Black Jesus and Other Superheroes
Subtitle
Stories
Winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction and a finalist for the prestigious PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction, "Black Jesus and Other Superheroes" chronicles ordinary people achieving vivid extrasensory perception while under extreme pain. The stories tumble into a universe of the jaded and the hopeful, in which men and women burdened with unwieldy and undesirable superhuman abilities are nonetheless resilient in subtle and startling ways.
Venita Blackburn's characters hurl themselves toward the inevitable fates they might rather wish away. Their stories play with magic without the sparkle, glaring at the internal machinations of the human spirit. Fragile symbols for things such as race, sexuality and love are lifted, decorated and exposed to scrutiny and awe like so many ruins of our imagination. Through it all Blackburn’s characters stumble along currents of language both thoughtful and hilarious.
Bio
Venita Blackburn, a fiction writer, earned her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at Arizona State University in 2008.
Praise for this book
Venita Blackburn makes an indelible impression with her first collection of short stories. ... Whether she embarks on writing novels or sticks with more short work along the line of 'Black Jesus and Other Superheroes,' Blackburn is a writer to watch, but more importantly, to read." (Starred review)
Peter Dabbene Foreword
With thoughtful subtext and symbols that address themes of race, sexuality, family, love and (dis)ability, Blackburn’s remarkably short stories are characterized by a wild imagination and beautiful prose.
Taliah Mancini Ms. Magazine
