BOONE, N.C. — Novelist, essayist and editor Calvin Baker will give a reading and present a craft talk as part of the spring 2018 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series at Appalachian State University.

Baker has chronicled the African-American experience from the Colonial era to the present, centering the black voice and perspective within the context of trans-Atlantic history. Among his concerns are constructions of American identity, cosmopolitanism, post-colonialism, modernity, geography and science.

Baker has taught in the Department of English at Yale University, in Columbia University’s Master of Fine Arts Program and in the American studies department at the University of Leipzig in Germany.

His first novel, “Naming the New World,” was sold to A Wyatt Book for St. Martin’s Press when he was 23. The novel begins in Africa before contact with Europe and ends in recent America. The narrative employs postmodern techniques to unify a single consciousness across time.

“Once Two Heroes,” Baker’s second novel, employs a dual narrative structure — one white, one black — to explore the midcentury connection between America and Europe and 20th-century violence through the prism of World War II and the American phenomenon of racial lynching.

His third novel, “Dominion,” is concerned with the promise and potentialities of pre-Revolutionary America, the birth of a racial caste system and the ghost of loss that haunted the early settlers, both black and white. “Dominion” was a finalist for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award and was selected as one of the Best Books of the Year in 2007 by New York Newsday.

“Grace,” published in 2015, is Baker’s fourth novel and is concerned with the intersection of interior identity and geography, the interplay of logical and emotional systems, and the tension between public and private selves.

Early in his career, Baker worked as a journalist at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, Louisiana, and New York City newspaper The Village Voice. More recently, his nonfiction — including the essay “Black Like Who? How Obama negotiated America’s racial tightrope” and his chronicle of the life of poet and playwright Derek Walcott — has appeared in Harper’s Magazine and The New York Times Magazine, respectively.

Baker’s work has been widely acclaimed by critics and writers as diverse as Joseph O’Neill, Junot Díaz, Jeffery Renard Allen, Francisco Goldman, Dale Peck, Maud Newton and Hannah Tinti. Peck, widely known for his critical takedowns, called Baker one of his favorite living writers, saying of “Grace,” “He works in a rarefied strain of literature whose practitioners include Faulkner, Morrison, Calvino and Cormac McCarthy.” Newton praised Baker’s “Dominion” for its “richness of language that recalls the King James (Version).”

Of Baker’s work, Díaz, author of “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award, said, “Baker’s talent is incandescent, his vision unflinching and there’s a spirit coursing through these pages both human and wise that elevates this tale to a level of myth.”

Dr. Carolyn Edy, assistant professor in Appalachian’s Department of Communication, is the faculty host for Baker’s visit.

“I first met Calvin in 1992, when we both spent a semester in Kenya, traveling in lorries, enjoying homestays with Kisii, Samburu and Kikuyu families — not to mention climbing a volcano, hiking on elephant trails and learning more about ourselves through these new lenses than we ever thought possible,” she said. “While I can’t speak for Calvin, and I know that that time was just one of his many memorable adventures, I like to think that it plays out in his ability to capture and convey life so vividly.”

Of the author’s work, Edy said, “Calvin Baker is a perfect example of how well journalistic principles, reporting skills and creative writing techniques complement one another. I am so excited that we are able to bring him to campus to share his work and expertise with our students.”

Baker was born in Chicago and attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. He is a graduate of Amherst College, where he received his degree in English with highest honors in the major. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Copies of Baker’s latest novel, “Grace,” will be available for purchase at the reading and craft talk. The author will also be available for book signing following each event.

For additional information about the spring 2018 series, please visit https://visitingwriters.appstate.edu or contact Susan Weinberg, the series’ coordinator, at [email protected].

Grace

By Calvin Baker
2015

Harper Roland has abandoned his job as a war correspondent, and returned home a weary, jaded 37-year-old. Uncertain of the future but determined to move forward with his life, he begins a search for enduring love--hoping he will also regain the ability to see the beauty of the world.

Along the way, he meets an intellectually gifted but emotionally absent doctor, a beautiful Parisian artist who burns too hot to the touch, and a human rights lawyer who has left New York in search of a more centered life.

The novel's sweeping tale encompasses four continents--where prior assumptions are constantly tested, and men who cling too passionately to certainty unleash destruction--and ultimately leads Harper back to the chaos he was trying to escape. The result is a startlingly fresh view of the contemporary world, in which place and history are mere starting points for the deeper journey into the geography of the human heart.

Available from Simon & Schuster

Novelist Calvin Baker Considers the Word Slavery Made

NPR

May 22, 2007

Calvin Baker's latest book, “Dominion,” is a tale of slavery told using the rhythms and styles of magic realism. He talks to Farai Chideya about his new novel and the sometimes predictable ways we write and think about slavery.

Listen to the interview

The Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

The Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series, named in honor of alumna Hughlene Bostian Frank ’68, brings distinguished and up-and-coming creative writers to the Appalachian State University campus throughout the year to present lectures and discuss their works. Frank is a 2013 Appalachian Alumni Association Outstanding Service award recipient, past member of Appalachian’s Board of Trustees, current board member of the Appalachian State University Foundation Inc. and generous supporter of Appalachian.

The spring 2018 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series is supported by the Appalachian State University Foundation Inc., Appalachian’s Office of Academic Affairs, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of English, the Office of Multicultural Student Development, Appalachian’s University Bookstore, Belk Library and Information Commons and the Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review. Business sponsors are The Gideon Ridge Inn, The Red Onion Restaurant and The New Public House & Hotel. Community sponsors include John and the late Margie Idol, Paul and Judy Tobin, Alice Naylor and Thomas McLaughlin.

Learn more

See other spring 2018 Visiting Writers Series events

Related link

• Calvin Baker - Official website

About the College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) at Appalachian State University is home to 17 academic departments, two centers and one residential college. These units span the humanities and the social, mathematical and natural sciences. CAS aims to develop a distinctive identity built upon our university's strengths, traditions and locations. The college’s values lie not only in service to the university and local community, but through inspiring, training, educating and sustaining the development of its students as global citizens. More than 6,800 student majors are enrolled in the college. As the college is also largely responsible for implementing App State’s general education curriculum, it is heavily involved in the education of all students at the university, including those pursuing majors in other colleges. Learn more at https://cas.appstate.edu.

About Appalachian State University

As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, affordable education for all. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.

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