Forthcoming September 14, 2021
Paperback 🔸 $16.00 🔸 344 pages 🔸 ISBN 978-1-57131-191-7
Available for preorder from Source Booksellers!
We are so excited to publish Antonio Michael Downing’s memoir, Saga Boy: My Life of Blackness and Becoming, this September. Tracing Downing’s journey from the tropical forests of Trinidad to the stark landscape of rural Canada, Saga Boy is a poignant memoir of transformation. Downing explores the forces that fractured him as a boy—colonialism, trauma, and violent separations—as well as the forces that rebuilt him in all his kaleidoscopic glory, including music, art, activism, writing. Head to our blog to read an excerpt from the memoir and meet Miss Excelly, Downing’s grandmother who was always singing and whose voice, Downing writes, “perfumed the very air.”
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Antonio Michael Downing is the author of Saga Boy. He grew up in southern Trinidad, northern Ontario, Brooklyn, and Kitchener. He is a musician, writer, and activist based in Toronto. His debut novel, Molasses, was published to critical acclaim. In 2017, he was named by the RBC Taylor Prize as one of Canada’s top emerging authors for nonfiction. He performs and composes music as John Orpheus.
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“Singularly dazzling, Saga Boy is a brilliant collage of the twenty-first century’s most incredible memoirs. Told with an unforgettable and innovative pace, this a book I will reread forever.”
—Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy
“A vibrant, evocative, and searing account of the lives of Black immigrants. Downing helps us understand the rage and resilience of Black boys—motherless, fatherless, itinerant—and the communities that intervene to raise them. The triumph of Saga Boy is the triumph of Blackness everywhere—the irrepressible instinct for survival in a world where Blacks are prey.”
—Ian Williams, author of Reproduction
“An emotionally captivating, heartbreaking read on one man’s journey to understand who he is, where he comes from and where he belongs. From being the only Black family in Wabigoon to moving transformatively through the music scene in the city, Saga Boy makes us all question the strength of the ties that bind and where our future lies.”
—Tanya Talaga, author of Seven Fallen Feathers and All Our Relations
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Catch Antonio Michael Downing in conversation with musician and Kumbuka host Kaylan Waterman about Saga Boy: My Life of Blackness and Becoming this Saturday, February 20, 2021 at 6 pm CST/7 pm EST. Northwestern Michigan College Library and Title Track will host Downing and Waterman for a conversation about how memory, family, and our collective histories shape our identity.
This event, called “Blackness & Becoming,” will feature a conversation between Downing and Waterman, as well as an opportunity for audience Q&A. Join the event via this Zoom link (Webinar ID: 937 8598 5852). We hope to see you there!
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MILKWEED EDITIONS
Community-Supported Literature
Milkweed Editions is an independent book publisher based in Minneapolis. We publish a range of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that introduces readers to different ways of living in and seeing the world. We fulfill our mission through our publishing program and through our independent bookstore, which specializes in introducing readers to exciting work from our fellow independent presses. Independent literature is made possible by readers like you. Invest in the writers and books of tomorrow with a donation to Milkweed today!
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