With A Visitation of Spirits Randall Kenan continues James Baldwin's legendary tradition of
'telling it on the mountain.'-San Francisco Chronicle When A Visitation of Spirits was
published Randall Kenan (1963-2020) was instantly recognized as a writer of significance and
one who brought into literary fiction the southern Black gay experience one of the first such
writers to achieve mainstream success. His groundbreaking first novel A Visitation of Spirits
is the powerful story of Horace Cross a popular and high-achieving sixteen-year-old boy who
wrestles with the guilt of discovering who he is a young man attracted to other men and
yearning to escape the narrow confines of the small town of Tims Creek North Carolina where
he grew up. Raised on stories of prophets revelations and dreams his internal struggles take
shape in his mind as demons and angels battling for his soul culminating in one night of
horrible and tragic transformation. A Visitation of Spirits established Randall Kenan as a
literary master and his influence continues to be felt. Now in Grove paperback and with an
introduction by Tarell Alvin McCraney Oscar-winning writer of Moonlight A Visitation of
Spirits is a classic novel of growing up from a literary giant.
