Person Unlimited: An Ode to My Black, Queer Body
By (Author) Dean Atta
Canongate Books
Canongate Books
24th September 2024
4th July 2024
Main
United Kingdom
Hardback
272
Width 141mm, Height 220mm, Spine 30mm
380g
You've fought and you've run away. You've danced with other Black, queer bodies until sunrise.Sometimes you wanted to be caught and sometimes you wanted to be held. With all that you've endured, you are nothing less than miraculous.From choirboy to drag act, grandson to mentor, poet to lover, Dean Atta has played many roles in his life. In this formally inventive, candid and courageous book, he explores what he has carried in his body: wins and losses, shame and pride, pain and joy. Dean also investigates how radical self-acceptance and a willingness to abide with discomfort open up the possibility of a life lived beyond definition: a person unlimited.
'Years ago within living memory this book would have been illegal and Dean could have been imprisoned for writing it. All memoir is a witness statement. Dean Atta, speak your truth and say it loud' - LEMN SISSAY
'Such a brave and important book' - SALENA GODDEN
'This is a tour de force of a book. It takes guts to bear it all like this. Dean does not mince words. In parts I laughed, albeit in gallows humour, was shocked to my core, shed tears and discovered hairs in parts of my body I never knew existed. Person Unlimited is not for the fainthearted; it is brutally honest. It is a testimonial of the fine writer Dean Atta' - ERIC NGALLE CHARLES
'Praise for Dean Atta: Dean Atta's poetry is as honest as truth itself. He follows no trend; he seeks no favours . . . Beyond black, beyond white, beyond straight, beyond gay, so I say. Love your eyes over these words of truth. You will be uplifted' - BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH
'Dean Atta is man on a mission' - TOM ROBINSON
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Dean Atta is an award-winning author and performance poet. He won the 2012 London Poetry Award and was named as one of the most influential LGBT people by the Independenton Sunday Pink List. He has written two YA novel-in-verses which includes The Black Flamingo which was a top-selling debut of 2020, and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, CILIP Carnegie Medal, the Jhalak Prize and the YA Book Prize. The Black Flamingo was also awarded the prestigious Stonewall Book Award and the Carnegie Shadowers' Choice Award 2020. Person Unlimited is his non-fiction debut.@DeanAtta