Omar Tyree raw and uncut: the self-described "Urban Griot" hopes to cultivate more black male readers with his next novel Leslie - Cover Story

Black Issues Book Review, July-August, 2002 by Brett Johnson

"He was six-foot-four, 225 pounds. I was four-foot-nine, 70-something pounds," Tyree recalls. "He established the rules. I was hatin' him and all that. But I understood that it was good medicine for me. So I was like, let me do what I got to do to have peace with that man and then get out of here," he says. "By the time I got to college, there was a whole lot of responsibilities and a whole lot of manhood that I was just up on that the rest of the kids maybe didn't get."

Tyree's sense of purpose translated into going to the University of Pittsburgh, majoring in pharmaceutical science and running track, with an eye toward joining the football team.

But soon sports and pharmacy gave way to literary ambitions. The next thing Tyree knew, an English writing assignment turned him into a campus mini-celebrity, and he was bitten by the writing bug.

I was in the Phi Eta Sigma honor society in pharmacy, but by the time I got to my sophomore year I had no passion for it," he explains. "I could do it, but my passion was for this new writing stuff, `cause it's expressive. And when I

got in front of the audience and they responded the way they did, it was powerful. It was addictive. That's what motivated me, it's like dunking that basketball and the crowd goes off."

Ironically, Tyree's interest in writing his own stories did not spark an interest in reading classic literature. He still thought of literature as only Shakespeare or "a book that you didn't want to read in the first place." Instead, after transferring to Howard University in Washington, D.C., for his final two years, he majored in journalism, wrote for the school newspaper, and interned at local papers to polish his voice.

Self-publishing success

By graduation in 1991, he had finished two books, Colored, On White Campus and Flyy Girl. With the small amount he'd saved and loans from family members, Tyree, self-published and distributed his books at local bookstores and at book fairs. In 1995, Simon & Schuster got wind of the upstart writer, signed him, and rereleased Flyy Girl, Tyree's best known book to date.

Since then, the novelist who once hated English class has released a new title each year. His latest, Leslie, is a dialogue-heavy urban tale of the title character's attempts to transcend her sordid past through her connection to the spirit world, set against the multicultural backdrop of contemporary New Orleans.

"Leslie, man, another masterpiece. Hopefully, they'll feel this one," he says. The bigwigs at the publishing house hope so as well.

Geoff Kloske, who edited Leslie and three other Omar Tyree hardcovers, says Tyree sets himself apart from Dickey and Harris because in each book he tackles a specific social issue. Yet it still puzzles Kloske why Tyree has not achieved the critical acclaim equivalent to his commercial success.

"He's hit The New York Times bestseller list but never been reviewed by The New York Times," says Kloske. "It's not like he's gotten any notice in relationship to his prominence in the marketplace," he says. "James Patterson, big commercial writer will get reviewed everywhere. Is it based on literary merit or on commercial appeal? Omar's a big, popular writer who doesn't even get reviewed negatively That's been frustrating."