This past Thursday, Sept. 22, marked the 30th year Longwood University has awarded the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature to an American author. Recipients of the prize are described on the Longwood University website as having "produced a substantial body of work that displays characteristics of [John] Dos Passos' writing: an intense and original exploration of specifically American themes, an experimental approach to form, and an interest in a wide range of human experiences."
Tom Wolfe, Shelby Foote and Annie Proulx are only three of the many recipients of the Dos Passos Prize, an honor that is evaluated by a committee in the Department of English and Modern Languages at the university.
This year, American author Mat Johnson was awarded the prize for his extensive list of works that range from nonfiction novellas like "The Great Negro Plot" to graphic novels like "Incognegro" and novels like "Pym." Johnson read from his newly published work, "Pym," a novel described as "tak[ing] on America's ‘racial pathology' and ‘the whole ugly story of our world'" in "Publisher's Weekly."
"Pym" tells the story of Chris Jaynes, an African American studies professor denied tenure for not joining an almost entirely Caucasian college's Diversity Committee. When he is told, "Everyone has a role to play," Jaynes rebels from the school's expectation for him to be the "diversity" in the diversity club just for his skin color and curriculum.
With a crushing reverence towards Edgar Allen Poe's only novel, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket," and its importance to "the concept of American Africanism," Jaynes sets out to prove the validity of Poe's written account of an island near Antarctica, named Tsalal, populated by a singularly black indigenous tribe. With the contrast of the white-whiteness of the snow to a tribe so dark even their teeth are black, Johnson says, "I think the basic question from [Pym] … is, how do we look at race in a different way?"
Johnson described the revision process like a trial sentence. Having taken nine years to write "Pym," and with 14 complete rewrites, Johnson was tempted to drop the novel repeatedly. "I hated ‘Pym,'" he said, describing the writing of the novel to being in love. "I think it's that you have to fall in love with the work. It is like a love affair … But like a love relationship, there are those moments which you're annoyed by … But the connections are so intense." In the end, though, there was no way he could write without intense revision. "For me, great writing is about revision," he said.
When asked what he thought the most difficult part of the writing process was, Johnson said, "The solitude. I mean, I'm alone. I don't collaborate on work, except when I do my comic book work. So most of the time, I'm just alone with me and my computer. So it's several years of spending time alone … Usually it takes about two to three years to write a novel." Summing it up, he said, "It can be tough," describing it as, "Sell[ing] off those pieces of my life … That's the price."
Dr. Rhonda Brock-Servais, associate professor of English and Department of English and Modern Languages chair, praised Johnson, and said, "I think he was a really terrific reader. And I think he's a fabulous writer." Commenting on his use of humor in "Pym," she said, "The humor is really clever and it's not just ‘Hey, this is funny. Haha.' It's really worked into part of the character."
Senior Chloe Joseph was equally as positive by the end of the event. Joseph said, "I like it when authors read their own works because it makes it that much more vivid and exciting." When discussing his writing style, she said, "I've never really seen anything written like that before."
"I love him," was further praise from Kayla Branch, junior. "He was really funny. He also has a really good voice."
"I'm unbelievably honored," Johnson beamed as a medal was placed around his neck at the end of his reading. "I've worked for years on books – worked so hard on them, and you take it, and it feels like there's a big lake of dark water. And you take it and you throw it into the lake, and it goes right into the water without even leaving a ripple. And it's gone. And I'm in my second novel, which I liked a lot. And I really was scared…that that was what writing was … And I had to make the decision of was it worth it working this hard to throw it into the lake and have it disappear. And I can't tell you how important it is for me to actually find that I can get to throw my books into that lake and see some lovely ripples from people who can actually get a response from it. It's my life's work, and it means a lot to me."
Dr. David Magill, assistant professor of English and chair of the the Dos Passos Committee, said, "We are very excited to give this award to him."
The citation of the event, read by Magill, spoke with glowing praise of "Pym," and said, "[The Dos Passos Prize is awarded to Johnson] for this creation that constantly resists genre and experiments with both form and content, for his unwavering challenges to stack damaging notions of race and identity, for his commitment to unmurking the histories that are often unspoken and uncovering the pathologies that are often invisible, for his use of humor and satire to find new ways to make us listen to our own tales of how we suffer, how we are delighted, and how we may triumph, for showing us that when you believe in what you do, what you can do is believe, for allowing his stories to find themselves and then to find us."
