These Heathens!: A Novel

(Hardback)

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From the "razor-sharp and outrageously funny" (Taylor Jenkins Reid) mind of Mia McKenzie comes a vibrant new novel exploring how one weekend can change your whole life. In this vibrant, gratifying novel, a pious, small-town teenager travels to Atlanta to get an abortion and finds herself smack in the middle of the civil rights movement and the secret lives of queer Black people. Where do you get an abortion in 1960 Georgia, especially if your small town's midwife goes to the same church as your parents For seventeen-year-old Doris Steele, the answer is Atlanta, where her favorite teacher, Mrs. Lucas, calls upon her brash, wealthy childhood best friend, Sylvia, for help. While waiting to hear from the doctor who has agreed to do the procedure, Doris spends the weekend scandalized by, but drawn to, the people who move in and out of Sylvia's orbit- celebrities whom Doris has seen in the pages of Jet and Ebony, civil rights leaders such as Coretta Scott King and Diane Nash, women who dance close together, boys who flirt too hard and talk too much, atheists!And even more shocking Mrs. Lucas seems right at home. From the guests at a queer kickback to the student activists at a SNCC conference, Doris suddenly finds herself surrounded by so many people who seem to know exactly who or what they want. Doris knows she doesn't want a baby, but what doesshe want Will this trip help her find out These Heathensis a funny, poignant story about Black women's obligations and ambitions, what we owe to ourselves, and the transformative power of leaving your bubble, even for just one chaotic weekend.

Author Bio

Mia McKenzie is the two-time Lambda Award-winning author of The Summer We Got Free and Skye Falling, and the creator of Black Girl Dangerous Media, an independent media and education project that centers queer Black women and girls. She lives with her family in Massachusetts.