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Shane McCrae

Biography

Shane McCrae

Shane McCrae is the author of several books of poetry, including IN THE LANGUAGE OF MY CAPTOR, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the William Carlos Williams Award; SOMETIMES I NEVER SUFFERED, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize; and his most recent collection, CAIN NAMED THE ANIMAL. McCrae is the recipient of a Whiting Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He teaches at Columbia University and lives in New York City.

Shane McCrae

Books by Shane McCrae

Pulling the Chariot of the Sun: A Memoir of a Kidnapping
by Shane McCrae - Memoir, Nonfiction

When Shane McCrae was three years old, his grandparents kidnapped him and took him to suburban Texas. His mom was white and his dad was Black, and to hide his Blackness from him, his maternal grandparents stole him from his father. In the years that followed, they manipulated and controlled him, refusing to acknowledge his heritage. For their own safety and to ensure the kidnapping remained a success, Shane’s grandparents had to make sure that he never knew the full story, so he was raised to participate in his own disappearance. But despite elaborate fabrications and unreliable memories, Shane begins to reconstruct his own story and forge his own identity. Gradually, the truth unveils itself, and with the truth comes a path to reuniting with his father and finding his own place in the world.