10 stories, essays, blogposts and book excerpts by black, gay, HIV-positive author Randy Boyd
Race relations, living with HIV/AIDS, adolescent heartbreak, gay life, the healing power of dogs. Randy Boyd has written on these subjects and more. Now, in one collection, revisit some of the five-time Lambda Literary Award finalist’s most essential writings, featuring 10 stories, essays, blogposts and book excerpts from the black, gay, HIV-positive author.
After four novels, over 500 blogposts and a plethora of pieces published elsewhere, from Outsports.com to Poz Magazine, the author asked himself: “What if someone only had the opportunity to read a sampling of my writing? Which of my works best define me and my experience?”
The answer: The Essential Randy Boyd, Volume 1.
Says the author: “From this collection, I hope people have a better understanding of me, both as a person and as a writer. You know the old saying, walk a mile in my shoes. This is the readers’ chance to go on a very unique walk with me.”
The Essential Randy Boyd, Volume 1, is available as an ebook for .99 cents from the following ebook sellers:
What’s inside The Essential Randy Boyd, Volume 1
Battle scars: a young man’s transformation from being overweight, in the closet and afraid of getting AIDS, to getting in shape, coming out to his family and taking the HIV test.
Just like Magic: while the world reacted to Magic Johnson’s famous HIV announcement in 1991, one black gay man already living with the virus reacted to the world’s reaction in this essay published that same year.
Dear Magic Johnson, thanks for saving life: giving credit where credit it due — to Magic and Cookie Johnson for their decades-long work dealing with the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The day I died in 9th-grade gym class: the school’s white quarterback makes an off-handed comment and a crushed, adolescent black boy is left to pick up the pieces.
Sometimes I forget I’m a nigger: the Rodney King-related, Los Angeles riots of 1992 was a life changing-event for many Angelenos, including Randy, who wrote this piece for a magazine while the smoke was still smoldering.
When the USC Sigma Chi’s called me nigger: what happens when you survive childhood to escape to college in California, only to get there and be called “nigger” the week before school starts?
Why pet the dog when in doubt: bittersweet childhood memory reinforces the healing power of pets. From Randy’s blog series, “When in doubt, pet the dog.”
Update from the unlovable nigger faggot: that feeling you get when you realize most of your peers reject you for being black and gay … and for living with HIV/AIDS.
Listen up, Kunta Kinte Koleman!: while looking back at the racial history of America through word play, a black gay man has some advice for his slave ancestors from the past.
Left for dead: the good, bad and ugly about surviving HIV/AIDS for 30+ years and counting, as detailed in an article in A&U Magazine.
Randy Boyd author 