The University of Wisconsin Press
Memoir / Gay & Lesbian Interest / Latino Interest
Autobiography of My Hungers “An unforgettable portrait of the artist as a young immigrant gay poet. These brief, passionate chapters are filled with rare courage, raw honesty, and the uncommon beauty of a life spent yearning for consolation and hope. Absolutely arresting.” The need for sustenance originating in childhood poverty, the adolescent emotional need for solace and comfort, the adult desire for a larger world, another lover, a different body—all are explored by González in a series of heartbreaking and poetic vignettes. Each vignette is a defining moment of self-awareness, every moment an important step in a lifelong journey toward clarity, knowledge, and the nourishment that comes in various forms—even “the smallest biggest joys” help piece together a complex portrait of a gay man of color who at last defines himself by what he learns, not by what he yearns for. Praise “Told in a series of revealing vignettes and poems, González's Autobiography of my Hungers turns moments of need and want into revelations of truth and self-awareness, creating the portrait of an artist that is complex if not entirely complete.” “Rigoberto González's trim yet artistically potent Autobiography of My Hungers combines poetry, musings, memories, pleasures, pains, and most importantly, yearnings that have made him the exacting artist he has become today. . . . González's self-analysis by means of mixed media is stimulating, enlightening, and well worth the journey.” “This beautiful, unconventional memoir, infused with poetic language, places González firmly in the top tier of American writers. Not only aficionados of memoir, poetry, and Latin American and gay literature but also general audiences will enjoy these stories and poems.” “Immigrant and gay readers may experience release in the book's agonizing familiarity; all readers will find it lusciously evocative.” “González writes with deep, soul-crushing sadness. He pens with the beauty of a poet.” “Through his provocative vignettes, González communicates a lifetime of struggle for affirmation and self-acceptance.” “A slim volume of candid vignettes that illuminate an artist's blossoming against a backdrop of brutal poverty and emotional tumult.”
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“A haunting book, whose many senses linger long after reading it.” “The compelling story of a life that routinely— necessarily— crosses borders of ethnic, socioeconomic, and sexual identities.”
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Rigoberto González is the author of thirteen books of poetry and prose and the editor of Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing. His memoir Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa won the American Book Award, and he has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a contributing editor for Poets & Writers Magazine, serves on the executive board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle, and is an associate professor of English at Rutgers-Newark, the State University of New Jersey.
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