Literary Birthday – 19 October – Mark Behr

Mark Behr was born 19 October 1963 and died 27 November 2015.

Quotes

At heart it [Kings of the Water] is a book about the fluidity of life and the inevitability of change – personal, political, psychological, environmental, discursive – and the foolishness (and danger) of all kinds of certitude and of trying to control what cannot be controlled. (via)
I merely tip my hat—perhaps in gratitude alone—to these who have offered an axe with which to chop at the frozen sea inside of me. As with friends and certain lovers, I have no idea what my life might resemble if I had not been privileged to spend time in their company. (via)
How loudly will writers demand to speak truth to power and whose words and stories will this time be co-opted, discredited or disallowed? The wind is already being sown to reap a new whirlwind of words. (via)

Mark Behr was a Tanzanian-born author who grew up in South Africa. He wrote novels, short stories, and essays. He was professor of English Literature and Creative Writing at Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee. He also taught in the MA program at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, His three novels are The Smell of Apples (which was nominated for the Booker Prize), Embrace, and Kings of the Water. His work dealt with themes of violence, racism, nationalism, militarisation, masculinity, and colonialism.