Brandon Taylor (writer)

Brandon Taylor (born c. 1989)[1] is an American writer. Having initially studied biochemistry, he went on to receive fellowships for his writing from the Lambda Literary Foundation, Kimbilio Fiction, and the Tin House Summer Writer's Workshop.[2] He holds graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Iowa, where he was an Iowa Arts Fellow at the Iowa Writers' Workshop in fiction. His short stories and essays have been published in many outlets, and his first novel Real Life came out in 2020 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Brandon Taylor
Bornc. 1989 (age 31–32)
NationalityAmerican
EducationAuburn University Montgomery
Alma materUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison
OccupationWriter
Notable work
Real Life (2020)
Websitebrandonlgtaylor.com

Biography

Raised in rural Alabama outside of Montgomery, Taylor attended Auburn University Montgomery for his undergraduate studies,[1] and then joined a graduate biochemistry program, and after leaving in 2016 began a career in creative writing.[3] He earned graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he was an Iowa Arts Fellow. His short stories and essays have appeared in Guernica, American Short Fiction, Gulf Coast, Buzzfeed Reader, O: The Oprah Magazine, Gay Mag, The New Yorker, The Literary Review, and elsewhere.[4]

Real Life

Taylor wrote his debut novel, Real Life, in less than five weeks, and he later explained his approach: "I was like, I’m going to sit down and knock this out so I can get on with my life.... Writing a novel ruins your life in really specific ways. Because you have to live inside of it. It’s just this sustained exercise in being miserable."[5] It is "a campus novel imagined from the vantage of a character who is usually shunted to the sidelines ... a gay black student from a small town in Alabama". Published in 2020 by Riverhead Books, Real Life met with mixed criticism.[6]

Describing Taylor's work in the Los Angeles Times, Bethanne Patrick wrote: "His voice might best be described as a controlled roar of rage and pain, its energy held together by the careful thinking of a mind accustomed to good behavior."[7] According to the review of Real Life by Jeremy O. Harris in The New York Times, "It is a curious novel to describe, for much of the plot involves excavating the profound from the mundane. As in the modernist novels of Woolf and Tolstoy cited in passing throughout, the true action of Taylor's novel exists beneath the surface, buried in subterranean spaces."[8] Michael Arceneaux wrote in Time magazine: "Taylor's book isn't about overcoming trauma or the perils of academia or even just the experience of inhabiting a black body in a white space, even as Real Life does cover these subjects. Taylor is also tackling loneliness, desire and — more than anything — finding purpose, meaning and happiness in one's own life ... How fortunate we are for Real Life, another stunning contribution from a community long deserving of the chance to tell its stories." Taylor himself has said: "I hope that it's a novel that challenges people to think about the ways that we fit together in our relationships with one another. I hope it makes people think really deeply about both the ways that they are harmed, and that they do harm to others."[9]

Taylor's book tour to publicize his novel was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions on travel and public gatherings.[10] Real Life was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize.[11] The New York Times included the novel on its list of "100 Notable Books of 2020".[12]

Taylor's current projects include a collection of his short stories called Filthy Animals and a second novel titled Group Show.[10]

Personal life

Taylor lives in Iowa City, Iowa.[10]

References
  1. Franklin, MJ (February 10, 2020). "For a Scientist Turned Novelist, An Experiment Pays Off". The New York Times. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  2. Nebbe, Charity (March 4, 2020). "Brandon Taylor's Debut Novel 'Real Life'". Talk of Iowa. Iowa Public Radio. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  3. Sofia, Maddie (April 9, 2020). "Science Is For Everyone. Until It's Not". NPR. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  4. "Brandon Taylor, Reluctant Novelist: When a Short Story Writer Goes Long". LitHub. February 18, 2020. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  5. Taylor, Brandon (March 5, 2020). "'I didn't write this book for the white gaze': black queer author Brandon Taylor on his debut novel". The Guardian (Interview). Interviewed by André Wheeler. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  6. Orbey, Eren (February 19, 2020). "Page Turner: Real Life Is a New Kind of Campus Novel". The New Yorker. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
  7. Patrick, Bethanne (March 3, 2020). "Review: Waiting for wounds to heal and 'Real Life' to begin". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  8. Harris, Jeremy O. (February 18, 2020). "Brandon Taylor 'Subjugates Us With the Deft Hand of a Dom'". The New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  9. Conroy, Megan (February 19, 2020). "Brandon Taylor reads from novel Real Life at Prairie Lights". The Daily Iowan. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  10. Taylor, Brandon (June 3, 2020). ""This was not the publication year Brandon Taylor expected"". Interview (Interview). Interviewed by Michael Londres. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  11. Flood, Alison (August 6, 2020). "Two friends, both up for the Booker prize: 'We are exploring what it means to feel alien'". The Guardian. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  12. "100 Notable Books of 2020". New York Times. 2020. Retrieved December 19, 2020.


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