Fiction
Minneapolis, MN
September 2023, 4 weeks
Junauda Petrus-Nasash is a fiction writer who spent her time at the Anderson Center writing a young adult novel, Black Circus. This book intertwines themes of Black creative expression as an antidote to anti-Black oppression, queerness in the 90s in Minneapolis, the whimsical and healing spectacle of circus, contrasted with the exhibitive, violent legacy of lynching. Although this book explores heavy themes, it grounds within a tender coming of age story of Zulema, a young aspiring circus artist.