42 TIME March 1/March 8, 2021
100 next
BRIT
BENNETT
30 • Standout storyteller
BY TAYARI JONES
Jazz, as everyone knows, is built
on the standards—the songs
that every musician knows by
heart. A similar dynamic under-
girds the American literary
tradition. Evergreen story
lines make up the fabric of our
collective narrative, endlessly
fascinating, yielding fresh
insights when passed through
the imagination of a writer who
fi nds new music between the
notes of the classics.
Such a storyteller is BritBennett. Racial passing, the
phenomenon at the core of her
astonishing novel The Vanishing
Half, is as familiar to American
literature as “Lush Life” is to the
American songbook. Yet Ben-
nett is informed and inspired by
the intensities and complexities
of our present moment. If race
is a construct, what about gen-
der? What are the limits of self-
defi nition? How can one delin-
eate its wages and costs?
In jazz, many artists sing the
standards, but in literature only
the most gifted can re-voice the
classics, rendering them recog-
nizable yet, well, novel.
Brit Bennett, take a bow.Jones is the author of the novels
An American Marriage, Silver
Sparrow and The UntellingSydneyMcLaughlin21 • RIGHT ON
TRACKBY ALLYSON FELIXSydney McLaughlin possesses a
quiet confi dence that demands
your attention. She is creating
her own path but understands
that we stand on the shoulders
of the ones who come before
us. I train alongside Syd every
day, and what I notice the most
is her tremendous potential and
not just as an Olympic athlete.
She has the potential to become
the most outstanding 400-m
hurdler of all time, yes, but,
more importantly, Syd has the
potential to impact lives. That
is her greatest strength and her
greatest opportunity.
I’ve enjoyed watching her
learn to use her voice and
speak up on issues that she’s
passionate about—using her
platform to advocate against
bullying, for example—and I
know that the mark she will leave
on this world will be so much
bigger than records and medals.
She will show girls and women
that success doesn’t make your
life easy, that bullying happens
even when you’re beautiful, and
that your voice has power beyond
what you could ever imagine.Felix is an Olympic track-and-fi eld
sprinter