News, Reviews & Interviews
Reviews & Articles
October 19, 2022 -- Buckham Fine Arts Project is please to announce its third Writer In Residence: Bob Campbell
Buckham Fine Arts Project launched its Writer In Residence project in early 2021 to engage contemporary literary arts and Flint’s Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) community. BFAP is pleased to announce the selection of its third Writer in Residence, Bob Campbell.
Campbell will produce written components responding to each exhibition. This collaboration will provide an opportunity for Campbell to engage with his interest in visual art and gain exposure for his literary arts, and engage Flint’s BIPOC community in a meaningful way.
Buckham Fine Arts Project launched its Writer In Residence project in early 2021 to engage contemporary literary arts and Flint’s Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) community. BFAP is pleased to announce the selection of its third Writer in Residence, Bob Campbell.
Campbell will produce written components responding to each exhibition. This collaboration will provide an opportunity for Campbell to engage with his interest in visual art and gain exposure for his literary arts, and engage Flint’s BIPOC community in a meaningful way.
June 29, 2021 -- Michigan Quarterly Review (Watching and Listening: An Interview with Bob Campbell)
Except:
Except:
- Lillian Peace: How does your debut novel connect to your geographical experience as a Michigan writer?
- Bob Campbell: We are products of our environments, or communities, for better or for worse. I borrowed heavily from my hometown of Flint in crafting the setting for Motown Man. The city isn’t named, but the fictional suburb—located in “a township masquerading as a city”—where Bradley lives is called Grand Heights, which is a composite of different cookie-cutter suburbs.
April 1, 2021 -- Michigan in Books: Review
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
- Based on this fine first novel Campbell, a native of Flint, has a bright future in fiction. ... The result is a sensitive and honest portrayal of ethnic and racial diversity within Flint and the country.
- Wow, what a debut!
Feb. 2, 2021 -- My City Magazine profile: Motown Man
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
- Motown Man, a newly published novel, is a story of an interracial romance set in a faded, Midwestern industrial town. It is filled with veiled racial tension, marked by uncertainty and on the edge of losing its identity.
Jan. 12, 2021 -- Flintside: “It continued to nag at me, the belief that I had a story worth telling”
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
- The book touches on love, hope, and humanity as well as ethics, identity, and race relations. Contrary to the book’s title, it doesn’t take place in Detroit, but in a small industrial Midwest city in the early 1990s, significantly similar to Flint, Michigan.
Jan. 2, 2021 -- Flintbeat: Flint-based author publishes novel set in Flint-like city
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
- Bradley works as an engineer, and Abby as a reporter. The novel follows their respective narratives throughout the week they are apart while Abby is in Miami for work. The Flint-like city comes alive through glimpses into Bradley’s abrasive workplace, smoky music clubs, local barber shops, and more.
Dec. 30, 2020 -- Lansing State Journal: ‘Motown Man’ deals with tough choices, no easy answers
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
- "Motown Man" comes together with an unexpected conclusion that will make you realize in tough times there aren't always easy answers.
Dec. 16, 2020 -- East Village Magazine: A five-day odyssey of “Motown Man” explores familiar themes, settings in Flint author Bob Campbell’s first novel
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
- About halfway through Motown Man—chapter 14 of 24—I was flush with details about location, time, and main characters; I was looking for the plot to thicken. In the final chapters of Motown Man, I was not disappointed. The book’s climax was a gut punch.
Oct. 8, 2020 -- Hypertext Magazine: One Question ("What is the significance of 'Motown' in the name and how did you arrive at that title?")
Sept. 2019 -- CAN Journal: Belt's Midwest Architecture Journeys
- Flint is notorious for its water problem, but Bob Campbell explores another facet of that tormented city in “The Flat Lots of Flint: A Liminal State of Mind.” Opening with lines from Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” he takes us on a tour of the grand, late-19th– and early-20th-century buildings of Flint, effectively set into relief by the parking lots. The subtext is that capitalism is cannibalistic.
Readings & Videos
By the River Reading Series - February 2021 Episode Featuring Bob Campbell & Khary Mason
Please join us as we kick off the 2021 By the River Series online. We will be celebrating Black History Month with two exceptional readers: Bob Campbell and Khary Mason.
Please join us as we kick off the 2021 By the River Series online. We will be celebrating Black History Month with two exceptional readers: Bob Campbell and Khary Mason.
The Detroit Writing Room hosted "Motown Man" author Bob Campbell on Feb. 18, 2021 for a virtual book talk. Bob gave a reading during the event and answered questions during a Q&A.
All Write in Sin City -- Exploring Buick City with Bob Campbell. Tension and romance in the debut novel, Motown Man.
The All Write in Sin City (Windsor, Ontario) podcast in Windsor, Ontario, called MOTOWN MAN “a great story.”
All Write interviewer Irene Moore Davis added: “I think that it’s going to lead to some great conversations. It’s the kind of book that really is a perfect book to read at this point in history.”
Rochester Hills Public Library 2020 Author Fair -- Nov. 29, 2020: Bob Campbell is a writer based in Flint, MI. His creative nonfiction and essays have appeared in Belt Magazine, Forge Literary Magazine and Gravel Magazine. He is a contributor to Belt Publishing’s Midwest Architecture Journeys. Bob was a staff writer for the Flint Journal, Lexington Herald-Leader and Detroit Free Press.