Brandon Taylor (writer)

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Brandon Taylor
Born (1989-06-01) June 1, 1989 (age 34)
Prattville, Alabama, U.S.
OccupationWriter
Alma mater
Period2020–present
Notable works
Notable awardsThe Story Prize (2022)
Website
brandonlgtaylor.com

Brandon Taylor (born June 1, 1989)[1] is an American writer. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Iowa and has received several fellowships for his writing. His short stories and essays have been published in many outlets and have received critical acclaim. His debut novel, Real Life, came out in 2020 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2022, Taylor's Filthy Animals won The Story Prize awarded annually to collections of short fiction.[2]

Early life and education[edit]

Taylor was born in Prattville, Alabama,[3][4] and grew up in a small community outside Montgomery.[1][5] Part of Taylor's upbringing was spent in a very religious, conservative Baptist setting.[6] Taylor's family is mostly illiterate, and he was often made to read his parents' medical bills and government forms. He taught himself how to read using his brother's textbooks, and grew up reading a combination of romance novels, his aunt's nursing-home manuals, and the Bible.[7][8]

Taylor attended Auburn University at Montgomery for his undergraduate studies,[1] and then joined a graduate biochemistry program, and after leaving in 2016 began a career in creative writing.[9] He earned graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Iowa, where he was an Iowa Arts Fellow at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.[10]

Career[edit]

Taylor's short stories and essays have appeared in Granta, Guernica, American Short Fiction, Gulf Coast, Buzzfeed Reader, O: The Oprah Magazine, Gay, The New Yorker, The Literary Review, and elsewhere.[11] He is the senior editor of Electric Literature's "Recommended Reading" and is a staff writer at Literary Hub.[12][10] He has also contributed book reviews to The New York Times and 4Columns,[13] having reviewed works by authors such as Sally Rooney, Emma Cline, and Banana Yoshimoto.[14][15][16]

In an interview for the Booker Prizes, Taylor said his influences were Mavis Gallant, André Aciman, Jane Austen, Alice Munro, Louise Glück, Elizabeth Bishop, Hilton Als, Pat Conroy and Ann Petry.[17]

He received a fellowship from the Lambda Literary Foundation in 2017.[18] He has also received fellowships for his writing from Kimbilio Fiction and the Tin House Summer Writer's Workshop.[19]

His debut novel, Real Life, was published in 2020 with Riverhead Books. In 2021, a collection of his stories, Filthy Animals, was also published by Riverhead.[20] Taylor's upcoming projects as of 2023 include novels titled Group Show and Other Years, as well as a Southern Gothic project called Kinfolks, the last of which he has found particularly daunting.[21]

Real Life[edit]

Taylor wrote his debut novel, Real Life, in less than five weeks, and he later explained his approach: "I was like, I'm going to sit down and knock this out so I can get on with my life.... Writing a novel ruins your life in really specific ways. Because you have to live inside of it. It's just this sustained exercise in being miserable."[22] It is "a campus novel imagined from the vantage of a character who is usually shunted to the sidelines ... a gay black student from a small town in Alabama".

Published in 2020 by Riverhead Books, Real Life received critical acclaim.[23] Describing Taylor's work in the Los Angeles Times, Bethanne Patrick wrote: "His voice might best be described as a controlled roar of rage and pain, its energy held together by the careful thinking of a mind accustomed to good behavior."[24] According to the review of Real Life by Jeremy O. Harris in The New York Times, "It is a curious novel to describe, for much of the plot involves excavating the profound from the mundane. As in the modernist novels of Woolf and Tolstoy cited in passing throughout, the true action of Taylor's novel exists beneath the surface, buried in subterranean spaces."[25] Michael Arceneaux wrote in Time: "Taylor's book isn't about overcoming trauma or the perils of academia or even just the experience of inhabiting a black body in a white space, even as Real Life does cover these subjects. Taylor is also tackling loneliness, desire and — more than anything — finding purpose, meaning and happiness in one's own life... How fortunate we are for Real Life, another stunning contribution from a community long deserving of the chance to tell its stories." Taylor himself has said: "I hope that it's a novel that challenges people to think about the ways that we fit together in our relationships with one another. I hope it makes people think really deeply about both the ways that they are harmed, and that they do harm to others."[26]

