{"product_id":"testify-paperback-1","title":"Testify - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eDouglas Manuel\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA brave, brilliant debut about the African-American experience in the American Midwest. A contemplation of race, masculinity, religion, and class, \u003ci\u003eTestify\u003c\/i\u003e in a very personal way confronts some of the most critical issues in today's society.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA book of elegiac ambivalence, \u003ci\u003eTestify\u003c\/i\u003e's speaker often finds himself trapped between received binaries: black and white, ghetto and suburban, atheism and Catholicism. In many ways, this work is a Bildungsroman detailing the maturation of a black man raised in the crack-laden 1980s, with hip-hop, jazz, and blues as its soundtrack. Rendered with keen attention to the economic decline of the Midwest due to the departure of the automotive industry, this book portrays the speaker wrestling with his city's demise, family relationships, interracial love, and notions of black masculinity. Never letting anyone, including the speaker, off the hook, \u003ci\u003eTestify\u003c\/i\u003e refuses sentimentality and didacticism and dwells in a space of uncertainty, where meaning and identity are messy, complicated, and multivalent.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDouglas Manuel \u003c\/b\u003ewas born in Anderson, Indiana. He received a BA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University and a MFA from Butler University where he was the Managing Editor of \u003ci\u003eBooth a Journal\u003c\/i\u003e. He is currently a Middleton and Dornsife Fellow at the University of Southern California where he is pursuing a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing. He was a recipient of the Chris McCarthy Scholarship for the Napa Valley Writers' Conference and has been Poetry Editor for Gold Line Press as well as was one of the Managing Editors of Ricochet Editions. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in \u003ci\u003eRhino, North American Review, ? The Chattahoochee Review, New Orleans Review, Crab Creek Review, Many Mountains Moving\u003c\/i\u003e, and elsewhere.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 104\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.2 x 9 x 5.9 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e April 25, 2017\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAward:\u003c\/strong\u003e Benjamin Franklin Award (2018)\u003c\/div\u003e\n                ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46227996115079,"sku":"9781597090452","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/OT7F8Dnoxn9781597090452.webp?v=1792320644","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/testify-paperback-1","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}