Jesse Ball
Chicago, IL
Jesse Ball (1978-) Fabulist. Born in New York. His works of absurdity have been published in many parts of the world and translated into more than a dozen languages.
From the Journal
- Ten Summer Books for the Radical Reader August 17, 2022
- Jesse Ball’s New Novel CENSUS Proposes Other Ways of Knowing March 5, 2018
Census
Jesse Ball
Artist BioCensus is a travel-narrative about a retired doctor who travels north conducting the census with his adult son, a man with Down Syndrome. The book consists of a series of sections, each a discrete visit to a house or a rumination that the census taker has regarding his past life. The text is inspired by the author’s brother, who had Down Syndrome and died at the age of 25. Through Census, Ball will imagine what his brother would have been like had he lived into adulthood, presenting a portrait of what it means to know and love a person with Down Syndrome that runs counter to our culture’s representations of the condition.
Census was published by HarperCollins in March, 2018.
From the Journal
How do you give an important person in your life a role in your art without speaking for them? This was the challenge Jesse Ball faced in writing his newest novel and Creative Capital Project, Census, published on March 6. In the preface of Census, the author explains that his brother, who had Down syndrome, died in 1988. Having always wanted to write a story with his brother as a character, Jesse decided to fit him “in the middle” of the plot and only explain the impressions he makes on other characters. In this way, Jesse hopes the book will help “people to see what it is like to know and love a Down syndrome boy or girl.”