A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2019 Author Jade Jones

PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2019 is the third edition of an anthology celebrating outstanding new fiction writers published by literary magazines around the world. In the upcoming weeks, we’ll feature Q&As with the contributors, whose stories were selected for PEN’s Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and for the anthology by judges Danielle Evans, Alice Sola Kim, and Carmen Maria Machado. Submissions for the 2020 awards are open now.

*

Jade Jones was born and raised in southern New Jersey. A former Kimbilio Fiction Fellow, she is a graduate of Princeton University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Teaching-Writing Fellow. She is currently a lecturer in Writing Arts at Rowan University, where she teaches first-year writing and creative writing.

“Today, You’re a Black Revolutionary” was originally published in The Rumpus.

*

You walk by the flag twice every day. Once on your way to work and once on your way back home. You’ve only recently noticed that it affects your mood. It can be perfectly sunny, just the right amount of breeze to cool your skin and not to sweat out your edges. But there it is. The worst part is, it looks majestic, crinkled in the wind. The confident, aggressive contrast of the blue X on the red background. A color combination that says, “Fuck you and your eyes.” It rebels against the idea of pleasurable aesthetics. You’ve noticed that after seeing the flag, you’re irritable and easily annoyed by strangers on the bus. A blonde child incessantly telling knock-knock jokes to her mother—something you would usually laugh about—is just another example of how frustrating the world can be. You keep your grumpy thoughts to yourself. The world, especially this little blonde jester, doesn’t deserve all your hate. Does it? Usually, you forget about it by the time you sit down at your desk. Someone else does something more distracting. Today, Wendy the Manager calls you “articulate,” and even though you cringe, you don’t say anything. The good intentions coat the racism like the casing of a pill. You stay silent and swallow the discomfort. Let it go. Again.

*

How long did it take you to write this story?

It’s been four years since I started this story. I wrote the first draft in one sitting, so that took maybe a few hours. As for revisions, those took way longer. I workshopped it, felt stuck with how to improve the story, and ultimately, I had to walk away from it for a few months before I revised it. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to work with the incredible staff at The Rumpus, especially Dennis Norris III, and Yuka Igarashi from Catapult who helped me get this story to where it is today.

How has the Robert J. Dau Prize affected you?

I’m so grateful for the Robert J. Dau Prize because it introduced me to so many talented writers. I also think the Dau Prize came at a great time—when I was feeling frustrated with my writing and was very grateful for the affirmation. It’s humbling and encouraging when other people read your work and enjoy it.

What are you working on now?

Short stories are my favorite form, so I’m always working on those. Sometimes an idea comes to me, and I’ll write a draft, take a break for a month, and then revise it. I’m also working on a longer project as well. I try to work on two projects at a time so if I get stuck with one, I can take a break and turn my attention to the other one.

The story is told from an intimately revealing second-person point of view. Can you talk about the decision to write it in second-person, rather than say, first-person? What do you think is different about writing in second-person, for yourself or your readers?

Every time I wrote a story for my graduate workshop, I tried to challenge myself to do something new, such as writing from a child’s point-of-view or tackling a topic I’d never written about. For this story, I’d never experimented with second person point-of-view, so I gave it a shot. I like the directness of second person and how the narration style feels very conversational to me. I enjoy the immersion both first person and second person narrators can give, but instead of being in a character’s head, I liked how second-person really tries to make the reader part of the story as well.

The title “Today, You’re a Black Revolutionary” can be read any number of ways—in second-person, as a command from someone else, or perhaps it’s the narrator talking to herself, getting herself in character. How did you come up with the title, and how do you see it functioning in relation to the story?

Thinking of titles is one of my favorite things after I’ve completed a first draft because I feel like it can be an essential element to tying together everything you’ve written. Like many writers, I typically look for something in the story that feels thematically important and try to get a title from there, so I chose the brief moment when people on the news are calling her a revolutionary or a troublemaker. I liked that the title told the reader that this story will be in second-person and set up the confident tone even before the first line.

Finally, where do you discover new writing?

I usually ask my husband and my friends for any book recommendations they may have. I love going to my local bookstore, Shakespeare and Co. to wander and check out the new books that have come in. My students are also a great resource for discovering new authors, and I enjoy asking them who they’re reading.

• 0