Randall Kenan to receive
Longwood's Dos Passos Prize for Literature

Randall Kenan, an author and columnist whose work explores the
broad range of African-American life, has been selected for the 22nd John
Dos Passos Prize for Literature from Longwood University.

The prize, which includes a cash award and a medal, will be given
in a ceremony Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 8 p.m. in Wygal Auditorium. He will read
from his work.

Kenan is the author of the novel "A Visitation of Spirits"; a
collection of short stories, "Let the Dead Bury Their Dead"; and the
non-fiction "Walking on Water, Black American Lives at the Turn of the
Twenty-First Century." He also is the author of a young adult biography of
James Baldwin and wrote the text for Norman Mauskoff's book of photographs
"A Time Not Here: The Mississippi Delta."

His first novel, "A Visitation of Spirits," introduced his readers
to Tims Creek, North Carolina, a fictional African-American community. He
continued this setting in "Let the Dead Bury Their Dead," which was
nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for fiction, was a finalist
for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was among The New York
Times Notable Books of 1992.

"Walking on Water," based on more than 200 interviews over several
years, has been called "part travelogue, part sociological, political and
historical study...both broad and deep, an unusually sensitive portrait of
black America." The New York Times review said that "in talking to
individuals seemingly so unrepresentative of the group he wants to
understand, Kenan violates every rule of the sociologist. And that may just
be the reason his book succeeds so well as a work of insight and
compassion."

Kenan is the Lehman Brady Chair Professor in Documentary Studies at
Duke University, where he teaches courses in oral history and non-fiction
writing. He is the recipient of several awards, including the American
Academy of Arts and Letters' Prix de Rome, has been a contributor to The
New York Times and The Nation, has taught at several universities and began
his career on the editorial staff of Alfred A. Knopf publishers. He grew up
in Chinquapin, North Carolina, and is a graduate of the University of North
Carolina.

The Dos Passos Prize is awarded annually to a writer whose works
demonstrate one or more of the following characteristics: an intense and
original exploration of specifically American themes, an experimental
quality, and a wide range of literary forms. Previous recipients include
Tom Wolfe, Lee Smith, Shelby Foote and Ernest Gaines.