Fiction Debuts Navigating Historical Memory

Making their literary entrance in insightful fiction debuts, the protagonists of this panel reckon with pasts that stretch beyond their own lifetimes. The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne spans eight generations of a Black family in West Tennessee, beginning with the story of Yetunde, who makes a deal with the Devil upon awakening aboard a slave ship en route to the United States. Yefim Shulman, a Ukrainian Jewish WWII veteran from Sasha Vasilyuk’s Your Presence Is Mandatory, also hides a dangerous lifelong secret from his family, which is revealed in a confession letter to the KGB discovered after his death, leaving his family to deal with the repercussions and attempt to find grace in the course of their survival. Too Soon, another generational novel, is Betty Shamieh’s snarky and heart-wrenching homage to Palestinian-American culture that analyzes the lasting impacts of arranged marriage on the lives of theatre director Arabella, her secret-hiding mother, and her matchmaking grandmother. How does our historical memory shape our political and emotional present? Sam Sax explores this question in Yr Dead, a queer, Jewish, diasporic coming of age story which unfolds in fragments of memory that flash in between the space of time when Ezra lights themself on fire and when Ezra dies, a poignant and lyrical look at their experiences that culminated in this final act of protest. Award-winning novelist Sylvia Brownrigg will moderate this evocative panel about generational stories, historical trauma, and the memories we leave behind.