RAZED BY TV SETS - Jason McCall
ABOUT THE BOOK
Jason McCall wanted to be a Hector, a hero who dies fighting for a worthy cause. Instead, he’s a Narcissus. He can’t stop seeing his own reflection. And, for him, that might be just as dangerous as being a black man in the United States. In Razed by TV Sets, McCall uses a variety of essay topics—ranging from Tupac Shakur to CM Punk to psych wards—to show how depictions of race and masculinity have affected how he sees himself and how the world sees him. Razed by TV Sets is an essay collection filled with sports heroes, musicians, and cultural icons. But, above all, it is a collection filled by mirrors and all the threats and discoveries that mirrors may hold.
PRAISE FOR RAZED BY TV SETS
"I want to write like Jason McCall when I grow up, and/or before I die. It's one thing to experience so much that you thought you'd never see in a book. It's quite another feat to experience it all beautifully shredded and synthesized through Jason's singular skill and imagination. I'm sitting here shocked at how absolutely pitch perfect this book feels. Razed by TV Sets will make some of us never ever feel alone again. It's that good, and that superbly human."
—Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir
“Jason McCall's debut essay collection, Razed by TV Sets, is an anthem for all of us who are Black, deep Southern, curious, nerdy, and moving through the pains of this world by putting them on the page. McCall writes in such familiar, truth-filled prose I began to wonder how he'd read my mind and put it in ink--he knows us. In essays that challenge the American machines of race, class, and memory, Jason McCall catalogues a worthy and still-unfolding life. This book is light.”
—Ashley M. Jones, author of Reparations Now!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jason McCall is the author of the essay collection Razed by TV Sets and the poetry collections What Shot Did You Ever Take (co-written with Brian Oliu); A Man Ain’t Nothin’; Two-Face God; Mother, Less Child (co-winner of the 2013 Paper Nautilus Vella Chapbook Prize); Dear Hero, (winner of the 2012 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize and co-winner of the 2013 Etchings Press Whirling Prize); I Can Explain; and Silver. He and P.J. Williams are the editors of It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop. He holds an MFA from the University of Miami. He is a native of Montgomery, Alabama, and he currently teaches at the University of North Alabama.
BOOK INFO
Pub Date: March 26, 2024
Print Length: 122 pages
Dimensions: 5 x 8 inches
ISBN: 978-1-957392-28-8