author - "Wayne McCray"
A black young man retells his admiration for his most favorite uncle, the most terrifying man he knew, and what he learned from being around him and his criminality.
This story explores the tragedy of a black man after being incarcerated and finding American Islam. He no longer finds any honor in his slave-name, or its history, believing it has been nothing but a hindrance. In accepting his new identity, he is further pushed towards it, and given the opportunity to pursue and live out his new life as he pleased.
A hermit lives out his golden years in a remote part of Mississippi, surrounded by open farm land, with more trees than traffic, and plenty of nature. His days are mundane, quite boring, and measured by how often the grass grew until a skunk came on his premises one day and interrupts his daily routine and causes the police to show up late in the night.
Pirine resolves a serious family matter by sacrificing herself to ensure her children's children live on, particularly her granddaughter, who has a bright future beyond the cotton fields and sharecropping. So Pirine convinces Salt, her creole-looking sister, to take a blood oath and honor it, since she is dead set on having biblical justice for the person who killed son.
While taking out the garbage one night a homeowner has an unfriendly encounter with a skunk, forcing him to take off all his clothes, and in doing so became so livid about being stench showered that he nakedly hunts it down until its killed before returning home to shower himself.
This work was published originally in Afro Literary Magazine.
My 10th Birthday was first published in Issue No. 7 of Ogma Magazine (Ireland).
A Home Going was originally published in Issue No. 7 of Ogma Magazine (Ireland). Republished in Chitro Magazine (Australia).
First published in The Ocotillo Review Vol. 5. No 1. He is a recipient and runner-up of the Chester B. Hines Memorial Fiction Prize.
A black young man retells his admiration for his most favorite uncle, the most terrifying man he knew, and what he learned from being around him and his criminality.
This story explores the tragedy of a black man after being incarcerated and finding American Islam. He no longer finds any honor in his slave-name, or its history, believing it has been nothing but a hindrance. In accepting his new identity, he is further pushed towards it, and given the opportunity to pursue and live out his new life as he pleased.
A hermit lives out his golden years in a remote part of Mississippi, surrounded by open farm land, with more trees than traffic, and plenty of nature. His days are mundane, quite boring, and measured by how often the grass grew until a skunk came on his premises one day and interrupts his daily routine and causes the police to show up late in the night.
Pirine resolves a serious family matter by sacrificing herself to ensure her children's children live on, particularly her granddaughter, who has a bright future beyond the cotton fields and sharecropping. So Pirine convinces Salt, her creole-looking sister, to take a blood oath and honor it, since she is dead set on having biblical justice for the person who killed son.
While taking out the garbage one night a homeowner has an unfriendly encounter with a skunk, forcing him to take off all his clothes, and in doing so became so livid about being stench showered that he nakedly hunts it down until its killed before returning home to shower himself.
This work was published originally in Afro Literary Magazine.
My 10th Birthday was first published in Issue No. 7 of Ogma Magazine (Ireland).
A Home Going was originally published in Issue No. 7 of Ogma Magazine (Ireland). Republished in Chitro Magazine (Australia).
First published in The Ocotillo Review Vol. 5. No 1. He is a recipient and runner-up of the Chester B. Hines Memorial Fiction Prize.