Whiting Award winner Brontez Purnells debut novel is an uninhibited portrait of growing up gay in 1980s Alabama: exploring art and sex with more layered insight than the page count should allow (Hanif Abdurraqib,MTV News).

DeShawn lives a high, creative, and promiscuous life in San Francisco. But when hes called back to his cramped Alabama hometown for his uncles funeral, hes hit by flashbacks of handsome, doomed neighbors and sweltering Sunday services. Amidst prickly reminders of his childhood, DeShawn ponders family, church, and the men in his life, prompting the question: Who deserves love?

A modern American classic,Since I Laid My Burden Downis a raw and searing look into the intersections of memory, Blackness, and queerness.

“An antidote to the rigamarole of gay lit.”MaskMagazine

“Slim yet potently realized, with a lot to ponder.” The Bay Area Reporter

Since I Laid My Burden Downhas a fearless (sometimes reckless) humor as Brontez Purnell interrogates what it means to be Black, male, queer; a son, an uncle, a lover; Southern, punk, and human. An emotional tightrope walk of a book and an important American story rarely, if ever, told. Michelle Tea, author ofBlack Wave

• Item Weight:6.4 ounces
• Paperback:208 pages
• ISBN-10:1558614311
• ISBN-13:9781558614314
• Dimensions:4.8 x 0.5 x 8 inches
• Publisher:Amethyst Editions (June 13, 2017)
• Language:English