Taylor's book tour to publicize his novel was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions on travel and public gatherings.[27] Real Life was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize.[28] The New York Times included the novel on its list of "100 Notable Books of 2020".[29]

In 2021, GQ reported that Real Life was being adapted into a movie featuring Kid Cudi.[6]

Filthy Animals[edit]

Taylor's collection of short stories, Filthy Animals, was awarded The Story Prize in 2022.[30] In the Los Angeles Review of Books, Thomas Mar Wee wrote in praise of the book: "Neither cold nor detached, these stories are suffused with a warmth and humanity that recalled for me the uncanniness of Raymond Carver, the empathy of Alice Munro, and the meticulous irony of Chekhov."[31]

The Late Americans[edit]

Main article: The Late Americans

Taylor's second novel, The Late Americans, was published in 2023. It follows a group of writers in Iowa City, where he lived while getting an MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.[32] While critical responses to the novel were mostly positive, the reception was more mixed compared to his two previous works.[33]

Personal life[edit]

As of 2022, Taylor lives in New York City.[34] He identifies as queer.[5]

From 2021 to 2023, Taylor read all 20 novels in Émile Zola's Les Rougon-Macquart cycle after being commissioned to write a piece on the series for the London Review of Books. In the ensuing article, Taylor acknowledged how he deeply identified with the depiction of alcohol dependence portrayed in the novel L'Assommoir, likening it to the behavior he observed in his parents as a child. In the piece, he wrote:

The Assommoir is the most accurate, brutal depiction of the reality of alcoholism I have ever read, capturing too the strange, evil joviality that warps all the relationships in such a household. I found the book eerie and painful, and I wept at the end when Gervaise started to show physical symptoms similar to those I saw in my mother and father: the clumsiness, the persistent lack of memory, the tremors at all hours of the day.[35]

Bibliography[edit]

  • Real Life. Riverhead Books. 2020. ISBN 978-0-525-53888-2.
  • Filthy Animals. Riverhead Books. 2021. ISBN 978-0-525-53892-9.
  • The Late Americans. Riverhead Books. 2023. ISBN 978-0-593-33233-7.

