The Essential Randy Boyd, Volume 1

Race relations, living with HIV/AIDS, adolescent heartbreak, gay life, the healing power of dogs. Randy Boyd has written on these subjects and more on his blog, in numerous publications, and in his four novels, which have been nominated for a total of five Lambda Literary Awards. Now, in one collection, revisit some of Randys most essential writings in The Essential Randy Boyd, Volume One, featuring 10 stories, essays, blogposts, and book excerpts from the black, gay, HIV-positive author.

"Nowadays people need easily accessible reading options," says Boyd about his motivation for the collection. "Ive a fantastical, 700-page, Harry-Potter-size opus ("Walt Loves the Bearcat"), three other novels, over 500 blogposts and a plethora of pieces published elsewhere, from Outsports.com to A&U Magazine. But I asked myself: what if someone only had the opportunity to read a sampling of my writing? Which of my works most define me and my experience here on Planet Earth?"

The answer: The Essential Randy Boyd, featuring the following 10 stories:

Battle scars: a young mans transformation from being overweight, in the closet and afraid of getting AIDS, to getting in shape, coming out to his family and taking the HIV test.

Just like Magic: while the world reacted to Magic Johnsons famous HIV announcement in 1991, one black gay man already living with the virus reacted to the worlds reaction in this essay published that same year.

Dear Magic Johnson, thanks for saving life: giving credit where credit is due -- to Magic and Cookie Johnson for their decades-long work dealing with the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The day I died in 9th-grade gym class: the schools white quarterback makes an off-handed comment and a crushed, adolescent black boy is left to pick up the pieces.

Sometimes I forget Im a nigger: the Rodney King-related Los Angeles riots of 1992 were a life-changing event for many Angelenos, including Randy, who wrote this piece for a magazine while the smoke was still smoldering.

When the USC Sigma Chis called me nigger: what happens when you survive childhood to escape to college in California, only to get there and be called "nigger" the week before school starts?

Why pet the dog when in doubt: bittersweet childhood memory reinforces the healing power of pets. From Randys blog series, "When in doubt, pet the dog."

Update from the unlovable nigger faggot: that feeling you get when you realize most of your peers reject you for being black and gay ... and for living with HIV/AIDS.

Listen up, Kunta Kinte Koleman!: while looking back at the racial history of America through word play, a black gay man has some advice for his slave ancestors from the past.

Left for dead: the good, bad and ugly about surviving HIV/AIDS for 30+ years and counting, as detailed in an article in A&U Magazine.

In addition to his novels, Randys fiction has appeared in several anthologies, including Certain Voices, Flesh and the Word 2, Sojourner: Black Gay Voices in the Age of AIDS, Flashpoint: Gay Male Sexual Writing and Freedom in this Village: Black Gay Mens Writing 1969 to the Present. His nonfiction has been featured in A&U Magazine, POZ Magazine, the Indiana Word, Frontiers, The Washington Blade, The James White Review, The Gay and Lesbian Review, The Lambda Book Report, BeyondChron.com and the anthology Friends and Lovers: Gay Men Write About the Families They Create.

A 1985 graduate of UCLA, Randy has also been a contributor to Outsports.com and the publications of the Black AIDS Institute.

Then theres his blog, Randy Boyds Blocks, where Randys writings cover a diverse range of subjects, including gays in sports and cheerleading. A longterm survivor of HIV/AIDS, Randy blogs about the disease from his perspective in HIV-P.O.V., a subsection of his blog.

So many writings, so little time. So wher...