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Trey Ellis

トレイ・エリス

Torei Erisu

Pen Names: Tom Ricostronza（Used as a pen name for co-writing the screenplay of The Inkwell）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Washington, D.C. → Manhattan, New York City

Career

Occupations
novelist, screenwriter, professor, playwright, essayist
Active Years
1988-
Affiliations
Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts (Professor of Professional Practice)
Influenced By
Gilbert Sorrentino, Alexander Theroux

Education

Hopkins School
Country: United States
Phillips Academy, Andover
Country: United States
Studied under Alexander Theroux.
Stanford University
Creative writing / literature-related
Country: United States
Editor of the Stanford Chaparral; wrote his first novel Platitudes in a creative writing class taught by Gilbert Sorrentino.

Awards

American Book Award
Work: Right Here, Right Now
Organization: Before Columbus Foundation
Result: 受賞
Peabody Award
Work: The Tuskegee Airmen (TV)
Organization: Peabody Awards
Result: 受賞
Emmy Award (nomination)
Work: The Tuskegee Airmen (TV)
Organization: Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
Result: ノミネート
PEN (shortlisted for Best Teleplay)
Work: Good Fences (TV)
Organization: PEN International
Result: ショートリスト

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Platitudes

1988 metafiction / coming-of-age

A metafictional novel that uses a story-within-a-story structure to explore coming-of-age themes and the New Black Aesthetic. It examines cultural hybridity through the lives of young black characters.

New Black Aestheticcultural mulattoidentityrace and class

Home Repairs

1993 novel

A novel addressing family struggles and facets of urban life.

familyurban lifeidentity

Right Here, Right Now

1999 novel

A novel portraying individual moments within social contexts. It received an American Book Award.

urban liferaceindividual and society

Bedtime Stories: Adventures in the Land of Single-Fatherhood

2008 memoir / essays

A memoir of life as a single father, focusing on daily experiences and parenting.

fatherhoodparentingpersonal memoir

Bibliography

  • Platitudes (1988)
  • Home Repairs (1993)
  • Right Here, Right Now (1999)
  • Bedtime Stories: Adventures in the Land of Single-Fatherhood (2008)

Adaptations

  • The Tuskegee Airmen (TV film, screenwriting contribution)
  • Good Fences (TV film, teleplay)
  • The Inkwell (feature film, co-writer as Tom Ricostronza)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
postmodernmetafictionessayistic prose
Recurring Motifs
cultural mulattohybrid identitiesintersections of city life and class

Legacy

Trey Ellis is known for theorizing the New Black Aesthetic since the 1980s; as a novelist, screenwriter and educator he is recognized for exploring hybrid identities and the plurality of blackness through metafiction and cultural critique.

In Popular Culture

  • The concept of the New Black Aesthetic is cited in discussions of contemporary TV and music (e.g., Atlanta, Insecure, Dirty Computer).

Quotes

  • I now know that I'm not the only black person who sees the black aesthetic as much more than just Africa and jazz. Finally finding a large body of the like-minded armors me with the nearly undampenable enthusiasm of the born again.
    Source: Trey Ellis, "The New Black Aesthetic," Callaloo, Winter 1989 (1989)

Trivia

  • Used the pen name Tom Ricostronza for co-writing The Inkwell.
  • Served as an editor for the Stanford Chaparral.
  • Subject of a half-hour PBS documentary in 1991.