When I was nine, my Aunt, the late Dr. Cereta Perry, wrote an influential book on Child Psychology called “Learning To Be Free.” She held her first book signing at the Museum of African Art here in D.C. It was a life altering experience for me.
Seeing her words on the printed page inspired me and I vowed that night to become a writer. I have been ever since. I’ve lost many things over the years but I still have my signed copy of “Learning to be Free.”
I began with short stories and poetry and as I entered my professional career, I endeavored to give my speechwriting a narrative arch that one normally finds in literature. Eventually, my desire to write overpowered everything else.
Can you tell us a little about your current work?
I thought you’d never ask. War Anthem depicts the fall of a Black political dynasty due to the forces of gentrification and is an elegy to the golden days of “Chocolate City” when D.C. was the “Colored Man’s Paradise.” At the beginning of the novel, we meet Jason Diggs, scion of a famed Black political dynasty who appears destined for leadership in his native Washington, D.C. Handsome, refined, well educated and just a bit full of himself, Jason Diggs seems to have it all. He’s popular, successful, and is a rising political star, but when his mother dies after a long illness, strange events are set in motion, which illuminate a dangerous and mysterious underworld, which threatens to destroy the city and his future. As Jason learns his true destiny the nation’s capitol begins to dissolve into disorder. Jason is at the center of the storm and decisions that he makes could change the course of cities across America forever.
Through Jason’s eyes we get a glimpse into the hidden world of local D.C. politics and a look at the forces of change sweeping urban America.
How did you come up with the title of your book?
It’s part of a song lyric on one of my favorite jazz albums: Christian Scott’s Anthem. I listened to the album a lot, while I was writing and even though I’d had a working title for years, it soon became obvious that War Anthem perfectly summed up the themes in the manuscript.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to take away after reading your book?
I had certain themes in mind but perhaps my protagonist Jason Diggs could answer that one best. “Winter’s coming….”
How much did you pull from your personal experiences, the people you know, or current/historical events?
War Anthem was absolutely born of my experience but it exists within a parallel universe. Many of the events, which occurred historically, happen differently in the novel, producing far different outcomes. Only one character is not fictional but it would be self indulgent to fictionalize Marion Barry.
Was there anything new you learned about yourself while writing this book?
I wasted a lot of time in the ‘90s.
What books have most influenced your life?
A partial list would include:
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Home Repairs by Trey Ellis
The Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam Greenlee
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Erasure by Percival Everett
Standing At the Scratch Line by Guy Johnson
What book are you reading now?
Post Black: How a New Generation Is Redefining African American Identity
Ytasha L. Womack
Are there any new authors that have grabbed your interest?
Junot Diaz
Victor Lavalle
Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
The early Chester Himes (If He Hollers Let Him Go, The End of A Primitive) for his bravery. His intentionality is palpable. He begins with a destination in mind and he gets there—dragging his breathless readers along with him.
Are you currently working on or planning any new projects?
War Anthem is the first of a cycle of three-gentrification novels set in Washington, D.C. I am presently at work on the second novel, a satire, which is tentatively entitled Double Negative. I am looking for representation for this novel and hope that it will be published in 2011.
About the Author:
A Fourth generation Washingtonian, Keith Andrew Perry is the former Chief of Staff to Councilmember and former four term D.C. Mayor Marion Barry. He has been a Democratic Committeeman, Mayoral appointee, candidate and senior political strategist to local political figures in the District of Columbia for two decades. He is a graduate of Morehouse College and Howard University School of Law and was a 2009 Fellow of the Center for Black Literature’s North Country Institute at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York. Perry lives on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. War Anthem in his first novel.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }