Rion Amilcar Scott Books In Order

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Rion Amilcar Scott is a reputed writer of short stories and historical fiction novels. He hails from the United States and is particularly famous for his debut novel called Insurrections. Rion has won the Robert W Bingham/PEN prize for this novel. The parents of Rion are a native of Trinidad, who had come to America for studying at Howard University. Since then, they have resided there and have raised Rion too as an American citizen. He completed his graduation from the George Mason Univesity. Currently, Rion is employed at the Bowie State University as a teacher of English. His work has been released in numerous journals like The Rumpus, The Toast, Melville House & Confrontation, Crab Orchard Review, Akashic Books, The Kenyon Review, Fiction International, PANK, and The Washington City Paper.

Rion has been writing essays and short stories for a very long time. One of his stories was included in the Wiglead Top Fifty Fictions of 2013 and 2016 lists. In 2015, one of Rion’s essays was included in the Best American Essays as a notable. Rion was brought up in Silver Spring, Maryland. He studied at George Mason and obtained his MFA. While he was studying at the university, Rion was awarded a Completion Fellowship and the Mary Roberts-Rinehart award. He also holds the Kimbilio fellowship. Author Rion started his writing career with the 2016 book, Insurrections. He says that he was a hardcore comic lover during his childhood days. He always had the intention of creating a story of his own and giving it the shape of a book. Since his time in school, he has tried writing about a lot of things and every time he had the intention of developing a book out the stories.

On many occasions, Rion he failed miserably, but he did not lose hope and kept on trying. He had started writing Insurrections as his thesis in George Mason. Rion had spent a whole year working on the stories of the thesis and researching on a variety of topics. A time came when it all got bloated and things went out of control. Subsequently, Rion ended up abandoning the idea. But, he always knew that certain parts of the thesis could be salvaged and turned into an exciting book. Rion is of the opinion that a book or a story does not necessarily fail when it appears to be failing. He feels that those stories become events or rumors in some other story. In the end, Rion feels that the stories still happened and his efforts did not go waste. When asked about the idea behind writing Insurrections, Rion says that he had so many stories to choose from and he originally wanted the story to begin from innocence and reach up to maturity. Taking inspiration from the way author Edward Jones borrowed the structure of James Joyce’s story Dubliners, he too decided to borrow a similar structure. But, this idea didn’t fit well with his story. He tried a different order, but that also didn’t help as some of the stories were not fitting.

And when nothing seemed to be going as per the plan of Rion as his editors, he thought of putting the stories together in the form of a puzzle and publishing it. Rion hopes that people see the black experience’s spectrum that he has tried to present. Although, he seems hesitant about saying this because it seems like telling people to consume their vegetables. As much as he wishes the readers to connect with the stories on an emotional level, he wants them to have fun while reading the book. Rion wants the readers to understand the stories on an intellectual and visceral level. Author Rion likes to write about the topics that obsess him. One such topic is the issue of racial discrimination that kept happening around him all the time.

While growing up, Rion has witnessed multiple accounts of brutality, discrimination, hate, and violence against the black community. All such stories have stuck in his head and through his book, he has tried to make an attempt at making the others realize how the people of the black community get affected emotionally, physically, and socially because of all the racial injustice against them. Rion feels that every writer should try to write about whatever is going on his/her mind and must always try to bring out the truth. He feels the authors should write on the topics that affect the society and they must help in preventing the society from sliding into fascism. Rion is a great admirer of the writers like Kiese Laymon, Solmaz Sharif, Junot Diaz, Gloria Naylor, etc. He believes that these writers have always inspired him to work toward the betterment of society.

The debut book written by author Rion Amilcar Scott is entitled ‘Insurrections’. It was released by the Kentucky University Press in 2016. The book is written in the form of a collection of several short stories set in a small fictional town called Cross River in Maryland. It features a story involving a suicidal father, who approaches an elderly neighbor for sanctuary and salvation as he starts unraveling his life. Another story deals with a man trying to save his drug-addicted, estranged brother from the underbelly of the city. His life takes an unexpected turn when he gets confronted with the mortality of his own life. The third story depicts a chess match being played between a father and his daughter that takes the form of a master class about self-realization, pride, and life. All the stories mentioned in the book show glimpses of the world of Cross River residents as they try to overcome the struggles of their lives.

Cross River is described as a community filled with mostly black people. This settlement was formed in 1807 following a successful revolt against the dominant white population. The stories appear to be raw, unrelenting, edgy and filled with humor, redemption, and forgiveness. Through this short story collection, author Rion has tried to explore the characters going through the silent tragedies of their everyday life & fighting against all odds for their survival. It was very much appreciated by the readers, critics, and fellow writers. Rion was praised for his excellent research on the social issues and bringing them to light. Many literary journals and magazines reviewed his work with great comments, appreciated his efforts, and motivated him to keep writing such thought-provoking stories.