“Nazaré” reviewed in World Literature Today

Yang Yiyi, from Nanjing Normal University, reviewing in “World Literature Today,” had this to say about Nazaré: NAZARÉ IS AN incantation, an allegory, and a prophecy. With imaginative and ornate linguistic skills, and a brutal naturalism veiled by a fairy-tale opening and the spinning of mythical plots, Wilson creates for us a world of turmoil…

New novel “Nazaré” published

Nazaré is out! “Everything begins and ends in the sea.” Nazaré: the great wave. Kin, an orphan scavenger in the Fishing Village with No Name, finds a stranded whale on the beach and tries to return it to the ocean. His efforts attract the attention of Mayor Matanza and his bloodthirsty police, the Tonto Macoute,…

“The Guitar” – play to premiere in Gaza, Palestine

My short play “The Guitar” premieres in Gaza, Palestine on Friday July 30, 2021. The production has been organized by The Hands Up Project, a wonderful coalition of teachers, students, activists, and creatives, whose mission is thus: The Hands Up Project is committed to social justice, global citizenship, and freedom of expression, and upholds the…

Southwest Word Fiesta 2021

Southwest Word Fiesta will be a hybrid event this year, with most sessions held through Zoom, and a few face-to-face in Silver City, New Mexico, USA. We have a star-studded lineup led by writer/activist Rick Bass. Rick has written around twenty-five books of outstanding quality, both fiction and non-fiction. He is joined by a whole…

A Black Polymath Writes the Resistance: Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul? by Jesse McCarthy

In his introduction, Jesse McCarthy writes that the twenty essays in Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul? are true to the word’s French etymology: essai. Essais are “attempts.” But in this outstanding collection, the pieces are more than this. They are experiments that audaciously integrate art, music, literature and politics, all seen through the…

Books in the time of Coronavirus

I think of genuinely great novels less as books and more like giant monoliths on the side of the road. They’re cultural landmarks with historical freight. As we pass them by, we measure not just them but ourselves. For me, the North American fiction canon consists of about ten novels that have stood the test…

Dispatches from Spain 2: Salamanca

Some cities are distinctly literary. Buenos Aires springs to mind. It has the largest number of bookshops per capita of any major city and was home, at least for a while, to Borges, Ocampo, Cortázar, and Neruda. Of course there’s also London, Paris, and New York. Slightly less famous is Salamanca. Roaming around for a…

“Abbott” by Saladin Ahmed, Sami Kivelä, and Jason Wordie

In the opening panels of this graphic novel, we’re introduced to a heroine so heroic, sassy, and cool she makes J-Lo look like Mickey Mouse. She’s a black, bisexual, chain-smoking, brandy-swigging reporter. She has the swagger of a supermodel and she represents pretty much everything good that came out of the Sixties: civil rights, women’s…

“One Hundred Years of Solitude” – Happy 50th Birthday

Gabriel García Márquez’s novel was published 50 years ago. It’s widely recognized as the masterpiece of 20th century Latin American literature – some would say all of 20th century literature. It’s the book that ushered in the Latino Boom, the ascension of Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Julio Cortázar to the world stage….

“Damnificados” named finalist for Eric Hoffer Book Award

More pleasing news about my novel: Damnificados has been named as a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. According to http://www.hofferaward.com, “The Eric Hoffer Award honors the memory of the great American philosopher Eric Hoffer by highlighting salient writing, as well as the independent spirit of small publishers. Since its inception, the Hoffer has…

“All They Will Call You” by Tim Z. Hernandez

In 1948 there was a plane crash in Los Gatos Canyon, California. In the plane were 28 undocumented Mexican workers who were being deported, and four Whites – the pilot, co-pilot, stewardess, and immigration agent. Nobody survived. The papers carried the names of the four Whites, but the Mexicans at first went nameless. The Whites…

The Black Renaissance

A new Black Renaissance is dawning right now. Our literature is stronger than ever. Those great, great writers who came before us all have their heirs. For James Baldwin, read Ta-Nehisi Coates. For Ralph Ellison, read Colson Whitehead. For Zora Neale Hurston, read Toni Morrison. They aren’t like-for-like, but our modern black writers are hugely…