Victor LaValle
Victor LaValle discusses returning his fiction to Queens and to the question of manhood
Finishing Big Machine, LaValle explained, “gave me the courage to depart from Queens, from autobiographical Queens. The first two books are very autobiographical and, strictly speaking, pretty realistic stories. But I was tired of that. I wanted to give myself the freedom, but I didn’t think I could do that right away. I had to go to Oakland and Vermont and Cedar Rapids, Iowa to give myself that.” While his latest is not an overtly realistic tale, it’s far more grounded than its predecessor—no secret organizations, no large-scale demonic infestations. But it is every bit as sinister. More
(1)Brand new magazine 'Spook' seeks to even the literary field
“There are always one or two African American or Latino writers,” Parham told me when I met him on Sunday in Brooklyn. “But it’s never a complete book of us. And I wanted to create our own conversation. To say these are our stories and they are just as important and we can still be in dialogue with you guys and be just as good as you guys.“ More
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