Name: Dr. Daniel Black Author Talk and Book Signing
Start: 2025-01-18T16:00:00-06:00
End: 2025-01-18T18:00:00-06:00
Location: 1030 Elysian Fields Ave

Dr. Daniel Black Author Talk and Book Signing

This beloved author returns with a poignant, emotionally exuberant novel about a young queer Black man finding his voice in 1980s Chicago.
About this Event

This is an exclusive ticketed event! Tickets include a signed copy of Dr. Black's newest novel Isaacs Song as well as the opportunity to get your book signed and a meet and greet.

The beloved author of Don’t Cry for Me and Perfect Peace returns with a poignant, emotionally exuberant novel about a young queer Black man finding his voice in 1980s Chicago—a novel of family, forgiveness and perseverance, for fans of The Great Believers and On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Isaac is at a crossroads in his young life. Growing up in Missouri, the son of a caustic, hard-driving father, he was conditioned to suppress his artistic pursuits and physical desires, notions that didn’t align with a traditional view of masculinity. But now, in late 80s Chicago, Isaac has finally carved out a life of his own. He is sensitive and tender-hearted and has built up the courage to seek out a community. Yet just as he begins to embrace who he is—two social catalysts—the AIDS crisis and Rodney King’s attack—collectively extinguish his hard-earned joy.

At a therapist’s encouragement, Isaac begins to write down his story. In the process, he taps into a creative energy that will send him on a journey back to his family, his ancestral home in Arkansas, and the inherited trauma of the nation’s dark past. But a surprise discovery will either unlock the truths he’s seeking, or threaten to derail the life he’s fought so hard to claim.

Poignant, sweeping and luminously told, Isaac’s Song marks a return to the beloved characters of Don’t Cry for Me, and a highwater mark in the career of an award-winning author.

Daniel Black is an author and professor of African American studies at Clark Atlanta University. His novels include Don't Cry for Me, an Indie Next and Book of the Month Club pick, as well as The Coming, Perfect Peace and They Tell Me of a Home. He is the winner of the Distinguished Writer Award from the Middle-Atlantic Writer's Association and has been nominated for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, the Ernest J. Gaines Award, and the Georgia Author of the Year Award. He was raised in Blackwell, Arkansas, and lives in Atlanta, Georgia.