Counternarratives

Synopsis

Ranging from the seventeenth century to the present and crossing multiple continents, Counternarratives is a collection of stories and novellas that draws upon memoirs, newspaper accounts, detective stories, interrogation transcripts, and speculative fiction to create new and unexpected perspectives on the past and present.

In these inventive historical fictions, a free Jim meets Huckleberry Finn decades after their time on the river; an escaped enslaved person confronts questions of liberty during the American Revolution; and Langston Hughes and Xavier Villaurrutia meet in Depression-era New York. Across centuries and continents, John Keene reimagines the stories and people history has left at the margins.

About the Author

John Keene is an American writer, translator, and professor whose books include Annotations and Counternarratives. He has received the American Book Award, Lannan Literary Award, Republic of Consciousness Prize, and Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction. A 2018 MacArthur Fellow, he is Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of English at Rutgers University–Newark.

Publisher

New Directions

Publication Date

May 17, 2016

Format

Paperback

Pages

320

Subjects

Literary Fiction · African American & Black Fiction · Historical Fiction · Short Stories

ISBN

9780811225526