The Writing Life
Flannery O’Connor
One – The collected letters of Flannery O’Connor, edited by Sally Fitzgerald, in The Habit of Being: they’ve been on my bookshelves for a couple of decades.
Two – I’ve been amazed by both how many readers have never heard of Flannery O’Connor and also by how many books about her are in the public library.
Three – O’Connor’s religiosity is inescapable.
Four – Joyce Carol Oates considers Flannery O’Connor in the context of her southern contemporaries.
Langston Hughes
One – Letters exchanged with Carl Van Vechten also add loads of other Harlem Renaissance writers to my TBR. Short stories and other letters too. A glimpse of manuscript pages.
Two – First volume of autobiography, The Big Sea. Illustrated volumes by Tony Medina and Willie Perdomo (illustrated by Bryan Collier). Isaac Julien’s film Looking for Langston. The Sweet Flypaper of Life with gorgeous photographs by Roy DeCarava.
Three – Memories via Vaunda Micheaux Nelson about her uncle’s Harlem bookstore. Music, Three Dream Portraits by Margaret Bonds (and a 2021 release by Will Liverman. The Dream Keeper (poems). Popo and Fifina with Arna Bontemps (middle-grade story set in Haiti).
Four – First volume of Arnold Rampersad’s The Life of Langston Hughes, Glimpses of Hughes in NYC on Bruce Kayton’s Walking Tour, Illustrated volume of his poetry, An illustrated biography, plus sneak appearances in The 1619 Project, along with Obama and Springsteen’s Renegades