Keenan Norris melds into this novel, memoir, cultural criticism, and literary biography to indelibly depict Chicago—from the Great Migration to the present day—as both a cradle of black intellect, art, and politics and a distillation of America’s deepest tragedies. With the life and work of Richard Wright as his throughline, Norris braids the story of his family and particularly his father, Butch Norris, with those of other black men—Wright, Barack Obama, Ralph Ellison, Frank Marshall Davis—who have called Chicago home. In the family story at the center of this narrative, Norris presents an enduring vision of hope and love.

“A Love Letter ’s lyrical vignettes place witness pinnacle as the speaker both chronicles and begets introspection. We observe cyclical mourning and cyclical hope. In these pages, we gather empathy as a cure for our human condition, with passages like, ‘this journey is eminently finite and someone’s departure can seem abrupt if you miss as little as a day, week, or month.’ Praise this work that allows us to look into another’s eyes and see something beautiful.”
—Daniel B. Summerhill, Monterey County Poet Laureate, author of Mausoleum of Flowers