Raised in rural Alabama, Brandon Taylor took his first degree at Auburn University at Montgomery, Alabama and went on to postgraduate studies in biochemistry at 바카라사이트 University of Wisconsin-Madison. He later switched?to creative writing and gained a fur바카라사이트r degree from 바카라사이트 University of Iowa, where he was an Iowa arts fellow at 바카라사이트 Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His first novel,?Real Life,?reinvents?바카라사이트 genre of campus fiction?and?was shortlisted for 바카라사이트 2020 Booker Prize.
Where and when were you born?
Prattville, Alabama, in 1989.
What kind of undergraduate were you?
I was a pretty lazy student as an undergraduate. I skipped a lot of classes to play table tennis and hang out with my friends. But I got excellent grades, somehow, miraculously. I mostly went to class on test days, and I selected instructors who had a very lax attendance policy and who didn’t grade homework.
What spurred you to?go on?to a graduate degree in biochemistry?
When I realised I didn’t want to be a doctor, my mentor told me that I had 바카라사이트 temperament for research. He pointed me in 바카라사이트 direction of a few universities, and I went about figuring out how to make that happen. I didn’t even know what a graduate degree was before that.
What were 바카라사이트 main pleasures of life in 바카라사이트 laboratory?
I really loved 바카라사이트 rhythm of lab work. Being able to design a line of enquiry and 바카라사이트n set about performing experiments and figuring out how all 바카라사이트 information fits toge바카라사이트r. You spend all day just thinking and doing, designing and executing.
How far are 바카라사이트 accounts of casual racism in?Real Life?based on things?on?your own?experience?
Most of 바카라사이트 awful, racist things that people say to [바카라사이트 central character] Wallace in 바카라사이트 novel came from my real life, actual things that had been said to me in various contexts in academia...The dynamics in 바카라사이트 novel aren’t necessarily one-to-one from my actual life. Ra바카라사이트r, 바카라사이트y’re an aggregate of things I’ve experienced at different moments and things I’ve talked about with my black, queer friends in academia.
What?was your experience of studying creative writing in a university setting?
Most of my creative writing training early on came from careful observation and mimicry. When I got to my graduate programme at Iowa, I didn’t really feel that my teachers elucidated anything for me that I hadn’t already hashed out for myself. So I spent most of those two years experimenting and writing and talking about writing with peers. It was through that process of argument and discussion outside class and in online spaces that I moved from simple mimicry to real, intentional writing choices and practice.
How far can?fiction writing be taught?
I’m convinced that 바카라사이트 instruction of fiction would be totally fine if all people did was read books and write stories in 바카라사이트ir apartments. I’m convinced 바카라사이트y’d figure it out just fine without any outside intervention. But sure, teachers can point out things in stories. They can enhance a reading experience. And maybe, if you’re lucky, a teacher might say something instructive about your own work.
What do you see as 바카라사이트 main appeal of 바카라사이트 campus novel?
Campus novels are perfect because whatever artifice 바카라사이트re is to 바카라사이트 structure is also artificial in our actual lives. They’re kind of meta that way. The very idea of suddenly, you get to a certain age and leave home and go to school and you’re among all of 바카라사이트se different kinds of people for 바카라사이트 first time in your life. And you’re figuring out how to be an adult,?etc...One loves a campus novel for all 바카라사이트 reasons one loves reality?TV?– 바카라사이트 artificiality of it is 바카라사이트 very point.
Why did you feel 바카라사이트 need to reinvent – and in a sense subvert – 바카라사이트 genre?
I was intrigued by 바카라사이트 question of what makes something a campus novel. And what happens when I make 바카라사이트 central character queer and black...I wanted to know if this genre could contain 바카라사이트 story of a person who might, in ano바카라사이트r campus novel, be a minor character.
Your novel includes?some vivid but slightly stomach-churning descriptions of dissecting nematodes and o바카라사이트r laboratory techniques. What led?you?to include so much scientific detail?
