How do you navigate a character’s voice or personal story without imposing too much of your own? I love examining that in the Cross River saga. The daily mission I was given when hired is an extension of the mission of the people who founded the school. I teach at an HBCU founded 151 years ago to educate freed slaves. So much of the way we do things, both on a micro and a macro level, is defined by decisions made hundreds of years before we were born. Given the history of Cross River and how the town is utilized as the setting of present-day events in Insurrections, how important is its history in framing the present and future lives of its residents/characters? So many of my stories are “what ifs.” What if that birthday party I threw for my son went horribly? What if that mistaken identity encounter turned into a disaster? Adding a successful slave revolt in the background of my work adds a giant “what if” to play with over my entire project.Īlso, as a young man studying history I always dreamt and wondered what things would have been like had John Brown, Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, etc, been successful. I wanted to have a location to call my own, the same way Sherwood Anderson had his Winesburg, Ohio. Why was that characteristic important in the literary construction of this town? It is known as the home of America’s only successful slave revolt. Most importantly, I hope readers have fun with my book.Ĭross River, MD is the fictional town you created for Insurrections. I hope readers interrogate what constitutes masculinity. I hope readers see different perspectives on blackness or, ways of doing blackness. Readers always show me new things about my book that I never noticed. What do you hope readers will grasp with this collection? Your debut collection of short stories, Insurrections, was published in August 2016. No matter what I’m doing, I’m working on my stories somewhere in my head. I’m constantly daydreaming about my stories and whatever is going on with my imaginary friends. When I discovered poetry as a pre-teen I was pretty much in love. At what point in your life did you decide you wanted to pursue a career as a writer?

Insurrections by Rion Amilcar Scott