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Randall Kenan
Randall Kenan is an American author who was born March 12, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York. At only six weeks old, Kenan moved to Duplin County, a small rural community in North Carolina, where he lived with his grandparents in a small town named Wallace. The setting of many of Kenan's novels are centered around his homeland of North Carolina. The focus of much of Kenan's work centers around on what it means to be black and gay in the southern United States. Some of Kenan's most notable works include the collection of short stories Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, named a New York Times Notable Book in 1992, A Visitation of Spirits, and The Fire This Time. Kenan is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award and the John Dos Passos Prize.

Early Life
Kenan was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 12, 1963. Initially raised by his grandparents, Kenan soon went to live with his great-aunt Mary and great-uncle Redden in Chinquapin, North Carolina, a rural community of fewer than a thousand people. The community later became the basis of the fictional Tims Creek, where all of Kenan's fiction is set.

Kenan attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from which he graduated in 1985 with degrees in English and Creative Writing. He studied with the author Doris Betts. Based on an instructor's recommendation, and the help of novelist and editor Toni Morrison, he was hired for a job with Random House in New York City.

Randall Kenan was born in Brooklyn, New York, but at only six weeks old he moved to a small town named Wallace where he lived with his grandparents. Kenan's grandparents ran a dry-cleaning business, and most of the time they were too busy to take care of Kenan themselves, so they hired someone to take care of him. On the weekends, Kenan's great-aunt Mary and great-uncle Redden would take him to their family farm which was located in Chinquapin, only about 15 miles east of Wallace. Kenan's great-aunt and great-uncle took a heavy interest in Kenan, and one weekend they never brought him back to his grandparent's house. At three years old Kenan's great-uncle Redden died unexpectedly, and Kenan's grandfather suggested to his great-aunt Mary that she keep Kenan because she was alone. Kenan recalls the conversation and after that he remained with great-aunt Mary for the remainder of his adolescent years.