Interview with Randall Kenan

Hugo House:  In about 2-1/2 months you’ll be debuting a brand-new piece at Hugo House—have you started working on it yet?

Randall Kenan:  I have.  The idea of Lost in Translation happily dove-tailed with some crazy ideas I had swimming around in my brain.  I'm having a great time developing the story and the characters.

HH:  What were your first thoughts on receiving an invitation to write to an assigned theme? Any regrets on saying yes?

RK:  No regrets at all.  I think my notion of Lost in Translation automatically went to the more abstract end of the spectrum -- translation not simply as language, but as a cross cultural phenomenon with myriad possibilities.  Every culture -- be it ethnicity or science or business -- has its own language, and therefore is prone to mis-translations by outsiders.  My feeling is that good fiction almost always springs from just such conflicts.

HH:  Can you give us a hint of how you’re approaching the theme of “Lost in Translation?”  Literally? Figuratively? Did the dictionary definitions we gave you trigger any responses?

RK:  I think my story works on the theme both literally and figuratively, but not in an obvious way.  A person of privilege and power comes hat in hand to another person of much less power in a different culture -- the key to that conflict is communication, and is rife with dramatic opportunities for misunderstandings, and for some important element to be missed entirely.  But I think my piece also deals with non-verbal forms of communication, particularly food and money, among others.  Just think of the first time you tried a cuisine that is entire foreign to your expectations and palette. I'm certain the first time I tried sushi a great deal of the subtleties were lost on me.  They may still elude me, but I like it.  The risk of misunderstanding is always worth the effort. 

HH:  Could you tell us a little bit about your process—how you approach writing something new?

RK:  I almost always start with character, then come up with an extremely rough draft.  The balance of my time is spent on revising and revising and revising, hoping to uncover the statue in the block of marble my unconscious hauled up. 

HH:  Tell us 3 non-literary things we don’t know about you.

RK:  I'm a frustrated musician with profound musician envy.  I'm a fairly good cook, largely self-taught.  I'm a recovering movie-addict.