Jess Row (White Flights) with Yahdon Israel at Greenlight Bookstore

Summary

At the heart of White Flights, a meditation on whiteness in American fiction and culture, Jess Row ties “white flight”—the movement of white Americans into segregated communities, whether in suburbs or newly gentrified downtowns—to white writers setting their stories in isolated or emotionally insulated landscapes. White Flights aims to move fiction to a more inclusive place, and Row looks beyond criticism to consider writing as a reparative act. A moving and provocative book that includes music, film, and literature in its arguments, White Flights is an essential work of cultural and literary criticism. Row presents his book in conversation with writer, college professor and creator of Literaryswag, Yahdon Israel.