Langston Hughes essayBlack Artists and the Mountain of Race“It made me reconsider his approach to writing about racial identity.” ‘I want to be,'” Escoferry said. Reading Hughes, he realized that his perspective on identity adds “value and depth and texture and reality” to his work.
He was also inspired by Nella Larsen’s “Quicksand,” about a biracial teacher who moves from the South to Chicago, Scandinavia, and Harlem, experiencing very different reactions to her appearance in each place. rice field.
Writer Dariel Suárez met Escoferry at the FIU’s Fiction Workshop and said, “I was struck by his talent for crafting characters and people that other writers might not be able to write because they know nothing.” I remember being impressed and kind of intimidated.” that life. “
The two quickly became friends and together with another friend set up a weekly workshop group at the Escoffery house to prepare the MFA application. “We were eating Jamaican food, doing workshops every week, revising and submitting our work,” recalls Suarez. All three made it through to graduate school, and Escoferry chose the University of Minnesota.
In Minneapolis, Escoferry surrounded himself with people who live and breathe literature. At 30, he was closer than ever to the life he wanted. “I was playing pool with a stranger and they told me about their favorite modern novel, an experience I never had in Miami,” he said, adding that some of his peers said . Hmm, that’s a strange use of your time.
He said he had spent a lot of time in the real world but still didn’t have the technical skills needed for the level of work he wanted. advised him to read authors who “take risks in their approach to structure.”