Read reviews of Kenny's books, interviews and conversations with Kenny Fries, and recently published essays and poems by Kenny.
"In the summer of 1989, I began searching for the words with which to begin speaking about my own experience living with a congenital physical disability . . ." So begins Kenny's essay, "The Body's World: Writing the Body Different,” now published by LA Review of Books.
Read MoreThe Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, through a combination of conferences and residency programs, supports the work of scholars, artists, thought leaders, policymakers, and practitioners who share in the Foundation’s pioneering mission to “promote the well-being of humanity around the world.”
“The CMLP Firecracker Awards for Independently and Self-Published Literature spotlights books and magazines making a sparkling contribution to our literary culture, and publishers striving to introduce important voices to readers far and wide.”
Read MoreIn the Province of the Gods is a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Gay Memoir/Biography.
Read More"Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you."
- Ford Madox Ford
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"Is this why I came to Japan? To ferry my dead across the Tamagawa?"
Read More"All is color and excess bordering on “kitsch,” for which there is no Japanese word."
Read More"These books move disability from the margins to the center, where they provide a critical lens to look at how we—disabled and nondisabled alike—live, or might live, our lives."
Read More"Japanese culture looks at impermanence as a part of life. . . It permeates so much of the culture from noh to butoh to garden design to the wonderfully crazy obsession with flowers, most evident to us in cherry blossom festivities."
Read More“Being disabled my entire life, I have yet to experience the kind of loss that MM must feel. To me, disability is the norm.”
Read More"I have always loved the way [Kenny Fries's} writing links the events of his own life with questions raised by the narratives of history. I had much I wanted to ask him about after reading In the Province of the Gods."
Read More"What makes a life worth living? Do looks, ability, and talent make your life more valuable than someone else's? Kenny Fries has made it his life’s work to understand just that."
Read More"For those of us who live with disabilities, when we think of access we mostly think of physical access: ramps, lifts, and technological aides. But cultural access is just as essential as physical access to an inclusive society."
Read More"Ultimately, Fries wrote 27 drafts, but it was not until the 23rd that the book finally found its form. . . . The finished book is less about disability in Japan than a meditation on how different cultures deal with impermanence and mortality."
Read MorePassport Magazine calls In the Province of the Gods "a deeply resonant memoir that inspires gratitude in both writer and reader."
Read MoreFavorite book when you were a child? Book that changed your life? Kenny answers these and other questions.
Read MoreWatch and listen to two prominent writers with disabilities talk about disability, the body, Japan, and change.
Read More"Fries opens himself up to the page sharing his secrets and his quest to understand Japan, disability, and more importantly his place in the world."
Read MoreElizabeth Foulke asks Kenny: "What continues to be overlooked in Western culture due to our lack of language for, or a lack of narratives that incorporate the experience of people with disabilities?
Read MoreWell-known disability rights activist and Ford Foundation Fellow Judy Heumann talks with Kenny about In the Province of the Gods, his article in The New York Times, and the importance of mentorship.
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