"I would be dead, but it would make me happy."

April 3, 2023 9:26 PM

Daniel Wallace writes movingly about posthumously collecting the writing of his friend Randall Kenan (A Visitation of Spirits, Let The Dead Bury Their Dead, The Fire This Time).

The last email he sent me was on Aug. 25, three days before he died. It came in at 3 a.m. and was a link to Gloria Estefan singing “Reach.” And he wrote, “I will sweep my heart off the floor and get on with it.” I never responded to that email, hoping that the sun would lighten things up. He never said what had happened to his heart.

The resulting Black Folk Could Fly was published in 2022 to widespread critical acclaim.

posted by joannemerriam (2 comments total)

I don't worry much about dying before I finish a book, in that it's outside of my control and I generally try not to worry overmuch about things I have no say in. But there are a few writers whose unpublished writings I'd probably end up taking care of if they pass before I do, and that's something I worry about. I'd worry about not doing the deceased writer's work justice. But also… the idea of going through someone else's unfinished work is eery, like being asked to pick through another person's brain, trying to guess the context and purpose of their thoughts.
posted by Kattullus at 1:18 PM on April 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

Beautiful piece.
posted by larrybob at 3:40 PM on April 9, 2023