UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance Will Present Marlon James
Marlon James won the 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for A Brief History of Seven Killings, making him the first Jamaican author to take home the U.K.’s most prestigious literary award. In the book, James combines masterful storytelling with brilliant skill at characterization and an eye for detail to forge a bold novel of dazzling ambition and scope. He explores Jamaican history through the perspectives of multiple narrators and genres. The political thriller, the oral biography, and the classic whodunit confront the untold history of Jamaica in the 1970s, with excursions to the assassination attempt on reggae musician Bob Marley, as well as the country’s own clandestine battles during the Cold War. His newest work, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, is a surreal fantasy epic that has been described by The New Yorker “as an African Game of Thrones.” The New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani calls it “the literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe—filled with dizzying, magpie references to old movies and recent TV, ancient myths and classic comic books, and fused into something new and startling by his gifts for language and sheer inventiveness.” Come hear what all the excitement is about.
"UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) presents Marlon James on Thursday, February 27, 2020, at 8 p.m. at Glorya Kaufman Hall. Tickets starting at $28 are available now at cap.ucla.edu, 310-825-2101 and the Royce Hall box office.James will discuss his latest work, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, a surreal fantasy epic that he, as a joke, described as "an African Game of Thrones," then The New Yorker agreed. The New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani calls it "the literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe-filled with dizzying, magpie references to old movies and recent TV, ancient myths and classic comic books, and fused into something new and startling by his gifts for language and sheer inventiveness."
James is a storyteller telling stories about stories. His research for Black Leopard, Red Wolf is from ancient African folklore. Some have considered James to be making a contemporary statement with the number of queer characters. He confirmed, however, in a Vice interview that queerness has been in African folklore for centuries.
A winner of the Man Booker prize in 2015 for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings, James was born in Jamaica and a good writing day for him is when he doesn't see something coming. In addition to working on the second installment of the Black Leopard, Red Wolf trilogy, James works as a Professor of Literature at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota."— Broadway World News Desk, Jan. 15, 2020
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Broadway World website.
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