The Center for Fiction hosted a conversation with Brandon Taylor and podcast host Matthew Sitman on October 26, 2026, to mark the release of Minor Black Figures.
Taylor’s novel follows Wyeth, a young Black painter navigating creative struggle, the split between Black and white art circles, and the ways the Black body is represented in elite Soho galleries.
During the discussion, Sitman highlighted Taylor’s choice to make Wyuth a painter rather than a writer, probing how the novel explores “the racist, essentialist logic” that frames Black art in America.
Taylor explained that the protagonist’s dual careers—among Black contemporaries and white contemporaries—mirror the broader conversations he observes for Black creators, noting that the same discursive patterns appear across media.
The author also described a plot point where Wyeth’s viral Instagram post during the 2020 BLM protests sparked debate among his peers, illustrating the tension between artistic intent and public reception.
Taylor said the novel aims to “explode” these conversations, revealing how even seemingly progressive discourse can reinforce reductive racial narratives.