Zami: A New Spelling of My Name - A Biomythography (Crossing Press Feminist Series)

I loved this book...I was born in 1946 and Audre Lorde spoke tome as if I was home. I’m white.

I read this book for my Women Novelist class where we are focusing on Lesbian Fiction. First off, I was sad that I wasn't exposed to Audre Lorde before because none of my previous classes talk about Lesbian Fiction at all. I loved it. Partly because I could relate to Audre's culture and the other part is I can relate how it's like to be the different person trying to fit into a world you don't see much of "you" in. Let me tell you, if you are not an English major, you will read this novel as strange. You can't just read it for what it is! Try to analyze it. Don't take it all for the the meaning of the words on the page. It was well written and I loved the seeing how even in Audre's indifference to her surroundings she found a place she really did fit in. It also made me very interested in reading more of her work.

If it's one thing about Audrey's books, you're going to experience the feelings she is. You're going to explore the relationships you've had and you're going to determine the ones you want to create.

Audre Lorde is one of my favorite writers and I have read Sister Outsider many, many times. Zami is not the right way to be introduced to Lorde in my opinion, but for fans of Lorde I think it provides a TON of context to her writing to understand her childhood and young adult environment and how she grew up and started coming to consciousness. I was surprised that the book ended with her still in her early 20s, before she really became a writer. Parts of the book were definitely slow for me - compared to her compact, highly charged essays where every sentence packs a punch, the writing here in many places is languid...not in a bad way, but very different. While not my favorite work by her, I'm really glad that I read it and am excited to go back and read her essays and understand where she is coming from in a new light.

This memoir blew me away. Audre Lorde writes poetically, and captures your attention right away. She doesn't shy away from the racism and queermisia that happened in her life while she was growing up as a Black lesbian woman in New York. But I could really connect with Audre, and I already know I will be re-reading Zami in the future.

I was interested in this book because I wanted to know more about Audre Lorde. I’ve read Sister Outsider before this one and so this was different than what I was expecting. Whereas Sister Outsider was a bit more intellectual, Zami was written as if Lorde was just sitting and talking about her life. It’s was very good and I chewed through it quickly. I’m not sure where the “myth” portion of the biomythography came in though.

The book follows the life of Audre Lorde [ born Audrey Lorde] and her fight for LGBT equality in a time when, even in New York City, Black people had few rights as it were. As a butch lesbian whose teenage friend committed suicide, the fight for equality was all the more harder. She also mentions how her mother grew up a strong Carricou Woman in Carrricou, Grenada. A place where women did farm work and learned to be tough, raising their children as their husbands worked on ships out at sea. That and her childhood growing up in mixed-race Harlem; the northernmost community on Manhattan Island in the New York City Borough of New York, New York.

Audre Lorde's Zami is a classic! Zami offers a moving and powerful narratives a young, queer, black woman growing up in New York. This type of identity-aware and critical literature is scarce today and even more so for its time. As a result, Zami is a must read for those exploring the role of race, class, gender and sexual orientation in American life, with many relevant parallels to today's cultural conflict and life.

lorde's writing is brilliant and grounded and has such a special warmth to it. i find it hard to put it into words but something about the way she writes about her love for women, in all its forms, has embedded its way into my soul a little.

Love this and came fast

I adored this book.It s time document about a west-indian lesbian woman growing up in the us and living the life of a political activist.Very sensuous rose.I saw the sights,tasted the food and smelled the exotic fragrances..Cried along when the Rosenbergs were murdered.

Audre Lorde was a prominent activist, poet, feminist and womanist. Zami (her "biomythography") begins with her as a small child and carries through to her early lesbian experiences, growing up and falling in love. Audre's writing is beautiful, absolutely enriching to the senses - potential side of effect of being so poorly sighted I wonder? Zami is a Carriacou word for women working together as friends or lovers, and this book charts those meaningful relationships throughout her young life. Arguably less well known than I Know Why The Caged Bird sings, but they share a lot of themes of growing up black, poor and carving out a life of their own amidst structural oppression and racism in America. I love Audre's prose, bluntness, honesty, and plan to embark into her poetry this year too. A must read for fans of Maya Angelou. I recommend following up this with Sister Outsider, her book of essays.

Highly authentic, this novel highlights the struggle and searching of a black lesbian woman with reduced sight. Immense respect!