Essay honored

For years, Mason Stokes was perplexed by memories of the ambiguous lifestyle of his uncle, whose name he shares.

"It's been vaguely in my consciousness as long as I can remember," says the Skidmore English professor, who is gay and now suspects his bachelor uncle shared that trait. Stokes has no proof, just clues in the form of black-and-white photographs he studied after his uncle's death. Those hidden-away pictures sparked Stokes's acclaimed essay "Namesake."

"For me," he says, "it was a story about trying to understand. Exploration, but not necessarily knowing for sure, at the end of the day, the truth of my uncle."  He adds, "I've never written a personal essay. This was the first, and I just feel like I lucked into the material." 

Colorado Review first published the story, and Stokes was thrilled to have it begin and end there. But soon it was selected to appear in The Best American Essays 2016. The anthology was edited by Pulitzer and National Book Award winner Jonathan Franzen, a novelist and essayist himself. Such a national honor, Stokes says “is not something I ever imagined. You just don't ever think that that's going to happen. The odds are too great.”

The success of "Namesake" notwithstanding, Stokes still doesn't consider himself a memoirist. He is currently working on a novel for young adults.