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I like to read gay-themed books and I’ve been challenging myself to read more diversely. Less GWM coming out/of age and more POC, bisexual, transgender and lesbian. I just finished Jazz Moon by Joe Okonkwo and thought it was amazing. Set in 1925 Harlem and Paris, the author transports you to a different time and introduces you to amazing characters. If you are looking for something good to read check this one out. It’s a beautiful book and the writing is spectacular.
I’ve always had a thing for the Harlem Renaissance. If I could go back in time and go to any period in history, it would definitely be [then] because there was so much happening. It was such a rich period. It was a difficult period for African-Americans because of racism and lynching and Jim Crow, but it was also a fascinating time because of music and literature and visual arts. Strides were made in the political arena, the civil rights arena, and it was really the first time that anyone realized that black was not only beautiful but marketable.
THE RUMPUS INTERVIEW with Joe Okonkwo
Joe Okonkwo and Jonathan Corcoran read from their Lambda Literary nominated books and talked about craft, research, and place.
JOE OKONKWO
Bio: Joe Okonkwo's novel Jazz Moon, set against the backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance and glittering Jazz Age Paris, was published by Kensington Books in 2016. David Ebershoff, author of The Danish Girl and The 19th Wife has called Jazz Moon "A passionate, alive, and original novel about love, race, and jazz in 1920s Harlem and Paris — a moving story of traveling far to find oneself." His short stories have appeared in Storychord, Cooper Street Penumbra, LGBTsr.org, Chelsea Station, Shotgun Honey, Best Gay Stories 2015, Best Gay Love Stories 2009, and Keep This Bag Away From Children. Upcoming work will appear in The New Engagement. His story "Cleo" received a Pushcart Prize nomination. Joe serves as Prose Editor for Newtown Literary and Editor of the forthcoming Best Gay Stories 2017.
What writing, editing, and/or publishing projects are you working on currently?
I found out a few weeks ago that my short story, “Picnic Street,” will be published by The New Engagement some time in 2017. It’s loosely based on an incident from my childhood in 1979. It touches on issues of race and division within the black community and what can happen when a member of a particular group does not adhere to the rules or beliefs or behavior sanctioned by that community. And I’m the Prose Editor for Newtown Literary, a journal devoted to publishing writers from Queens. Submissions for our tenth issue are open till January 10, so after that I’ll be busy reading and evaluating and helping to choose what we’ll publish. I’m also about to begin a gig as Editor of the 2017 edition of Best Gay Stories. It’s an annual anthology of gay male-oriented fiction and nonfiction. In addition to all of that, I’m planning new short stories and will begin researching my next novel very soon.
Your novel JAZZ MOON has a powerful and skillful element of historical detail. How did you conduct research for background? Did you start this while you were still a graduate student?
I read a lot of books. Books about the Harlem Renaissance; about blacks in Paris during the 1920s; about gay men in Paris during that era; about ocean liners of the era. And I brought to the project a prior knowledge of jazz history and black entertainment that I had been cultivating for several years. I also did a lot of photo research online to learn about the era’s architecture, cars, and clothing. My goal with the research was to be able to weave vivid historical details into the narrative in order to make the story come alive for the reader, but do so in a way that was seamless. I didn’t want the research to come across as research. I hate it when I read historical fiction that feels like a history lesson instead of fiction. I did an MFA in Creative Writing, and in workshops I was particularly hard on fellow writers of historical fiction if their stories read like something lifted directly from a history book. You can’t just take each and every date and statistic and name and event your research uncovers and plug it into the story willy-nilly You have to find a creative, “novelistic” way of getting those historical details across. You have to be willing to leave some of that research out. As far as where JAZZ MOON started: it was born as a short story back in 2004, but it grew up in the MFA program at City College of New York.
What historical fiction books do you like the most? Why?
I love David Ebershoff’s The Danish Girl, and not just because David endorsed JAZZ MOON! Also The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. All three of these authors imbue each paragraph with so much rich, vibrant historical detail and really do succeed in recreating the eras that they’re writing about. Each of these books intimidated me because they made me wonder if I was doing as good a job with recreating the 1920s in JAZZ MOON. Another favorite historical novel of mine is Toni Morrison’s Beloved because, not only does she accurately depict slavery, she makes you see how personally and emotionally destructive it was and how that destruction could be so deep that it lasts for and across generations.
How would you summarize a typical day in your life? When and where do you write? Do you teach?
I don’t make my living writing. Yet. I work as a web production professional, I’ve been doing that since 2005. I write at home. I find it difficult to write anywhere else, although I do often take walks in my neighborhood in Astoria, Queens, so I can brainstorm and write in my head. I went through a dark period for several months this year and didn’t have the mental or emotional bandwidth to write, but I’m getting back to it now, thankfully. I write in the evenings and sometimes obscenely early in the mornings. 4am, 5am, although that’s when I usually go to the gym. By the way: I’ve found that the gym helps my writing. When I’m working out consistently, my writing is better, clearer, I’m more creative, and I have more mental energy for it. As far as teaching: I recently taught a writing workshop in The Bronx, and I’ll be teaching one at the Queens Library in May as part of an initiative from Newtown Literary. I would very much like to teach Creative Writing on a regular basis. Frankly, I think I’d be awesome at it.
How do you see the ramifications of the recent presidential election? I am asking everyone this question. How do you think your work will be affected by this new era we are in?
I was on the train coming home from Brooklyn this past Saturday. I got off the train at Times Square/42nd Street to transfer. The train across the platform had been put out of service, apparently because someone had drawn swastikas on the interior of at least one train car. I saw the swastikas. That’s just a small sample of this election’s ramifications. We’re seeing bigger ramifications with the rolling-out of Trump’s cabinet nominations and White House staff appointments: people who are racist, islamaphobic, anti-immigrant, climate change deniers, and in favor of minority voter suppression. And our new vice president is one of the biggest homophobes in modern politics. But the deadliest and longest term ramifications will come with Trump’s Supreme Court appointments. How will my work be affected? I posted a Toni Morrison quote on my Facebook author page last week: "In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent." That’s how my work will be affected. I won’t be silent.
Say goodbye to summer with this week's eBook Friday: Jazz Moon by Joe Okonkwo.
This captivating debut novel begins on a hot summer night in Harlem, 1925, and takes the reader through the life of aspiring poet Ben Charles. From the jazz revolution in New York, to the seedy side of Paris, Ben wanders through romance and vice trying to find himself, and his inspiration.
Download it today for your Labor Day reads: http://qnslib.org/yI0B303H4Z5
Joe Okonkwo at @housingworksbookstore, 6/22/16
Tomorrow, join us for a fantastic conversation between Joe Okonkwo and David Ebershoff! http://bit.ly/1UG5eN4
LANGSTON HUGHES, writer (1902-1967)
Note from Jazz Moon author Joe Okonkwo:
J.O.: “Countee Cullen was known as the Poet Laureate of the Harlem Renaissance, but it was Langston Hughes who made poetry swing. Hughes was the first to capture the rhythms and cadences of jazz and blues in verse. He essentially invented the jazz poem. His jazz poems rollick, pulsate, syncopate on the page. The heartfelt essence of the blues swirls through them.
Significant writings: The Weary Blues (poetry collection, 1926); Not Without Laughter (novel, 1930)”
Don’t forget to follow author Joe Okonkwo online! Website: http://www.joeokonkwo.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeOJazzMoon Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoeOJazzMoon/
Pre-order Jazz Moon here: http://bit.ly/1R2kSlS
