Wesley Brown (born 1945)[1] is an American writer, playwright, and professor.[2][3] He is best known for his books Tragic Magic and Darktown Strutters.[4]

Tragic Magic, Brown's first novel, received strong reviews. Kirkus Reviews wrote that Brown's "sentences end in unexpected pretzels, they blurt and croon; his gift is improvisatory and brassy."[5] James W. Coleman, writing in Black American Literature Forum, thought that Brown did "a brilliant job of maintaining the tension and vitality of the novel's language, which is a genuine tour de force."[6] The novel, about a young man just out of prison for refusing induction into the armed services, has been called a "jazz-narrative."[7][8] Tragic Magic was edited by Toni Morrison, at Random House.[9] The book was reissued in hardcover by McSweeney's in 2021, part of the publisher's "Of the Diaspora" series spotlighting important works in Black literature.

Brown published his second novel, about a minstrel show performer, in 1994.[10] The New York Times praised Darktown Strutters, writing that by "combining the simple prose of a folk tale with the meta-psychology of a philosopher, Wesley Brown has created a vivid, disturbing work of the historical imagination."[11] Life During Wartime, Brown's 1992 play, was called a "complex, intelligent and thought-provoking drama" by the Times.[12]

He has served as a judge for the PEN/Faulkner Award.[13]

Brown has taught at Rutgers University and Bard College at Simon's Rock.[14][15]

Selected bibliography

  • Tragic Magic (1978) (Reissued 2021, McSweeney's; hardcover ISBN 978-1-944-21198-1, with a new introduction by the author)
  • Boogie Woogie and Booker T (1987)
  • Life During Wartime (1992)
  • Darktown Strutters (1994)
  • Push Comes to Shove (2009)
  • Dance of the Infidels (2017)

References

  1. ↑ "Wesley Brown - Book Reading And Conversation With Ben Ratleff". NYU Arts and Science. December 8, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Wesley Brown's Push Comes to Shove by Patricia Spears Jones - BOMB Magazine". bombmagazine.org. October 2009.
  3. ↑ Benjamin, Richard M. (1995). "Tenured Black Professors in the English Department of the Nation's 25 Highest-Ranked Universities". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (8): 79–82. JSTOR 2963059.
  4. ↑ Coleman, James W. (January 13, 2015). Black Male Fiction and the Legacy of Caliban. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813158686 – via Google Books.
  5. ↑ "TRAGIC MAGIC by Wesley Brown | Kirkus Reviews" – via www.kirkusreviews.com.
  6. ↑ Coleman, James W. (1981). "Language, Reality, and Self in Wesley Brown's Tragic Magic". Black American Literature Forum. 15 (2): 48–50. doi:10.2307/2904080. JSTOR 2904080.
  7. ↑ Brown, Wesley (November 23, 1978). Tragic Magic. Random House. ISBN 9780394502243 – via Google Books.
  8. ↑ Hawkins-Dady, Mark (December 6, 2012). Reader's Guide to Literature in English. Routledge. ISBN 9781135314170 – via Google Books.
  9. ↑ Beaulieu, Elizabeth Ann (November 23, 2003). The Toni Morrison Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313316999 – via Google Books.
  10. ↑ Brown, Wesley (November 23, 1994). Darktown Strutters. Cane Hill Press. ISBN 9780943433110 – via Google Books.
  11. ↑ Fleming, Thomas (March 6, 1994). "Hit the Ground Dancing". The New York Times.
  12. ↑ Gates, Anita (April 14, 1998). "THEATER REVIEW; The Volatile Search for Truth and Blame". The New York Times.
  13. ↑ Suplee, Curt (April 12, 1982). "Literary License" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  14. ↑ "Brown, Wesley". english.rutgers.edu.
  15. ↑ "Wesley Brown | Bard College at Simon's Rock". simons-rock.edu.
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