Sitting in his narrow office, John Kessel reclines in his black, worn desk chair, hands locked behind his head, staring straight up at the ceiling. He contemplates his words, using “sullen” and “obsessively” in common conversation, amidst the rows of books that fill his short and tall bookshelves.
There are posters, clippings and art representing his literary career and passion, such as a poster of a book entitled L’Amour Au Temps Des Dinosaures — the French translation of his novel Corrupting Dr. Nice, a book about time travel.
As he speaks, his eyes still focus on the ceiling, except for a few short glances around his room. He gently rocks as he talks, completely at ease.
The bookshelves are packed with neat, tightly packed rows of books — hundreds. In an moment of excitement for a shared love of Flannery O’Connor, Kessel leans from his chair over to a corner of a bookshelf, his thumb running over the tops of thick books until it comes to rest on a colorful spine.
“Here it is. I wrote a sequel to ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’. It’s called ‘Every Angel is Terrifying.’ Let me know what you think.”
John Joseph Vincent Kessel, 56, is an achieved author, a teacher, husband, father and amateur pianist.
His short stories have appeared in numerous publications, ranging from The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthology to www.scifi.com. His short story, “A Clean Escape” (1985) has been adapted for the new hour-long anthology series, Masters of Science Fiction. “It’s about accountability.” Kessel said, while noting his approval of writer Sam Eagen’s Northern Exposure adaptation script of his story, impressed that the maxim of his story remained intact during the conversion from paper to film. Based in a post-apocalyptic near future, “A Clean Escape” surrounds a psychiatrist who is trying to help a patient recover from a memory lapse. “Are you justified in punishing someone, even if they don’t remember doing it? What gives you the right to punish someone under those circumstances?” Kessel asked, “Like I said, it’s about accountability.” A Clean Escape, starring Judy Davis and Sam Waterston, is scheduled to appear on ABC this year.
More than meets the TV
Kessel said he loves literature. It is a passion that is evident to anyone who spends some time with him. “He loves what he writes,” Matthew Holmes, a senior in English, said. “And he still reads as much as he did when he started.” Kessel said his favorites include Herman Melville, Flannery O’Connor, Andre Norton and Isaac Asimov, to name a few, showing a wide variety of influences that shape his writing. In an interview with scifi.com, Kessel dubbed Melville as “probably the most significant influence” on him from “canonical literature.” On his Web site, the last line from Melville’s The Confidence Man stands, prophesying his future boldly at the top — “Something further may follow of this masquerade.” Kessel joined N.C. State’s staff in 1982, when he moved to Raleigh. He met his wife, graphic designer Sue Hall, after moving here. Kessel is the co-director of the M.F.A. program in Creative Writing. He teaches literature, fiction writing and science fiction. “I was a terrible teacher when I started,” he said about the nervousness he faces, knowing it’s just something he has to live with. Even with the nervousness, Kessel loves it all. “I love to see [my students get better]. I love to read. And after 30 years of walking through the classroom door, I still get nervous,” he said, though his entrance exhorts a much different attitude. More than a professor In a small room on the seventh floor of Poe Hall, graduate students sit around a long, wooden table in a room no bigger than Kessel’s office. With the vintage, green sofa in the only free corner and, at the opposite end, boxes of the journal American Psychologist dating 1977 to 1981, the scene is a mix of The Godfather and Laugh-In. Not too far from the truth of what will take place in the next few hours. Suddenly, a towering figure wearing a black leather cap and jacket and carrying a foreboding black satchel, strides through the door. “Sorry I’m late today, guys,” Kessel said as he takes off his hat and jacket, quickly settling in at the head of the table. His elbows rest on the surface in front of him, his hands folded in the air. “I was thinking I would bring some doughnuts and coffee the last class.” While discussing techniques of story submissions and cover letters, Kessel said, “If you’re going into science fiction, it probably wouldn’t hurt to mention my name.” After a pause, he quipped, “It probably wouldn’t help either.” As he stresses the importance of not selling short in order to get a name out, he encourages the student to think big, as he has done for years.
“I would get rejected with vast … awesome regularity.” Kessel said he submitted his first story to a magazine in seventh grade. It got rejected. But young Kessel was not disheartened. “It showed me that it was possible. The fact I got that little slip in the mail showed me it wasn’t out of the question,” he said.
The next story he wrote was during his time as an undergrad at the University of Rochester, where he majored in astrophysics.
“I wanted to be an astronomer,” Kessel said. But, after many extra English classes as a junior, Kessel decided to major in English as well. Though Kessel had decided he wanted to seriously pursue writing, he knew he “had to do something else besides write.” While getting his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Kansas, Kessel dabbled in journalism, working as an editor for Commodity News Services in Leawood, Kansas. Later on in the class, Kessel comments on his spot reserved in purgatory.
“I used to think I’d spend some time in limbo, but not anymore. It’s too late.” Matthew Holmes recounts a specific time when he dropped off a chapter manuscript of the novel he is working on under Kessel’s guidance to his office. “I changed all of this stuff that he had suggested needed to be changed,” he said.
After explaining with length and exasperation how he believed he had improved the manuscript but feared, and believed, he had “opened the door to a whole new host of problems,” Kessel just stared at him.
“Then he just smiled and said, ‘OK.’ That was it. I had nothing to say to that, so I just left.” Holmes said, laughing. John Kessel, the aspiring pianist, is not a side widely known by peers. After taking lessons with his daughter Emma, now 12, for a few years, he developed a love for the piano.
Emma has now outgrown her piano lessons and moved on to horseback riding, but Kessel still sits down and plays occasionally, trying to maintain what little form he has. A well-known fact for his students, however, is Kessel’s love for the Buffalo Bills. Born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., he is now a member of the RTP Buffalo Bills Fan Club, which meets every Sunday during the season to watch the games. “I figure one afternoon out of the week for a hobby isn’t that bad,” he said. While writing in his home office Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings, Kessel is tackling his latest feat. It is a satire, in book review form, about a man who was both a very influential and terrible man. Kessel doesn’t spend as much time as he would like on writing books. He spends a good percentage of his time working with fellow professor Wilton Barnhardt, as the co-director on the M.F.A. program.
Barnhardt and Kessel have worked together for years and are quite the pair. A writer himself, Barnhardt has many words on his colleague and friend. “John Kessel rides the line perfectly between the appeal of ‘high-end’ literature with all the satisfaction and richness that implies, while at the same time he can be appealing to most rocket ship and space alien loving science fiction reader.
“I see him as the heir to H.G. Wells, George Orwell. John Kessel belongs mentioned in the same breath as any postmodern writer. He dares to alter the accepted reality,” Barnhardt said. With the premiere of A Clean Escape and a new novel at work, Kessel is anything but fading, leaving us wondering what is next for John Kessel. But, there is one thing for certain. Something further may very well follow this masquerade.
