In celebration of Black History Month, we’ll be highlighting a diverse range of books – poetry, novels, memoirs and more – all written by Black American authors. Each of these works moved, engaged, delighted, enraged, and excited Island Free Library readers’ this past year, and we’ll be featuring one title every day through the month of February.
Today’s work is Brian Broome’s memoir Punch Me Up to the Gods, a riveting and raw coming-of-age story about growing up Black and queer in rural Ohio. Framed by lines from Gwendolyn Brook’s “We Real Cool,” this book will grab you, shake you up, and set you down different then you were before. A NYT Editor’s Pick and the winner of the 2021 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, Punch Me Up to the Gods is a must-read.
Brian Broome is a poet, memoirist and screenwriter, and winner of the grand prize in Carnegie Mellon University’s Martin Luther King Writing Awards. Punch Me Up to the Gods is Brian’s first full-length book. He lives in Pittsburgh, but is currently a 2022 Writer in Residence at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California. Stay tuned for a new book tomorrow!
