Author shares short stories and writing advice with CSB+SJU community

Author Jamel Brinkley read excerpts from his most recent book, “Witness,” and answered questions from audience members during his visit to St. Ben’s on Oct. 3.

Brinkley was invited to campus on behalf of the Literary Arts Institute (LAI), which seeks to promote creative writing and foster interactions between students and writers. Associate Director of LAI and Associate Professor of English Rachel Marston provided opening remarks and thanked Brinkley for visiting CSB+SJU, his first visit back since 2018.

Brinkley began the evening by reading samples from three different short stories from “Witness,” which is a collection of eight short stories that revolve around the theme of seeing and being seen.

The first reading was from the story “Blessed Deliverance,” which explores issues of gentrification and the fracturing of a group of friends. Brinkley then read portions of his newest work, “That Particular Sunday.” He concluded the public reading portion of the evening with an excerpt from “Arrows,” a story about a father who is trying to sell his home, which is haunted with the ghost of his deceased mother. Each short story is connected to the others thematically by the title, “Witness.”

In the question-and-answer portion of the evening, Brinkley expanded on the theme of witnessing. He differentiated between being a bystander and being a witness, pointing out that witnessing and seeing is an important but often unexamined role. Brinkley read the epigraph from James Baldwin that he included in his book, noting that Balwin’s works greatly shaped his choice of subject matter for this book. He pointed out that the characters in his short stories bear witness and then give testimony, often before they act. He explained how he plays around with the idea of seeing. In some of his stories, the characters refuse to see or see too late.

Brinkley also answered questions about the role of family in his writings. He called the family a “rich stage” for asking the questions he wants to answer through exploring “quiet family dramas.” Within the context of a family, he writes about ideas such as intimacy with people who know you so well as being violating and responsibility to your family.

Later in the evening, he was asked a question about how his own family influences his writings. Brinkley clarified that he writes about concerns from his personal life but not particular stories. He pointed out that gaining perspective and taking a step back by writing about issues fictionally helps him explore issues with more clarity. Brinkley shared that his own family is full of secrets. He grew up in a family that did not talk about things, which conditioned him to believe there are some things people can’t acknowledge. He views the family as a training ground for how people learn to witness and that family secrets in particular bring up the need to witness and bear testimony.

Another audience member asked Brinkley about the role of research in his creative writing. Brinkley shared that for this book he read about New York City and gentrification issues the city is facing. He had to do more research than usual because the places he was referencing were changing and being removed so quickly. He finds that details and research are important in creative writing because it gives the author authority. From his view, a reader can tell if the author knows what they are writing about.

The final question of the evening implored Brinkley to hint at his future writing endeavors. Brinkley shared that he could produce a full novel at some point in the future. However, he clarified that short story writing and novel writing are two different forms of fiction writing. Within a short story, there is a greater need for perfection because of the limited amount of space for authors to express their ideas. Brinkley emphasized that writers do not “graduate” to writing full novels and that novels and short stories are simply different forms of fiction.