Stories (2000), brought him accolades, includ-
ing recognition by the Village Voice (June 2000),
which named Glave “Writer on the Verge.” Whose
Song? was also a finalist for the American Library
Association’s Best Gay/Lesbian Book of the Year
Award, as well as for the Quality Paperback Book
Club’s Violet Quill Award for Best New Gay/Les-
bian Fiction in 2001.
Glave’s writing is informed by his multilingual
and multicultural understanding of the black di-
aspora. His work is deeply influenced by Jamai-
can, Jamaican-American, Caribbean-American,
African-American, and African cultures. Whose
Song? primarily thematizes the destructive and
lethal effects of contemporary heterosexist iden-
tity politics on the often fragile identity of Afri-
can-American gay men. Told with an unflinching
attention to detail, stories like “The Final Inning,”
“Committed,” and “Whose Song?” focus on the
mental and physical assaults black gay men are
often forced to endure because they are not al-
lowed to express their identity freely, in life and
even in death. For example, in “The Final Inning,”
a family pretends, during a funeral, that their de-
ceased son was not gay and that he did not die of
AIDS but was, instead, the victim of cancer. “Com-
mitted” portrays the life-threatening situation a
young gay man endures when his father forces
him to get married and abandon his male partner.
“Whose Song?,” perhaps the most shocking story
in the collection, narrates how three sexually con-
fused young men rape a black lesbian girl to prove
they do not harbor homoerotic desires. In Whose
Song? Glave explores the potential danger of a so-
cially compulsory heterosexuality and warns of
its detrimental effects, as does RANDALL KENAN in
A VISITATION OF SPIRITS. In his short stories, Glave
frequently constructs a link between compulsory
heterosexuality and misogynist violence. Unable
to fight the social pressures they often face, several
of his unfulfilled black gay characters physically
abuse women.
Glave is a founding member of the Jamaica
Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays (J-
FLAG); he is a member of the Artist’s Advisory
Committee of the New York Foundation for the
Arts, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Center
for Lesbian and Gay Studies of the City University
of New York, Gay Men of African Descent, and the
Fulbright Association.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jarret, Gene. “ ‘Couldn’t Find Them Anywhere’:
Thomas Glave’s Whose Song? (Post)Modernist
Literary Queerings, and the Trauma of Witness-
ing, Memory, and Testimony.” Callaloo 23, no. 4
(2000): 1241–1258.
———. “A Song to Pass On: An Interview with
Thomas Glave.” Callaloo 23, no. 4 (2000): 1227–
1240.
———. “Thomas Glave: Fiction Writer.” Callaloo 23,
no. 4 (2000): 1205–1272.
Éva TettenbornGoines, Donald (1937–1974)
Self-confessed pimp, street hustler, heroin addict,
and ex-convict, Donald Goines transformed his
and others’ life experiences into a 16-book canon
between 1971 and 1974 with the speed and im-
mediacy of the ghetto life he embraced. His fic-
tion examines, exposes, and humanizes the black
underworld as well as addresses the concerns of
American ghettos. Born in Detroit, Michigan,
Goines had an exceptionally comfortable up-
bringing as a result of his father’s successful dry-
cleaning business. The lure of the streets, however,
was too strong for Goines to resist, and he suc-
cumbed to a life of criminality at an early age. His
efforts to abandon his destructive path led him to
falsify his age at 14 to enter the Air Force during
the Korean War. After basic training, he was im-
mediately stationed in Japan, where opiates were,
though not legal, sanctioned by disregard. By
the time he returned from Asia, he was battling
a raging addiction to heroin. To finance his ad-
diction, Goines participated in various criminal
activities, from pimping to operating an illegal
whiskey still, and served four prison terms total-
ing almost seven years. Though he developed an
interest in writing during his third prison term,
it was not until his fourth and final term that he
found his voice.204 Goines, Donald