Keenan Norris – författare

Over the last few decades, the genre of urban fiction—or street lit—has become increasingly popular as more novels secure a place on bestseller lists that were once the domain of mainstream authors. In the 1970s, pioneers such as Donald Goines, Iceberg Slim, and Claude Brown paved the way for today’s street fiction novelists, poets, and short story writers, including Sister Souljah, Kenji Jasper, and Colson Whitehead.In Street Lit: Representing the Urban Landscape, Keenan Norris has assembled a varied collection of articles, essays, interviews, and poems that capture the spirit of urban fiction and nonfiction produced from the 1950s through the present day. Providing both critical analyses and personal insights, these works explore the street lit phenomenon to help readers understand how and why this once underground genre has become such a vital force in contemporary literature. Interviews with literary icons David Bradley, Gerald Early, and Lynel Gardner are balanced with critical discussions of works by Goines, Jasper, Whitehead, and others. With an introduction by Norris that explores the roots of street lit, this collection defines the genre for today’s readers and provides valuable insights into a cultural force that is fast becoming as important to the American literary scene as hip-hop is to music. Featuring a foreword by bestselling novelist Omar Tyree (Flyy Girl) and comprised of works by scholars, established authors, and new voices, Street Lit will inspire any reader who wants to understand the significance of this sometimes controversial but unquestionably popular art form.

Over the last few decades, the genre of urban fiction—or street lit—has become increasingly popular as more novels secure a place on bestseller lists that were once the domain of mainstream authors. In the 1970s, pioneers such as Donald Goines, Iceberg Slim, and Claude Brown paved the way for today’s street fiction novelists, poets, and short story writers, including Sister Souljah, Kenji Jasper, and Colson Whitehead.In Street Lit: Representing the Urban Landscape, Keenan Norris has assembled a varied collection of articles, essays, interviews, and poems that capture the spirit of urban fiction and nonfiction produced from the 1950s through the present day. Providing both critical analyses and personal insights, these works explore the street lit phenomenon to help readers understand how and why this once underground genre has become such a vital force in contemporary literature. Interviews with literary icons David Bradley, Gerald Early, and Lynel Gardner are balanced with critical discussions of works by Goines, Jasper, Whitehead, and others. With an introduction by Norris that explores the roots of street lit, this collection defines the genre for today’s readers and provides valuable insights into a cultural force that is fast becoming as important to the American literary scene as hip-hop is to music. Featuring a foreword by bestselling novelist Omar Tyree (Flyy Girl) and comprised of works by scholars, established authors, and new voices, Street Lit will inspire any reader who wants to understand the significance of this sometimes controversial but unquestionably popular art form.

An impassioned argument for the essential role of the community college system in a more just and equitable vision of American higher education “Norris’s voice is necessary and vital—and a call to take heed.” —Michael Datcher, author of Animating Black and Brown Liberation

Over forty percent of all undergraduate students in the United States attend community colleges, including a majority of Black and Latinx students. What do we know of their experiences, or the role this vibrant yet quiet wavelength of the American experiment plays both in the lives of these students and in shaping the landscape of American higher education writ large?

Essayist, novelist, and scholar Keenan Norris has spent his career teaching creative writing at community colleges across the country. In a work blending policy analysis, cultural criticism, and personal narrative, The Two-Million-Person Experiment examines the perennial dearth of resources, precarious labor conditions, and complex challenges of teaching students left behind by an increasingly stratified economy. With a keen eye and morally resonant voice, Norris argues for a radical refashioning of American higher education through greater attention to community colleges, including specific alterations to their curricula and institutional structure.

For readers of Mike Rose and Paul Tough, The Two-Million-Person Experiment offers an eye-opening tour of a little-known but vital part of higher ed—and a bold argument that community colleges hold the hidden key to an educational system that serves all students.

WINNER OF THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION“A significant new voice in fiction, Norris has written what may be one of the defining novels of the era...” —BuzzFeedOne of Publishers Weekly's Best Novels of the Summer ∙ One of The Millions' Most Anticipated Books of June ∙ One of ALTA's Recommended Reads for June ∙ One of BuzzFeed's Amazing Small Press Books To Add To Your Summer Reading ListCopeland Cane V, the child who fell outta Colored People Time and into America, is a fugitive…He is also just a regular teenager coming up in a terrifying world. A slightly eccentric, flip-phone loving kid with analog tendencies and a sideline hustling sneakers, the boundaries of Copeland’s life are demarcated from the jump by urban toxicity, an educational apparatus with confounding intentions, and a police state that has merged with media conglomerates—the highly-rated Insurgency Alert Desk that surveils and harasses his neighborhood in the name of anti-terrorism.Recruited by the nearby private school even as he and his folks face eviction, Copeland is doing his damnedest to do right by himself, for himself. And yet the forces at play entrap him in a reality that chews up his past and obscures his future. Copeland’s wry awareness of the absurd keeps life passable, as do his friends and their surprising array of survival skills. And yet in the aftermath of a protest rally against police violence, everything changes, and Copeland finds himself caught in the flood of history. Set in East Oakland, California in a very near future, The Confession of Copeland Cane introduces us to a prescient and contemporary voice, one whose take on coming of age in America becomes a startling reflection of our present moment.

"e;Keenan Norris is simply one of the most talented young writers around."e; - Victor LaValleCopeland Cane V, the child who fell outta Colored People Time and into America, is a fugitive He is also just a regular teenager coming up in a terrifying world. A slightly eccentric, flip-phone loving kid with analog tendencies and a sideline hustling sneakers, the boundaries of Copeland s life are demarcated from the jump by urban toxicity, an educational apparatus with confounding intentions, and a police state that has merged with media conglomerates the highly-rated Insurgency Alert Desk that surveils and harasses his neighborhood in the name of anti-terrorism. Recruited by the nearby private school even as he and his folks face eviction, Copeland is doing his damnedest to do right by himself, for himself. And yet the forces at play entrap him in a reality that chews up his past and obscures his future. Copeland s wry awareness of the absurd keeps life passable, as do his friends and their surprising array of survival skills. And yet in the aftermath of a protest rally against police violence, everything changes, and Copeland finds himself caught in the flood of history. Set in East Oakland, California in a very near future, The Confession of Copeland Cane introduces us to a prescient and contemporary voice, one whose take on coming of age in America becomes a startling reflection of our present moment.