DIS//INTEGRATION Book Launch

WILLIAM MELVIN KELLEY was a novelist, short fiction writer, and educator. Dubbed “…a lost giant of American Literature” by the New Yorker, Kelley was born in 1937 on Carpenter Avenue in The Bronx, New York. He attended Fieldston School and Harvard University and later taught literature and writing at the New School for Social Research, the State University of New York at Geneseo, and the University of Paris, Nanterre

Several of Kelley’s short stories and non-fiction essays appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, The New Yorker, Playboy and Harper’s Magazine. He also has appeared in numerous textbooks and anthologies of African American Writers.
In his lifetime, Kelley was the recipient of a number of awards; the Dana Reed Literary prize, Harvard University, 1960; Bread Loaf Writers Conference grant, 1962; Whitney Foundation award, 1963; Rosenthal Foundation award, 1963; Transatlantic Review award, 1964; Black Academy of Arts and Letters award, 1970; and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Lifetime Achievement, 2008. In 2021 both he and his wife, Aiki Kelley were awarded the American Book Award for the illustrated re-issue of Dunfords Travels Everywheres, which Aiki illustrated. Kelley was a professor of creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and lived in Harlem. He died in 2017.

Kelley published four novels during his lifetime; A Different Drummer, A Drop of Patience, Dem, and Dunfords Travels Everywheres. He also published a book of short stories; Dancers On The Shore. A his new fifth book, featuring 2 novellas, 3 short stories, and a play, Dis//Integration, will be published in October 22nd of 2024.

Join us at Bluestocking Cooperative for an intimate celebration lead by his daughter, artist Jesi Kelley, with readings from Jay Smooth and Gabriella Adkins!

Masks are required and we can provide you with one if you need.

Host or Publisher Bluestockings Bookstore