A Conversation with Brandon Taylor

A CONVERSATION WITH BRANDON TAYLOR Moderated by Lopa Basu, Ph.D. Join us virtually on Friday, March 12, at 7:00 p.m. (CST) Real Life takes place on a midwestern campus with more than a passing resemblance to the one that Taylor attended in Madison, Wisconsin. It’s the last few days of summer break. Wallace, a queer, Black man from Alabama, is a graduate student whose laboratory project has gone awry. Could it be the result of deliberate sabotage? Although the events that follow are packed into a single weekend, issues of race, gender, sexuality, history, and trauma all come to bear upon personal reflection, furtive romance, and one of the most disastrous dinner parties in recent fiction. In addition to its Booker honor, Real Life was named one of the best books of 2020 by numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, The Paris Review, and VICE. Plans were announced in December for a film adaptation starring Kid Cudi. Our program will include a reading from the novel and questions and answers with Taylor. Books with signed bookplates can be purchased from Dotters Books.