Quincy Flowers

Quincy Flowers is a writer who approaches fiction as a practice and research interest. His work explores how imagined constructs—such as family, nations, currencies, tastes, and identities—anchor meaning and structure experience. He holds a Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston, an M.A. in American Literature from New York University—where he was a New York Times Fellow—and a B.A. in English from Kennesaw State University.

His research focuses on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century social and epistemic practices that emerged around tea, coffee, and wine, particularly how these rituals shape taste and knowledge, and how they project aspiration and signal social class. He is currently working on a collection of essays organized around wine tasting notes, as well as a novel about Duke Nelson, the Georgia okra farmer, winemaker, mechanical engineer, and inventor.

Flowers’ writing has appeared in Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire and in Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic (Prestel, 2015), the companion volume to the Brooklyn Museum exhibition. His collaborative performance with Steffani Jemison, Flight Theater, was presented at the Centre d’art contemporain Genève (2024) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (2025); forthcoming performances will be presented at the Westfälischer Kunstverein (Münster, Germany) and the Kitchen (New York, NY). He has also collaborated with composer and performer Justin Hicks, and is a co-founder of the writing community at Louis Place. Through these projects, he continues to explore how fiction, performance, and community practices focus attention and fashion meaning in our lives.




Selected writing





“Don’t move too much,” she said. “You’ll only feel the first pinch.”

“The Journey” 


Saya Woolfalk: Field Notes From the Empathic Universe,  edited by Tricia Laughlin Bloom. The Newark Museum of Art, 2022. fiction
Filed under:
soil, biota
 read, purchase

“The image is enigmatic. But only to the uninitiated and unlearned. Those of us in the know will find it difficult to overlook the charge of desire radiating from these unnaturally bold colors.”
    

“On Eliot’s Flight” 


A Gathering, edited by Shani Strand. New York, NY, 2021. fiction
Filed under:
atmoshphere read, purchase

“The sculpture freezes the frame, capturing a sense of suspended animation. Will we ever press play? What happens then? Whose side are you on?”

“Whose Side Are You On” 


The Protest and Recuperation, edited by Betti-Sue Hertz and Sreshta Rit Premnath. Wallach Gallery, Columbia University Press, 2021.fiction
Filed under:
atmosphere read, purchase

“Those were the days, as they say. I do not quite understand why this is said so often. I suppose some speakers of these words are looking back to something lost, something changed unfavorably, so the words begin a lament.”

“Lou Walker Road” 


Black Renaissance Noir, New York University, Vol. 18 Issue 2, Fall 2018.fiction
Filed under:
soil, read, purchase

“Beneath the hills were the cows, so we watched them.”

“Jacob’s Lake” 


Black Renaissance Noir, New York University, Vol. 18 Issue 2, Fall 2018.fiction
Filed under:
water, soil, biota read, purchase

“There was a hill. Sam hugged his knees as he fell from the high bank, slapped the water, and disappeared.”

“Walking Water” 


Black Renaissance Noir, New York University, Vol. 18 Issue 2, Fall 2018.fiction
Filed under:
water, atmosphere read, purchase

“Reaching our distance: bongs from Bongo the drummer, most likely—Bongo even though he drums an Ewe drum.”

“Going to the Wiley Opening” 


Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic, Brooklyn Museum/Prestel. 2015.fiction
Filed under:
water, atmosphere read, purchase

“I sat the buckets together, rolled up my pant legs and stepped in”

“Two Buckets Back East” 


Book Club Book, Future Plan and Program, 2011.fiction
Filed under:
water, atmosphere read, purchase