Damon Young is a co-founder and editor in chief of VerySmartBrothas, a columnist for GQ.com, a contributing editor and columnist for EBONY Magazine, a columnist for The Root, and a founding editor of 1839. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, Al-Jazeera, Slate, Salon, The Guardian, New York Magazine, Jezebel, Complex, Essence Magazine, USA Today, and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Based in Pittsburgh, he's also a member of ACLU Pennsylvania's State Board.
“His essays are pointed, ruminative, often barbed and funny
reflections on how the fact of his skin color has posed particular
lifelong challenges, questions, and anxieties.” — “Weekend
Edition,” NPR
“With candor, self-awareness and considerable humor, [Young] turns
an unflinching eye on both himself and an American society
constructed and sustained by racism.” — Washington Post
“The VerySmartBrothas.com cofounder and senior editor for The
Root has already established himself as one of our most
vibrant voices on race. Now comes his first book, a blazing memoir
in essays.” — Entertainment Weekly, “20 Great New Books to Read
this March”
“One of the freshest, most impor¬tant black voices on the
internet.” — Mother Jones
“Authentic, keen, and touching . . . The beauty of What Doesn’t
Kill You Makes You Blacker is that Young never tries to make it
easy for readers. . . this timely and powerful book. . . like the
work of bell hooks and Roxane Gay, should be required reading.” —
NPR
“A fascinating exploration of how race, class and gender, inform
notions of black identity in American life [and] an astute critique
of the contours along which black people survive the limitations of
historic and systemic racism . . . language is itself a central
character.” — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Readers who know Young’s work from the blog he
co-founded, Very Smart Brothas, will recognize his voice, his
fondness for lists, his precise, comprehensive and spectacular
references to pop culture, his wit and his keen mind.” —
Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Fans of Young’s posts on VSB will recognize the wit, but these
essays dig deeper than his typical blog posts. Here, you see his
vulnerability and insecurities.” — Pittsburgh City Paper
“Brave, incisive and witty. . . an essential American voice . . .
Young is . . . the American writer who could bridge our racial
divide . . . Sometimes as profanely magnificent as a Richard Pryor
routine, but just as often droll in the vein of David Sedaris.” —
Pittsburg Quarterly
“With this absurdly trenchant, bouncy, tragicomic, expansive yet
intimate book, Damon somehow, someway, made the page bend around my
head and heart in a manner I honestly didn’t think the essay or
memoir forms were capable of bending.” — Kiese Laymon, author of
Heavy
“In this funny, illuminating and occasionally gutting book, Damon
Young wrestles with his own masculinity, fears and lies, all while
remaining unrelenting in his determination to learn and teach
something valuable about blackness in America. He more than
succeeds, in a volume that is a pleasure and an education.” —
Rebecca Traister, author of Good and Mad
“Striking in its storytelling and imagery, in its honesty
and humor, in its self-reflection and self-criticism, in its
Blackness and humanity. Damon Young produced an unobstructed and
unsanitized memoir that few people have the courage to write and
all people should be encouraged to read.” — Ibram X. Kendi,
National Book Award-winning author Stamped from the Beginning:
The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
“A passionate, wryly bittersweet tribute to black life…sharply
observed…A must read.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Darkly hilarious . . . Young’s charm and wit make these essays a
pleasure to read; his candid approach makes them memorable.” —
Publishers Weekly
“Acid-etched insight.” — Library Journal
“Damon Young is one of the most fearless and important young
writers today. A devastatingly funny critique of racism, What
Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker is a humorous and deep dive into
the culture and a life lived in that precarious state we call
blackness.” — Michael Eric Dyson, author of What Truth Sounds Like
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