Autobiography of My Hungers

Rigoberto González is the author of seventeen books of poetry and prose, including the memoirs What Drowns the Flowers in Your Mouth and Butterfly Boy, winner of the American Book Award. He is a contributing editor for Poets & Writers magazine, serves on the board of trustees of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), and is a professor of English at Rutgers–Newark, the State University of New Jersey.

• acknowledgmentsallegoryI. Leaving the Motherland, Mother Leaving Medutypiedritapotatozacapupiedritajugetetrashliftwitchpiedritafirex-mascrayonnote icrookedpiedritabiologywickeddreampiedritaglovemigraII. Unsettled Independenceinvisiblepiedritatongueinsomnianote iinightshiftx\u00f3chitlpiedritavoicereprimandmartiniIII. In Search of ParadisestationpiedritakilloutcasteyekiteclownpiedritatetherpapigodivapiedritaIV. Body Cravingsloveemptypiedritasketchrainchipiedritaghostspseudonympiedritaquestionsnote iiipiedritahaughtyextractionbleedvoraciouspiedritaforest

The author of the critically acclaimed memoir Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa, takes a second piercing look at his past through a startling new lens: hunger. The need for sustenance originating in childhood poverty, the adolescent emotional need for solace and comfort, the adult desire for a larger world, another lover, a different body- all are explored in a series of heartbreaking and poetic vignettes.""An unforgettable portrait of the artist as a young immigrant gay poet. These brief, passionate chapters are filled with rare courage, raw honesty, and the uncommon beauty of a life spent yearning for consolation and hope. Absolutely arresting.""- Dinty W. Moore, author of Between Panic & Desire""A haunting book, whose many senses linger long after reading it.""- Mary Cappello, author of Awkward: A Detour""The compelling story of a life that routinely- necessarily- crosses borders of ethnic, socioeconomic, and sexual identities.""- Pablo Miguel Martínez, author of Brazos, Carry Me""Immigrant and gay readers may experience release in the book's agonizing familiarity; all readers will find it lusciously evocative.""- Publishers Weekly