as Gay Sunshine (what an awful title ?).
The plot is about a gay love beetween a white man and a former black slave (who is a sailor). It was published in 1895!

We have another one: No Hospício (At the Hospice) by Rocha Pombo, another obscure writer from Brazil.
Rocha Pombo was from Paraná (the same Province of @DouglasM).
Well, the plot is very similar than Kafka's The Castle published in 1900, but published 26 years before The Castle.

 

[Stevie B]

I only know Ralph Ellison, who I like very much and I think I have a book by Claude McKay.

I took a course, years ago, that focused a great deal on the Harlem Renaissance (history, art, and literature). We didn't get around to reading Claude McKay, but I recall my professor, John McCluskey, strongly recommending his work. McCluskey, by the way, was a writer highly praised by Toni Morrison, and she had a couple of his books published while she was an editor at Random House. FYI, if you're interested, here's a link to an article about how influential Morrison was as an editor.

Toni Morrison as an Editor Changed Book Publishing Forever | by Arielle Gray | ZORA (medium.com)

Back to Claude McKay. About ten years back, someone, somehow uncovered a hitherto unknown manuscript by him. It was later published under the title, Amiable with Big Teeth. With a title like that, I don't know why I didn't order a copy right away, but perhaps I need to remedy that situation. I think Banjo, though, is considered his best-known book.

 

[Leseratte]

Thanks for the Infos about Claude McKay, specially the titles you suggested.. Ill take a better look into it.

And Toni Morrison as an editor is also new to me. It seems that as an editor she was at least as good as as a writer.

I think here in Brasil the positive recognition of Black literature is just beginning. Maybe there are more author than we had before. What we had before were an isolated author here or there

 

[Stevie B]

Thanks for the Infos about Claude McKay, specially the titles you suggested.. Ill take a better look into it.

And Toni Morrison as an editor is also new to me. It seems that as an editor she was at least as good as as a writer.

I think here in Brasil the positive recognition of Black literature is just beginning. Maybe there are more author than we had before. What we had before were an isolated author here or there

I saw an excellent documentary on Morrison recently, but I can't recall the title or if it was broadcast on PBS. A portion of it covered Morrison's time at Random House when she had to balance the responsibilities of a challenging and groundbreaking job with those of being a single mother. It brought my respect for her to an even higher level. I also laughed when described herself as being "loose" (lacking moral restraint) as an undergraduate student living away from her parents' watchful eyes.

 

[JCamilo]

About Carolina, it happens that she is more well-educated than it first appears. Most of her "style" wasnt lack of formal education, it seems like she was blending her greatfather african idiom (which is mostly oral and if i recall well, from Angola) with the favelas orality, something not unsimilar to Guimarães Rosa. Tom Farias, her biographer, came with this reasoning, if I am not mistaken.

She was actually quickly translated in the 60´s, but ended back in povertry, as it seems she never get paid of it.

Conceição Evaristo is of course the "starlet" of the waves of reckognition of african-brazilian literature (alongside Elisa Lucinda), despite the fact our racist Academia Brasileira de Letras simple refused to acknowledge her for immortality (but considering who she would have to shave this long time, I would say she was spared). Much of it is due to a law back in the Lula governament that made the teaching of african-brazilian literature mandatory in the schools and gave fuel to small publishing houses (Pallas, Mazza, etc) and bookshops dedicate to the theme and authors to thrive.

Maria Mazarello, the founder and owner of Mazza Editions had a biography by Márcia Cruz published recently. It is enjoyable, simple. Mazza (her nickname) is probally the best person alive in Belo Horizonte at this time. Fantastic person with a story that deserves to be known and it is also linked to the publishing history in Minas Gerais. Her favorite book by the way is a book that is praised by many people: Um defeito de cor de Ana Maria Gonçalves.

I cannot forgot (almost did) to mention Edmilson de Almeida Pereira. He is getting big prizes now, but he has years of writing and it is also a great academic.

 

[Patrick Murtha]

During my freshman year at Yale (1976-77), Toni Morrison taught a seminar called Black Women and Their Fictions, which my friend Stephen Biegner took and loved. So I was only two degrees of separation at that point, well before she was famous. I recall that the syllabus included writers such as Alice Walker (pre-Color Purple), Gayl Jones, and Toni Cade Bambara, the latter two of whom Morrison had edited and promoted in her work as an editor at Random House.

I also remember when The Color Purple came out, when I was working at Doubleday Books in Manhattan. It was by no means an instant sensation; we sat on one hardcover copy for a number of months. Only after it won the Pulitzer Prize did the novel take off.

