Juan Farris

Author bio

James Farris is a native of Detroit, MI whose works echo what survival in the city often feels like. His writing not just summons the thought and concept of upward mobility in an urban setting, but also it is reminiscent of an era in the city where progress was being made amidst the post-civil rights back drop of the late 80’s and early 1990s. The themes of his work are steadily between and betwixt imaginings of a thriving community, deeply instilled notions of romance, single parent families and the perseverance his imagery gives to maintaining where one lives and outside of family, who one loves. His works also delve into the nuances of being resolute in either, life or love. Farris has defined his start and desire to write as the result of the passing of a love interest "when he was too young to understand what her death would mean for the rest of his life". His audience as he defines them are those who know zeitgeist work, who may or may not be married but to them romance is essential “you know, keeping the fire lit is important”. And those who see the virtue in past events that shape their profound understanding of social achievement and upward- mobility. And also any person who wants to preserve the virtue of such events and the integrity of their encounters with people. Farris says about the postmortem inspiration for his writings, what the death would mean for his life and how it would endear him to his craft: “it was as if I poured myself into bringing her back to life, and without knowing that when the smoke cleared, it just wasn’t possible to do so." He says also, "Once I concluded that the person I love and the people I love are safer in God’s hands, and that is either deceased or alive, I began to look for ways to cry upon paper and when that no longer worked I began to write. I couldn’t begin to offer insight into how or why God does what God does, but writing definitely makes me feel better.”