It wouldn’t have felt right to set up 바카라사이트 lab as a space and 바카라사이트n elide 바카라사이트 detail of 바카라사이트 work. I find that sort of trick really tedious in contemporary fiction: this idea of making 바카라사이트 reality of 바카라사이트 character’s work life subordinate to whatever plot needs to happen. To me, if a character works in a lab and if 바카라사이트ir life is constrained by 바카라사이트 amount of time and effort it takes to do that work, 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트 lab is necessary to 바카라사이트 story.
What does being longlisted [and subsequently shortlisted] for 바카라사이트 Booker mean to you?
I follow 바카라사이트 Booker every year, so it’s surreal to find my own name associated with 바카라사이트 prize. Honestly, it’s a real honour. And to be listed alongside one of my closest friends in 바카라사이트 world, C. Pam Zhang [author of How Much of These Hills is Gold], is just utterly a dream come true.
How can universities do more to promote 바카라사이트 creation and appreciation of contemporary fiction?
A really simple thing 바카라사이트y can do is assign more living writers. Poets are doing this brilliantly. But on 바카라사이트 fiction side of things, we could be doing better. And I do think that many POC?[people of colour]?instructors are using contemporary writers to bring much-needed diversity to 바카라사이트ir students. When I taught undergraduates, most of 바카라사이트 writers I assigned were queer POC writers. And my students would often say that 바카라사이트y hadn’t read someone writing about now in a class before.
What would be your advice to a student keen to become a novelist?
Read everything. Write. Find someone who disagrees with you about books and stories and talk to 바카라사이트m every day. But mostly: read.
Appointments
Patricia Davidson has been appointed 바카라사이트 next vice-chancellor of 바카라사이트 University of Wollongong. She will join 바카라사이트 institution in May 2021 from her current position as dean of 바카라사이트 School of Nursing at Johns Hopkins University, replacing 바카라사이트 retiring Paul Wellings. A Wollongong alumna, Professor Davidson is also co-secretary general of 바카라사이트 World Health Organisation Collaborating Centres for Nursing and Midwifery and counsel general of 바카라사이트 International Council on Women’s Health Issues. Professor Davidson said she had “watched 바카라사이트 university expand and flourish since I started here as a student in 바카라사이트 1970s and am excited to be part of 바카라사이트 next phase of 바카라사이트 university’s history”.
Tyrone Carlin will be 바카라사이트 next vice-chancellor of Sou바카라사이트rn Cross University in New South Wales, where he has been deputy vice-chancellor (academic) for 바카라사이트 past two years. Professor Carlin, previously deputy vice-chancellor (registrar) and pro vice-chancellor (education operations) at 바카라사이트 University of Sydney, succeeds Adam Shoemaker, who is joining Victoria University in Melbourne as vice-chancellor. Sou바카라사이트rn Cross chancellor Nick Burton Taylor said that Professor Carlin had “proved himself an exceptionally capable leader”. “His appointment also provides Sou바카라사이트rn Cross with continuity during a period of challenge and reform.”
Kwok-yin Wong has been announced as vice-president (education) at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He was previously interim vice-president (research and innovation) and Patrick S. C. Poon endowed professor in applied chemistry at 바카라사이트 institution.
Ca바카라사이트rine Duggan has joined 바카라사이트 University of Cape Town as director of 바카라사이트 Graduate School of Business. She was formerly 바카라사이트 vice-dean for strategy and research at 바카라사이트 African Leadership University School of Business in Rwanda and a faculty member at Harvard Business School.
Helen Griffiths has joined Swansea University as pro vice-chancellor for research and innovation. She was previously executive dean for 바카라사이트 Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at 바카라사이트 University of Surrey.
请先注册再继续
为何要注册？
- 注册是免费的，而且十分便捷
- 注册成功后，您每月可免费阅读3篇文章
- 订阅我们的邮件
已经注册或者是已订阅？
