Joe Okonkwo

Joe Okonkwo is an American writer of Nigerian descent, whose debut novel Jazz Moon won the Edmund White Award and was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction, in 2017. Quotes ...it was an incredibly difficult time for blacks because of the overt racism — lynching and Jim Crow, and separate restrooms and separate water fountains — but it was also a really rich time in poetry, literature, art, and political movement. I self-published a book of poetry back in 2002, and when I flip through the book now — there might be some flashes of good writing, but for the most part, it’s not something I’m proud of. Poetry is hard. It’s harder than fiction. Joe Okonkwo on the Gay Black Entertainers of 1920s Harlem and Paris Jazz Moon (2017) Harlem had been hit by a hurricane: It was raining cats and jazz. Chapter One, page 1 Forgiveness was like charity: You could dispense it, or not. And, as with charity, the one dispensing held the power. Chapter 22, page 155 It’s better to die with your worst enemy in the room than to die all alone, right? Chapter 47, page 279 Kindness and talent and love ain’t the same as strength. Chapter 54, 310 You can only know you are cared about if you are told and shown. Chapter 47, 280 External Links Category:Nigerian writers Category:Novelists from Nigeria Category:LGBT people Category:Living people