New York native Robert Jones Jr’s debut novel, The Prophets, is a tale of forbidden love between two enslaved young men on a plantation in America’s Deep South. “The Prophets is my attempt to reinscribe into the cultural and historical narrative a figure that has been demeaned, ignored, or erased: the black queer figure,” says the author. “It also feels like testimony because I often felt as though my hand was guided and my thoughts inhabited by the ancestors for whom I am writing.” Listing James Baldwin as an inspiration – “sometimes when I’m writing, I’ll read a line back to myself in Baldwin’s mid-Atlantic accent” – Robert is the creator of online social justice community, Son of Baldwin. The Prophets is released 5 January.
My favourite place to write is on the New York City transit system. Something about the motion of the trains and buses… being surrounded by the diversity of people, inspires creativity.