Zami: A New Spelling of My Name - A Biomythography (Audre Lorde)

While not technically a food memoir, this happens to be one of my favorite books ever, and has plenty of food in it!

‘If I didn’t define myself for myself, I’d be thrust into other people’s fantasies for myself and eaten alive.’ A young Black girl opens her eyes in 1930s Harlem. Around her, a heady swirl of pedestrians, car horns, kerosene lamps, the stock market crash, fried plantains, stories from her parents’ native Granada. Walking to public school on the snowy sidewalks, she realizes she’s tongue-tied, legally blind, and left behind by her older sisters. She continues to stumble through the pain and loneliness of adolescence, but then toward happiness in friendship, work, and sex, from Washington Heights to Mexico, always changing, always strong. This is the story of Audre Lorde. A sweeping, life-enhancing tale of independence, love, work, strength, sexuality, and change. Her first and only novel, classified as a "biomythography," combines myth, history, and biography to detail her experiences navigating life as a Black lesbian in 1950s America.