A Quilt for David

(Paperback)

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Description

• This book is a page turner.
• The story's emotional charge brings the reader to a specific historical moment, keeps the pace of a mystery, and tells a larger narrative.
• A Quilt for David will appeal to a wide-range of readers as Reigns prose-poetry delivers a compelling, true story.
• A key book to compare Quilt to is Maggie Nelson's Jane: A Murder (Soft Skull 2016). Part elegy, part true crime story,Jane tells the true story of the 1969 murder of Jane Nelson, Maggie's Nelson's aunt, by a famous Michigan serial killer.
• Like Maggie Nelson, Reigns is a well-known poet who, with A Quilt for David, tells a true story using a mixture of poetry and prose.
• The author doesn't take "poetic license" with the materialhis narrative is based on facts.

• The genre is best described as "documentary poetry," as the prose straddles poetry and non-fiction.
• Author Steven Reigns calls A Quilt for David an AIDS quilt panel for David J Acer; the poems and prose are a patchwork that retell and recreate what happened.
• It is also an account of gay/HIV scapegoating, and mob mentality.
• It's impossible not to make connections between this story and how the twenty-first century pandemic has also been defined by medical misinformation and cultural bias.
• Since the 90s, David Acers story has been one-sided with his accusers landing high profile cover stories in People Magazine and newspaper articles that offered no complexity or nuance.
• Quilt will appeal to fans of the true crime genre.
• As discussed in the preface, the author dug deep into researc He sought out interviews with men who David Acer met via personal ads, as well as with family members and friends.
• Book includes a thorough bibliography including all coverage of the case, plus articles that generally villainized David Acer.
• Author is an experienced HIV counselor, bringing medical and experiential knowledge to the subject.
• Reigns is well-connected in the literary and LGBTQ+
• He is the inaugural Poet Laureate appointed by the City of West Hollywood, CA.
• A billboard featuring an excerpt from A Quilt for David and a picture of Steven Reigns is currently up at The West Hollywood Gateway Mall in Los Angeles! (Well get a pic posted in Edelweiss)
• Steven Reigns is an articulate and appealing orator who tells the story of David Acer, on and off the page, with truth, dignity, and grace.

Reviews

Praise for Steven Reigns'sA Quilt for David

"This series of prose poems focuses on a tragic episode from the height of the AIDS crisis when a gay dentist became the victim of mob panic and homophobia gone wild. Reigns approaches the subject from multiple angles, which makes for a thought-provoking read. Trigger warning: could make you very sad and/or angry."Fabulosa Books in the San Francisco Bay Times

"Thoughtful, thought-provoking, timely and long overdue,A Quilt for Davidprovides the 'other sides' of the story sensationalized in the press."Daryl M.,Librarian, Los Angeles Public Library

"A Quilt for Davidis a book filled with solitude, hope, and courage."Maria Duarte,Kelp Journal

. . . Steven Reignsuses poetry to excavate the universal truths present in a tragedy. . .We like to think that the truth comes out eventually, that given time, the moral arc of our universe bends towards justice, not away. It needs help, though, and books like this push us in a better direction. Read it and weep.Karina Wilson,LitReactor

"Reigns book has made me see how often poetry has searched for some kind of poetic justice as it interrogates and engages with history and injustice. Oscar Wilde finally delivers his verdict inThe Ballad of Reading Gaol. Allen GinbergsHowlpleads the case for Carl Solomon and a generation. Stephen Vincent BentsJohn Browns Bodyputs the Civil War in grim perspective, and Claudia RankinesCitizenindicts American racism. This is pretty powerful company to keep . . ."Tim Miller,The Gay and Lesbian Review

"Reigns doesnt take poetic license with the material. Instead, in taut prose, with a poets eye for details, he relays the facts of the events that transpired and lets us make sense of them. Everyone, it seems, had something to hide."Michael Quinn,Gertrude Press

"Its an important story full of twists and turns that reveal deep truths about the ingrained biases and assumptions that impact decision-making especially relevant today because of COVID whether its to mask, get vaccinated, have unprotected sex or put our trust in a particular doctor or other professional. Reigns explores all of these themes in a series of emotionally rich poems that together form an elegiac tribute to life, death and honor."Eleanor Bader,The Indypendent, NYC

"This biography/poetry mashup is an essential read for Queer health activists."Adrian Shanker, editor,Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health

[A] breathtaking collection. . . .A Quilt for Davidis a memorial to victims of the AIDS epidemic that swept up hundreds of thousands of lives in the last forty years, in the same scary way the COVID pandemic has killed so many people in 2020.Charles Rammelkamp,The Compulsive Reader

"Steven Reigns compassionately and with deftness tells the story of David Acer and those whose stories will forever be tied with his.A Quilt For Davidis a powerful, poetic, and heartwrenching examination of the dark ages of the AIDS crisis told with penetrating insight."Casey Mensing, The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles, CA

"Like so many of us born into the Age of AIDS, who saw the epidemic from childhood and grew up in a world forever changed by loss, Reigns is searching for the stories of our ancestors."Justin Elizabeth Sayre,author ofFrom Gay to Z: A Queer Compendium

"This book doesn't only echo our current political moment, it dissects it as it's being born."Jonathan D. Katz, activist and writer

"With compassion and perspicacity,A Quilt for Davidunflinchingly investigates a sordid episode in homophobic history. The result is at once enraging, enlightening, shocking, and heartbreaking. Even people who don't read poetry or history will find it compelling."Alvin Orloff, Dog Eared Books, San Francisco, CA

Praise for Steven Reigns

"Reigns is a devoted and deeply studied writer. The poetry that emerges from his devotion is autobiographical, accessible, and emotionally bold. His pages bare and share many uncomfortable and inconvenient truths."Richard Blanco, author ofHow to Love a Country

Author Bio

Steven Reigns, Los Angeles poet and educator, was appointed the first Poet Laureate of West Hollywood. He has two previouscollections,InheritanceandYour Dead Body is My Welcome Mat, and over a dozen chapbooks. Reigns editedMy Life is Poetry,showcasing his students work from the first-ever autobiographical poetry workshop for LGBTQ seniors. Reigns has lecturedand taught writing workshops around the country to LGBTQ youth and people living with HIV. He worked for a decade as an HIVtest counselor in Florida and Los Angeles. Currently he is touringThe Gay Rub,an exhibition of rubbings from LGBTQlandmarks around the world, and has a private practice as a psychotherapist. He lives in West Hollywood, CA.