24 min
Episode 1: Remembering Dinner with Randall Kenan 27 Views
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- Books
Writer Randall Kenan had a passion for food. Before he died in 2020, he dropped by for dinner, and stayed to talk about the importance of food in his life, in his upbringing, in literature, in culture, in bridging divides. He revealed his deep fondness for the humble butterbean. He also read excerpts from “The Rooster, the Rattlesnake, and the Hydrangea Bush,” the lead essay in Eno Publishers’s The Carolina Table: North Carolina Writers on Food, which he edited.
Bio—Randall Kenan grew up in Chinquapin (population: 86) in Eastern North Carolina, a landscape that illuminated much of his fiction. His fiction includes A Visitation of Spirits, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, and If I Had Two Wings. The last volume was published a month before he died, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award. He also was a master of nonfiction, publishing books and essays about an array of subjects, from his deep appreciation of James Baldwin; to his passion for Southern foodways, American history, and pop culture; to his exploration of what it is to be Black in our recently Jim Crow-haunted nation. Randall was editor of, and wrote the lead essay for, The Carolina Table: North Carolina Writers on Food, published by Eno Publishers. He also contributed to Eno’s book, 27 Views of Hillsborough: A Southern Town in Prose and Poetry.
Listen to Randall read his entire story “The Rooster, the Rattlesnake, and the Hydrangea Bush,” from The Carolina Table: North Carolina Writers on Food
Randall’s profile page and purchase his books on the Whiting Award website
Purchase The Carolina Table: North Carolina Writers on Food (Eno Publishers)
Writer Randall Kenan had a passion for food. Before he died in 2020, he dropped by for dinner, and stayed to talk about the importance of food in his life, in his upbringing, in literature, in culture, in bridging divides. He revealed his deep fondness for the humble butterbean. He also read excerpts from “The Rooster, the Rattlesnake, and the Hydrangea Bush,” the lead essay in Eno Publishers’s The Carolina Table: North Carolina Writers on Food, which he edited.
Bio—Randall Kenan grew up in Chinquapin (population: 86) in Eastern North Carolina, a landscape that illuminated much of his fiction. His fiction includes A Visitation of Spirits, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, and If I Had Two Wings. The last volume was published a month before he died, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award. He also was a master of nonfiction, publishing books and essays about an array of subjects, from his deep appreciation of James Baldwin; to his passion for Southern foodways, American history, and pop culture; to his exploration of what it is to be Black in our recently Jim Crow-haunted nation. Randall was editor of, and wrote the lead essay for, The Carolina Table: North Carolina Writers on Food, published by Eno Publishers. He also contributed to Eno’s book, 27 Views of Hillsborough: A Southern Town in Prose and Poetry.
Listen to Randall read his entire story “The Rooster, the Rattlesnake, and the Hydrangea Bush,” from The Carolina Table: North Carolina Writers on Food
Randall’s profile page and purchase his books on the Whiting Award website
Purchase The Carolina Table: North Carolina Writers on Food (Eno Publishers)
24 min