Kim Hunter’s ‘The Official Report on Human Activity’ Explores Issues of Race, Gender

“I put the stories out there as they came to me and people have to build the building from that blueprint.”

Gus Navarro/WDET

When race, class, and gender are layered over media and changes in technology, it is enough for any writer to grapple with and come up with something meaningful.

Author Kim Hunter goes a step further in his new book, The Official Report on Human Activity, and places all of those dynamics in an invented world, where fantastical scenarios focus the reader’s attention on serious cultural and social issues.

Hunter joins Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson and speaks about what led him to write the book and shares a passage from it.

The Official Report is a set of stories connected by reccurring characters struggling with media representation and issues of race, class, and gender.

Hunter thinks of his book “as a blueprint.”

“I give you a blueprint and you build something,” he says. “There are a lot of gaps between the stories. I put the stories out there as they came to me and people have to build the building from that blueprint.”  

Hunter will be talking about his new book at the Scarab Club in Detroit on Thursday, May 10th at 7pm. 

Click on the audio player above for the full conversation. 

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