Bøker av Ran Walker

Drawing off a wide assortment of literary and artistic influences, Ran Walker explores the extremely fine line between microfiction and narrative prose poetry using a 100-word framework that stretches the imagination, forcing the reader to consider whether prose poetry is really all that different from its sibling, microfiction.

In this Afrosurrealistic novel conjuring the energy of Keith Knight's WOKE and Donald Glover's ATLANTA, an unemployed cartoonist must pick up the pieces of his life after a failed marriage proposal, only to find that his world has become far more absurd than anything he could have ever imagined, let alone attempted to draw. Told in chapters composed of exactly 100 words each, Black Marker is a wild ride through the amusement park of Ran Walker's imagination, a ticket worth buying.

Imagine a world where the only people who see in color are those who have found their true soulmates.Slate is a 40-year-old guy who, like billions of others, has only seen the world through its various hues of black, white, and gray. This wouldn't be a problem, except his parents were true soulmates and, therefore, Chromats (those who can see in color). As a result, he holds out hope for the unlikeliest of events.When, through a freak occurrence, he accidentally encounters his soulmate, Slate quickly discovers that his world will be irrevocably upended in ways he could have never imagined.

100-word stories. Drabbles. Short short stories. Whatever you call them, they pack quite a powerful punch for such a small size.In Keep It 100, Ran Walker explores a variety of different genres and themes, from stories inspired by classic literature to stories that tackle current events. Done with the mind of a novelist and the heart of a poet, this collection is sure to resonate far beyond its compact form.

Whether it''s for the comfort, the style, the collectibility, or the investment potential, sneakers play a huge role in pop culture. Ran Walker and Van G. Garrett decided to explore the various aspects of sneaker culture in this collection of microfiction and poetry.More than a celebration of sneaker culture, Can I Kick It? creatively explores everything from that first pair of J''s to the latest Yeezy obsession.

Less than three hours after Lincoln Davis's graduation, his father delivers him an ultimatum: come back home to Mississippi and start paying rent on his bedroom or fend for himself in Atlanta as a completely independent adult. Choosing the latter, Lincoln finds himself meeting a whole new cast of characters who help him to navigate this new terrain. Among this cast, however, is a mysterious woman who could change his understanding of everything he thought he knew. Now Lincoln must come to terms with this newfound independence from his father, while at the same time opening himself up to the possibilities resulting from this intriguing and unexpected new love affair.

Miles Thompson, an R&B singer-turned-music teacher, is still reeling from the violent loss of his only son when he crosses paths with Ja Kendrick Brown, a fifteen-year-old homeless piano prodigy. As the two form an unlikely bond, they soon discover that music and friendship have the power to help a sonless father and a fatherless son find life after loss.

Chauncey “Cool” Brown has just been named one of Soul Sista magazine’s 25 Most Eligible Bachelors and the news couldn’t have come at a better time. His business, C&J’s Rare Grooves, is struggling to stay afloat, but Soul Sista has a suggestion that could change everything: write a column for their website where he documents his dates with three women selected by their readers.Cool signs on, mainly for the publicity that he believes it will generate for his business, but he quickly learns that he might have bitten off more than he can chew. Now, in addition to trying to save his business, he finds himself facing an even more daunting challenge: opening himself up to the possibility of falling in love.

Marz Banx, the legendary MC, is lamenting what it means to be in the rap game at the age of forty. Feeling like the game has passed him by and becoming more focused on his daughter, Jazz, he decides to interview for a job as a college professor in Nashville to be closer to her. While Marz is planning his escape from New York, he also finds himself trying to help his daughter get through her Sweet Sixteen, while she deals with her own issues. This, coupled together with his unrelenting feelings for the married mother of his daughter, only makes the birthday weekend that much more potentially explosive. 

For the first time in the history of Daily, Mississippi, the election ballot is completely divided, with a black and white candidate running for each office. Even more, the newly districted senatorial seat is up for grabs.  David McKlusky, a millionaire lawyer seeking to establish his own legacy outside the shadows of his wife's family, dives into the race, only to be consumed by personal issues that threaten to derail his candidacy.  Chante House, a recently minted lawyer, is encouraged to run for the senate seat by her mentor, a man who has a few secrets of his own.  And Keith Lawrence, a fifteen-year-old student at Daily High School, is wrestling with the loss of a classmate to racial violence and a detached mother who seems powerless to help him cope.  These three stories intersect against a landscape of race and politics in a historic election that threatens to change this small MIssissippi town forever.

He has left his hometown to avoid an ex-girlfriend who has since remarried. In his new town, he lives a mundane existence until a new co-worker invites him into her intimate world and pushes him farther from the safety of his old identity. In this experimental novella, Ran Walker uses flash fiction to write a “fuga hacia adelante” (flight forward) story, modeled after the works of Argentinean author César Aira. In a story that uses no names, uses no traditional plot structure, and flirts with the boundaries of meta-fiction, Work-In-Progress is the most unique of Walker’s works to date.

In this sexy follow up to 30 Love: A Novel, Charles “Chucky” Buckner arrives at the wedding of his friends Dizzy and Lailah, but he has no idea of what awaits him. Almost immediately he finds himself connecting with Lailah’s best friend, Marcia, a woman who opens him up to the best time of his life. There’s only one catch: Marcia is on a temporary hiatus from her boyfriend to see if they have what it takes to get married, and that hiatus will end in two weeks. Undaunted, Chucky is willing to challenge the fifteen years of that relationship against the remaining time he has with her. But only time will tell if his gamble for love will pay off.

Dizzy and Lailah are life-long best friends who, on a whim, make a deal at the age of 20 that if they are both single by the time they turn 30, they will simply marry each other.While Lailah has long since forgotten this promise, Dizzy hasn't. When he proposes and Lailah reluctantly accepts, the road to the altar is anything but easy.In the vein of Love and Basketball and Brown Sugar, Ran Walker brings you the guy's point-of-view in this hilarious romantic comedy about the wonders of an impromptu engagement.

Kamal Jackson is a black novelist who has reached an impasse in his career. His work is either too white for black audiences or too black for white audiences. He decides to do something about it, in spite of the opposition he gets from his new love interest, Yasmin. Concocting a Caucasian-sounding pseudonym and a backstory to rival J. D. Salinger's, Kamal sets out to rework his most current novel for a new round of publishers.Kamal must now ask if he is prepared to sacrifice his relationship with Yasmin and his identity as a writer of color in order to see his project through to its uncertain conclusion.

The year is 1997, and Troy Dobbs has just graduated from Ellison-Wright College in Atlanta. For Troy's graduation gift, his Aunt Flo allows him to housesit her Brooklyn Heights brownstone for a month while she travels abroad. For the first week, things are cool and uneventful, but when a beautiful movie star shows up at his front door to return something she borrowed from his aunt, Troy's humdrum vacation is tranformed into an adventure that he will never forget.The Illest is a novella with twists and turns that explore the vulnerabilities of getting to really know someone beyond the public facade.

In his second major story collection, Ran Walker takes on issues of race, cultural appropriation, politics, family, relationships, and the value of Black lives. In the title story, two young men go to participate in a handshake competition but find themselves up against an obstacle they did not anticipate. In “The Impersonator” a comedian finds a job that ultimately contributes to the legacy of another person. In “The Box” a college student home for vacation investigates whether his elderly Caucasian neighbor is holding the soul of a lynched Black man in a box. In “My Best Friend is Black” a recent college grad accepts a job as a friend to the 1 percenters. In the thirteen stories in this collection, Walker uses satire, humor, and horror to weave a tapestry of timely themes that are sure to resonate with readers.