BIG UPDATE: My Fighting Family is Now Available at Chicago Public Libraries

Good news for book nerds, sportswriting fans, and other friends of my work in Chicago:

You can now, finally, officially, head to a public library branch and borrow a copy of My Fighting Family.

Technically, right this moment, you can only put it on hold because the book’s en route from the publisher to the Chicago Public Library’s South Shore branch, but you get my point. It’s another small foothold for what should be, and I hope, eventually will become, an important market to this book. And because the book publishing industry continues reminding me that an author’s job never, ever, ever ends, seeing my book in real life, in Chicago also provides the feedback I need to keep pushing.

It’s a small victory, granted. Less like winning a title fight, or even a round in a bout against the champ, and more like lining up and landing the perfect body shot. You created an opening in an otherwise watertight defense, and connected with a punch that’ll pay off later. Keep throwing and landing. The damage adds up. Eventually you’ll pull ahead on the scorecards.

I’ll spare you all the publishing industry drama, but understand that My Fighting Family had all but disappeared from the radar for U.S. retailers because it had vanished from the listings at Ingram, the go-to wholesaler, before most booksellers even knew it existed. Once that happens its basically impossible to land back on Ingram’s roster.

It felt especially bitter for me. Here I was, Black and Canadian and American, with a memoir that explores those intertwined identities, and deals with growing up in a border-straddling family, but stonewalled at the 49th parallel. I’m trying to find the right word for the feeling. “Helpless” is too strong, but “frustrated” isn’t strong enough.

Thank goodness for the people who believed in my work enough to order single copies from the usual online shopping suspects, and the companies who bought in bulk. I scored enough cross-border sales to make the needle budge.

And thank heaven for Call & Response Books, the Black-owned indie in Hyde Park, that stepped up as the first U.S. book store to stock physical copies of My Fighting Family. A South Side retailer for a South Side story. An absolute perfect match.

As for libraries… My Fighting Family showed up in Detroit first, as far as I know, and I was delighted to learn it. I say this all the time, but only because it’s true — my memoir opens during my morning commute between Windsor and Detroit, and that’s intentional. The border is as much a character in this memoir as the feuding factions of my family are.

And now Chicago Public Libraries has stepped up.

Twice.

The Southside Lit Fest, where I’m scheduled to appear in September, and where I’m inviting all of you to show up, is a Chicago Public Library production. Our man Jeremy Kitchen runs the Bridgeport branch, and was the other person in the Instagram DM conversation that led to my confirmation as a Southside Lit Fest participant.

And now here comes the South Shore Branch, clearing out a space for My Fighting Family‘s arrival.

If you’ve read my book, or know my folks in real life, you know we’ve had a presence in South Shore since the early 1960s. My grandparents had a big apartment at 70th and Paxton. When my parents married, they lived in a building at 69th and Oglesby, not far from where my and my big sister live right now, between Jackson Park and the South Shore Cultural Center, just steps from the lake.

For the people really serious about borrowing this book, the South Shore Branch is at 2505 E 73rd St. But if you’re one of the many Chicagoans who understands intersections better than addresses, it’s at 73rd and Exchange, within walking distance of The Brew, the cafe where I sipped strong Jamaican coffee while rebuilding this website back in November.

In the meantime, I’m planning for the Southside Lit Fest in the fall, and still finalizing other details for the summer.

If you’re near Chicago and looking to buy my book, I can point you to a spot.

And if you’re trying to borrow it, I know a place you can do that, too.

At last.

More coming soon.

I hope.

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