 

[Leseratte]

During my freshman year at Yale (1976-77), Toni Morrison taught a seminar called Black Women and Their Fictions, which my friend Stephen Biegner took and loved. So I was only two degrees of separation at that point, well before she was famous. I recall that the syllabus included writers such as Alice Walker (pre-Color Purple), Gayl Jones, and Toni Cade Bambara, the latter two of whom Morrison had edited and promoted in her work as an editor at Random House.

I also remember when The Color Purple came out, when I was working at Doubleday Books in Manhattan. It was by no means an instant sensation; we sat on one hardcover copy for a number of months. Only after it won the Pulitzer Prize did the novel take off.

Here in Brazil the interest in the literature of. black writers, with the exception of Machado de Assis, Lima Barreto and Castro Alves is still very recent. It happens together with a revaluation of black people as citizens. Carolina de Jesus and other writers (some of them unknown or forgotten) are presented in a new light.

 

[umbrarchist]

Recently, it's been having a revival of W. E. B. Du Bois' work The Souls of Black Folk here.

OMG! Why? I read that in the 60s and thought, "Damn, this is so out of date!"

 

[Stevie B]

OMG! Why? I read that in the 60s and thought, "Damn, this is so out of date!"

Wouldn't that be the point of reading it? To get a snapshot of history and better understand how things used to be?

 

[Patrick Murtha]

Du Bois is a personal hero of mine. I think that his concept of the Talented Tenth is still highly relevant, and hardly just for black people. Yes, you may call me an elitist.

[brickbats fly in my direction]

As anyone who reads me for a few days knows, I don’t believe in “datedness”.

 

[umbrarchist]

Wouldn't that be the point of reading it? To get a snapshot of history and better understand how things used to be?

If that is the reader's objective.

I considered the Autobiography of Malcolm X and Soul on Ice to be much more relevant to the times though I thought Elridge Clever was somewhat deranged.

I used to read Mohammed Speaks when I was a kid. But when I encountered their myth about the black scientist I was wondering how MX could get involved with the Black Muslims. So I was trying to get some understanding after his assassination.

 

[umbrarchist]

Du Bois is a personal hero of mine. I think that his concept of the Talented Tenth is still highly relevant, and hardly just for black people. Yes, you may call me an elitist.

Souls of Black Folks was published before the introduction of the Model-T Ford. In fact he talked about a man buying a carriage to impress a woman. Planned obsolescence in cars was not a factor back then. Shouldn't the talented tenth have figured that out in the 60s? Years ago I asked a PhD economist how an ICE engine worked. He couldn't even start.

See C.P. Snow's Two Cultures.

C. P. Snow - The Two Cultures debate controversy Rede Lecture 1959

 

[Ben Jackson]

Haven't read much from black writers in Latin America except Machado De Assis. Will read more from Carribean.

 

[Leseratte]

In my defense, you'll notice that I posted at 5:23 am. I was still groggy after having just woken up to pee. View attachment 866
At least Juno Diaz and Paolo Lins fit the bill. And as my mom always used to say, it's the thought that counts.

And Ben Okri also. The others are unknown to me.

 

[Corswandt]

I'm missing black writers from places like Latin America (excluding Caribbean), Brazil & the rest of Europe. If you have any names please toss them here.

Two years late, but here goes:

?? Ricardo Adolfo (born in Angola)

AFAIK his books have been translated into: German (2), Dutch, Spanish, French and Swedish.

The Spanish book (titled La Peluquera de Lisboa) is a translation of Mizé..., which remains his most notorious novel. Maria dos Canos Serrados was also riotous fun, more fun in some ways, actually, but it didn't make as much of a splash.

Ricardo Adolfo has been living in Japan for almost 10 years now and, not being a full-time writer (he works in advertising), hasn't published a new novel since 2015, but has meanwhile written screenplays. Nobody who has read his books can be surprised by Ricardo Adolfo branching off in that direction (very successfully, one should add). He has also been writing children's books.

Mizé features almost tangibly detailed social realism and adroit use of orality in the dialogues. There's one issue which isn't really an issue with it though: the novel never directly states that it's set in the past, but I felt the way of life and specific references described could nearly all be dated to the mid 1990s, presumably due to the fact that the author was actually living in Portugal back then - yet it was first published in 2006.

 

[Leseratte]

Isn't Machado de Assis Brazilian too? I remember Harold Bloom addressed him as the "greatest black writer in Western Literature".

Yes, he was from Rio de Janeiro.