LGBTQ Essays and Memoirs!

For most of his career, Randall Kenan was described as a “writer’s writer,” a writer who isn’t loved by the general public per se, but people in his field really respect and admire his work. Shortly after Kenan died in 2020, his short story collection, If I Had Two Wings, was longlisted for the National Book Award. Its reception introduced Kenan’s work to a whole new audience.

Black Folk Could Fly is a posthumous collection of nonfiction works from throughout his career. In it, he writes about his childhood in rural North Carolina, his move to New York City to work on his writing career, and his travels around the country to interview Black people about their experiences. Kenan was always pondering, what does it mean to be Black in America today? Through his writing, we can see the progression of his thought process as he mulls over this question and reads other Black writers on the topic.

Jeanna Kadlec gives us a peek into her life growing up in conservative Chrstianity. She always felt belittled by the members of her church because she was a woman. Women would take her aside and tell her she needed to dress and behave more modestly. Men wouldn’t take her intellect seriously. And as a woman, she struggled to feel like a full fledged member of the church because the men didn’t want her to speak or pray during services. She always wanted to be the perfect Christian girl. She married a pastor’s son and waited to have sex until she was married. But even doing all of these things didn’t make her happy. She eventually realized that the faith she had been told was the only true way to live was actually very flawed and abusive to her emotionally and spiritually. She filed for divorce, came out as queer, and completly changed the direction of her life.

Like she says in the beginning of the book, she didn’t just leave the church because she’s a lesbian. Long before she realized that she was queer, Kadlec understood that the Christian culture she grew up in was incredibly harmful. From this starting point, Kadlec gives readers a more complex view of her faith experience. She also discusses that healing from religious trauma can take all sorts of different forms, and there is no singular way to come to terms with your faith.