Discipline/Field: Fiction

Based in: Seattle, WA

About: Ari McKenna grew up in Jamaica Plain, Boston and went to The New School University where he began a manuscript with the working title, Solace and the Frolicking Personas to synthesize his interests in linguistics, political science, philosophy, oil painting, journalism, and poetry into a unified thesis. He met his wife as a NYC Teaching Follow and the two of them planned to live in places not subscribing to western culture for two years each. He lived in Cameroon, South Korea, and Ecuador before moving to Seattle to teach Middle School.

Ari will head to Yefe Nof to finish the second “season” of his bildungsroman after nearly two decades of work on this project.

Project Title: Solace and the Frolicking Personas follows the story of Trotsky Madrigal as he makes minor victories in a life carved out by the critical narration of each of the apartments in his building to the often treacherous streets and beyond. Season two ends when Trotsky is around twelve and many spots in his neighborhood have been explicated, but the city is still a blank.

Relevant Link: arirobinmckenna.com