Overview

This brilliant, adult nonfiction debut from the acclaimed MG author and poet weaves two wrenching personal narratives of recovery and reclamation, spliced with a dazzle of pop-culture The Dead Don't Need Reminding is a braided story of Julian Randall's return from a near-suicidal depression, and his determination to retrace his great-grandfather's history to the Mississippi town where he had the audacity to pass and from which he was driven out amid threats of being tarred and feathered. ?Both journeys through and to identity are almost unbearable-yet each is sustained by the joyful exuberance of Randall's favourite songs, movies, TV shows, and sporting moments that play in his head as he takes on the challenge. Spiderman reminds him of his powers; Kanye's tribute to Donda becomes a riff on parents and children; watching Devin Hester's kick-off return with his dad shows his father's fire within, usually so carefully controlled; and in the One Day at a Time reboot, Julian finds representation of the out, queer, Latinx teen that he never had growing up. Adonis Creed, and Rocky, are a funny and poignant reflection on mortality. Everything is about race and America's unrelenting violence on Black people. The book is a kaleidoscope of voices, feelings and insights into the pressure and pain of oppression, that culminates in a triumph; Julian Randall gets his ghost story back.

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9781645030263

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Reviews

"""The Dead Don't Need Reminding is a generous journey through Julian Randall's expansive mind, weaving together tightly knit threads of place, popular culture, and identity that all strike equally vibrant notes. Not only stunningly written, this book is also, plainly, an absolute pleasure to read.""--Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There's Always This Year and A Little Devil in America ""The Dead Don't Need Reminding is the--and I mean thee--freshest example of why them folks didn't want us reading, writing, queering, and questioning. I don't need a decade to know Randall has made a forever classic. And we, the Dead, so needed it.""--Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy ""As Randall wrestles with the battles of past ghosts and sometimes difficult family histories, we witness an indefatigable mind tackle pop culture with a feverish delight and a wry charm. What emerges is an impressive body of essays-- chock full of humor and grit, clear-eyed, and utterly absorbing."" --Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of World of Wonders"

"""[A]n inventive, poetic, vulnerable, and sincere narrative."" --Kirkus ""Incisive, enthralling, and full of heart, this book doesn't just set itself apart in the genre of blended personal/pop culture writing; it deserves to be seen as a reinvention of it."" --Nicole Chung for Esquire ""The Dead Don't Need Reminding is a generous journey through Julian Randall's expansive mind, weaving together tightly knit threads of place, popular culture, and identity that all strike equally vibrant notes. Not only stunningly written, this book is also, plainly, an absolute pleasure to read.""--Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There's Always This Year and A Little Devil in America ""The Dead Don't Need Reminding is the--and I mean thee--freshest example of why them folks didn't want us reading, writing, queering, and questioning. I don't need a decade to know Randall has made a forever classic. And we, the Dead, so needed it.""--Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy ""As Randall wrestles with the battles of past ghosts and sometimes difficult family histories, we witness an indefatigable mind tackle pop culture with a feverish delight and a wry charm. What emerges is an impressive body of essays-- chock full of humor and grit, clear-eyed, and utterly absorbing."" --Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of World of Wonders"

"""The Dead Don't Need Reminding is the--and I mean thee--freshest example of why them folks didn't want us reading, writing, queering, and questioning. I don't need a decade to know Randall has made a forever classic. And we, the Dead, so needed it.""--Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy"

"""The Dead Don't Need Reminding is the--and I mean thee--freshest example of why them folks didn't want us reading, writing, queering, and questioning. I don't need a decade to know Randall has made a forever classic. And we, the Dead, so needed it.""--Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy ""As Randall wrestles with the battles of past ghosts and sometimes difficult family histories, we witness an indefatigable mind tackle pop culture with a feverish delight and a wry charm. What emerges is an impressive body of essays-- chock full of humor and grit, clear-eyed, and utterly absorbing."" --Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of World of Wonders"

Author Information

Julian Randall is a contributor to the #1 New York Times bestseller Black Boy Joy and his middle-grade novel, Pilar Ramirez and the Escape From Zafa, was published by Holt in 2022. He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Tin House, and Milkweed Editions. He is the winner of the 2019 Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award from the Publishing Triangle, the 2019 Frederick Bock Prize, and a Pushcart prize. His poetry has been published in The New York Times Magazine, Ploughshares, and POETRY. His first book, Refuse, won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He lives in Chicago.

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