Awards[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Franklin, MJ (February 10, 2020). "For a Scientist Turned Novelist, An Experiment Pays Off". The New York Times. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  2. ^ Gallagher, Tim (April 14, 2022). "Brand Taylor wins Story Prize for 'Filthy Animals'". EuroNews.
  3. ^ Reisz, Matthew (September 15, 2020). "Brandon Taylor: campus racism inspired Booker-shortlisted 'Real Life'". THE. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
  4. ^ Delistraty, Cody (February 14, 2021). "Author Brandon Taylor on His Next Books and First Film Adaptation". Cody Delistraty. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
  5. ^ a b Simon, Scott (June 19, 2021). "Brandon Taylor On His New Story Collection, 'Filthy Animals'". NPR.org. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  6. ^ a b Kuga, Mitchell (June 23, 2021). "Brandon Taylor On His New Novel, Fashion's Role in His Fiction, and Working with Kid Cudi". GQ. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  7. ^ Sisley, Dominique (July 9, 2021). "Brandon Taylor Doesn't Want to Write About Race and Trauma Anymore". AnOther Magazine. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  8. ^ Cummins, Anthony (June 12, 2021). "Brandon Taylor: 'I grew up reading my aunt's nursing-home manuals and bodice-rippers'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  9. ^ Sofia, Maddie (April 9, 2020). "Science Is For Everyone. Until It's Not". NPR. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  10. ^ a b "Brandon Taylor | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  11. ^ Taylor, Brandon (February 18, 2020). "Brandon Taylor, Reluctant Novelist: When a Short Story Writer Goes Long". LitHub. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  12. ^ Knutson, Käri (November 19, 2020). "UW alumnus Brandon Taylor one of six finalists for prestigious Booker Prize". news.wisc.edu. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  13. ^ Taylor, Brandon (September 9, 2022). "The Unfolding". 4columns.org. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  14. ^ Taylor, Brandon (September 7, 2021). "Sally Rooney's Novel of Letters Puts a Fresh Spin on Familiar Questions". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  15. ^ Taylor, Brandon (September 1, 2020). "Emma Cline Knows First World Problems". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  16. ^ Taylor, Brandon (July 30, 2022). "Banana Yoshimoto Wants You to Feel Again". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  17. ^ "Brandon Taylor Q&A: Real Life author Brandon Taylor talks about his Booker Prize longlist nomination | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. May 1, 2022. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  18. ^ "Brandon Taylor". Lambda Literary. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  19. ^ Nebbe, Charity (March 4, 2020). "Brandon Taylor's Debut Novel 'Real Life'". Talk of Iowa. Iowa Public Radio. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  20. ^ Brammar, John Paul (June 21, 2021). "Brandon Taylor's Filthy Animals Is a Study in Rogue Appetites". The New York Times. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
  21. ^ Needham, Alex (June 3, 2023). "Brandon Taylor: 'Writing is the most fun I'm capable of having'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  22. ^ Taylor, Brandon (March 5, 2020). "'I didn't write this book for the white gaze': black queer author Brandon Taylor on his debut novel". The Guardian (Interview). Interviewed by André Wheeler. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  23. ^ Orbey, Eren (February 19, 2020). "Page Turner: Real Life Is a New Kind of Campus Novel". The New Yorker. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
  24. ^ Patrick, Bethanne (March 3, 2020). "Review: Waiting for wounds to heal and 'Real Life' to begin". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  25. ^ Harris, Jeremy O. (February 18, 2020). "Brandon Taylor 'Subjugates Us With the Deft Hand of a Dom'". The New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  26. ^ Conroy, Megan (February 19, 2020). "Brandon Taylor reads from novel Real Life at Prairie Lights". The Daily Iowan. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  27. ^ Taylor, Brandon (June 3, 2020). "This was not the publication year Brandon Taylor expected". Interview (Interview). Interviewed by Michael Londres. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  28. ^ a b Flood, Alison (August 6, 2020). "Two friends, both up for the Booker prize: 'We are exploring what it means to feel alien'". The Guardian. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  29. ^ "100 Notable Books of 2020". The New York Times. November 20, 2020. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  30. ^ Stewart, Sophia (April 13, 2022). "Brandon Taylor's 'Filthy Animals' Wins 2022 Story Prize". PW. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  31. ^ Mar Wee, Thomas (September 10, 2021). "Nuanced Portraits: On Brandon Taylor's 'Filthy Animals'". LA Review of Books. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  32. ^ Levin, Ann (May 22, 2023). "Book Review: Brandon Taylor is back with a new campus novel, 'The Late Americans'". AP News. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
  33. ^ "All Book Marks reviews for The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor". Book Marks. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
  34. ^ Moody, Chris (July 7, 2022). "Brandon Taylor on His Southern Roots and the Joys of Analog". nashvillescene.com. The Nashville Scene. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  35. ^ Taylor, Brandon (April 4, 2024). "Is it even good?". London Review of Books. Vol. 46, no. 07. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
  36. ^ "2020 First Novel Prize: The Long List". The Center for Fiction. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  37. ^ Gentes, Brian (March 15, 2021). "2021 Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced". Lambda Literary. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  38. ^ "The New York Public Library Announces the Finalists for the 2021 Young Lions Fiction Award". The New York Public Library. April 9, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  39. ^ "Brandon Taylor's 'Filthy Animals' wins $20,000 Story Prize". ABC News. Associated Press. April 14, 2022.

External links[edit]

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