My Autobiography of Carson McCullers: A Memoir (No Dust Jacket) [B0874]

2020 HC without its dust jacket, in nice clean condition. Winner of the Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction, Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award, and a Lambda Literary Award Finalist for the National Book Award. Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.

How do you tell the real story of someone misremembered-an icon and idol-alongside your own? Jenn Shapland's celebrated debut is both question and answer: an immersive, surprising exploration of one of America's most beloved writers, alongside a genre-defying examination of identity, queerness, memory, obsession, and love. Shapland is a graduate student when she first uncovers love letters written to Carson McCullers by a woman named Annemarie. Though Shapland recognizes herself in the letters, which are intimate and unabashed in their feelings, she does not see McCullers as history has portrayed her. Her curiosity gives way to fixation, not just with this newly discovered side of McCullers's life, but with how we tell queer love stories. Why, Shapland asks, are the stories of women paved over by others' narratives? What happens when constant revision is required of queer women trying to navigate and self-actualize in straight spaces? And what might the tracing of McCullers's life-her history, her secrets, her legacy-reveal to Shapland about herself? In smart, illuminating prose, Shapland interweaves her own story with McCullers's to create a vital new portrait of one of our nation's greatest literary treasures, and shows us how the writers we love and the stories we tell about ourselves make us who we are.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "So much to say about this book, already my favorite of the year immediately. I devoured it. A love letter to all the queer people, and lesbians specifically, who are erased from history and whose loves are downplayed. I thought the format of this memoir was so genius, combining facts about Carson and the author's own coming out journey. The study of the importance of objects to telling someone's lives, and the importance of archiving those objects, particularly clothes, was so interesting. I already want to read this again at least three times this year."; "I thought this was f**king brilliant."; "I really enjoyed this book. I appreciate the unique approach the author took, bouncing between the personal and the historian."