{"id":784,"date":"2023-11-18T20:03:48","date_gmt":"2023-11-18T20:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-usc-dornsife.pantheonsite.io\/goldlinepress\/?page_id=784"},"modified":"2023-11-21T22:25:57","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T22:25:57","slug":"youre-the-only-friend-i-need","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/goldlinepress\/youre-the-only-friend-i-need\/","title":{"rendered":"YOU\u2019RE THE ONLY FRIEND I NEED"},"content":{"rendered":" \n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n by Alejandro Heredia\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n \n
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\n ADD TO CART<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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ISBN: 978-1-938900-37-2
\nPublication date: July 2021
\n50 pages, 5.3\u201d x 7\u201d
\nRead Press Release (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n

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SYNOPSIS<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The stories in Alejandro Heredia\u2019s You\u2019re the Only Friend I Need<\/em> offer new possibilities for transnational storytelling and the Dominican diaspora by centering Blackness and queerness. In these stories, friendship is a vehicle to understand what lies between and within people. A young Dominican immigrant makes an unlikely friend in her Bronx building. Two queer teens venture into the streets of Santo Domingo in search of queer belonging. A 20-something lost in existential thought finds a home in a gay Latin club.<\/p>\n

In Heredia\u2019s stories, friendship is at once balm, poison, wound, and respite from the troubles that society places on migrants, on queer people, on Black folks across the diaspora. You\u2019re the Only Friend I Need<\/em> cuts through received notions and sings with emotional honesty and lyrical prose.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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EXCERPT
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Not so long ago, they were boys playing baseball in the street. Raging against some inner beast. Or not resisting at all, taken over by its might. The wrath of boyhood\u2014a scream, a belch, unabashed laughter. The soles of their naked feet slapping the concrete. The bloody knuckle crushed against another\u2019s cheekbone. A bruised lip, a cutting joke, a chorus of argument. And when alone or coupled, the sudden gentleness. Protection, when needed. Showing up to a friend\u2019s fight, just in case. The ever-present shyness in front of girls, in front of teachers, in front of the mirror, facing their naked bodies. Skinny or fat or too small or too big or smooth or growing hair, each day something new. The fear of jumping but jumping anyway, even if only to impress. They were everything, everything. Boys.<\/address>\n
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Now, look at them. Girls, or adjacent to them. Girly boys, maybe, gliding through the streets of Santo Domingo, protected by the night. Soft as feathers. Quick as shadows. Hiding, but filled with a gust of pride for everything they\u2019ve made of themselves, what they\u2019ve managed to take from the corner of the mind or a dream. A fantasy materialized.<\/address>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n
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PRAISE<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a stunning debut from Alejandro! These riveting queer stories sit with the complexity of heartbreak and romance, holding contradictions that push us to think and feel anew. These pages and the rich characters that populate them are a breath of fresh air. I can’t wait to see what Alejandro does next!\u201d<\/p>\n

Travis Alabanza<\/strong><\/p>\n

Author of Before I Step Outside (you love me)<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cAlejandro Heredia writes gorgeously. His voice elevates the queer poetry of the vernacular while his prose leaves fingerprints on your brain and heart. He will give you all the feels in Spanglish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Myriam Gurba<\/strong>
\n2019 Gold Line Press Fiction Chapbook Contest Judge<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n

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AUTHOR<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alejandro Heredia<\/strong> is a queer Afro-Dominican writer and community organizer born in Santo Domingo and raised in The Bronx. He is a 2018 VONA\/Voices fellow, and 2019 Dreamyard Rad(ical) Poetry Consortium Fellow. Myriam Gurba selected Alejandro\u2019s chapbook, You\u2019re the Only Friend I Need<\/i>, as the winner of the 2019 Gold Line Press Fiction Chapbook Contest. Alejandro\u2019s work has been featured in Auburn Avenue Magazine, La Galeria Magazine, No Dear Magazine,<\/i> and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

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DESIGNER<\/strong><\/p>\n

Book design by Kenji C. Liu<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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