William Melvin Kelley, "who brought a fresh, experimental voice to black fiction in novels and stories that used recurring characters to explore race relations and racial identity in the United States," died February 1, the New York Times reported. He was 79. Kelley's first novel, A Different Drummer, was published in 1962, but the "author's hope for a peaceful resolution of America's racial problems, reflected in his early writing, waned over time. After the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, he took a more radical stance and a more experimental approach to fiction that culminated in his last novel, the dystopian fantasy Dunfords Travels Everywheres (1970)," the Times wrote. His other books include A Drop of Patience and Dem.
An avid photographer and filmmaker, Kelly "amassed a number of awards, including the Rosenthal Foundation Award and John Hay Whitney Foundation Award. He was saluted and received honors from the Black Academy of Arts and Letters, and was the recipient of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2008," Amsterdam News wrote.