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| photo: Steven Duarte | |
On your nightstand now:
The newly reissued version of Samantha Irby's Meaty. I am obsessed with her previous book, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, and her blog, bitchesgottaeat. I also have Darnell Moore's No Ashes in the Fire. This year, there are two black queer writers with memoirs released via major publishers. As Mariah Carey would say, It's a moment (dahling), and I couldn't be prouder to share it with a storyteller of Darnell's caliber. Lastly, I have Jesmyn Ward's Men We Reaped because I've been depriving myself for too long.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Don't tell my mama but it wasn't all those religious books she gave me, it was R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series. They were horror mixed with humor. When you read my book, you'll understand that I could clearly relate even back then.
Your top five authors:
Zora Neale Hurston because I love the way she told stories and I have this odd attachment to her use of dialect; Audre Lorde because I always need to be smarter; Kiese Laymon because even after one book (How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America) I am just in awe of his writing and his mind; David Sedaris because his books let me know what could be; Samantha Irby because like I said, I'm obsessed with her. More importantly, though, we need to pay greater homage to our black humorists; she's phenomenal.
Book you've faked reading:
I never finished Fire & Fury because I read all of the excerpts online, and with the Sweet Potato Saddam administration, you know it's hard to keep up with the drama. I'd apologize to Michael Wolff, but I wouldn't want to interrupt him swimming through a vault of gold like (Uncle) Scrooge McDuck.
Book you're an evangelist for:The Broke Diaries by Angela Nissel. It is so funny and so few people still really wrestle with class struggles--particularly in such an honest yet incredibly witty way.
Book you've bought for the cover:
I've never done this; I just usually pray that the person whose words I want to read doesn't have a really ugly cover presenting them.
Book you hid from your parents:
I actually didn't really have to do this kind of thing with my parents normally, but once E. Lynn Harris gave me a copy of his memoir. I interned at a radio station back in Houston, when I was around 19/20, and he was there to do an interview about it. I wasn't out to myself much less my folks, so I promptly gave the book to my mom.
And while I didn't hide it per se, I didn't necessarily want my mom knowing I was reading James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room.
Book that changed your life:
Keepin' It Real: Post-MTV Reflections on Race, Sex, and Politics by Kevin Powell. It changed my life in that it was perhaps the first time that I picked up a book full of cultural criticism from an author that wasn't dead. It made me think, "No, fool, you really can do this one day."
Favorite line from a book:
"Then Aaliyah's hmms and yea yeahs saved me from my awkward failings, calling me to the stage like a sultry siren." It's from Janet Mock's Surpassing Certainty. If I were a stripper, I, too, would debut to Aaliyah's "Rock the Boat." Also, y'all caught me doing this after dodging a call from my oppressive student loan lenders, so I have stripping on the mind.
Five books you'll never part with:
Bulletproof Diva by Lisa Jones; Redefining Realness by Janet Mock; The Price of the Ticket by James Baldwin; A Right to Be Hostile: The Boondocks Treasury by Aaron McGruder; The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.
Yes, I realize how random this list reads. It's fine.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
White Girl Problems by Babe Walker. I know people were probably expecting something profound, but even if I may not be the intended demo, I love satire and these books are so damn hilarious. Literally, I'm black, I'm gay and I'm not in the 1%. More often than not, I just need a laugh and a distraction. These books always crack me up.