One of the BBCs 100 Novels That Shaped Our WorldIf I didnt define myself for myself I would be crunched into other peoples fantasies for me and eaten aliveA little black girl opens her eyes in 1930s Harlem weak and halfblind. On she stumbles through teenage pain and loneliness but then to happiness in friendship work and sex from Washington Heights to Mexico always changing always strong. This is Audre Lordes story. A rapturous lifeaffirming autobiographical novel by the Black lesbian mother warrior poet it changed the literary landscape.Her work shows us new ways to imagine the world ... so many themes of Audres work have endured Renni Eddo Lodge author of Why Im No Longer Talking to White People About RaceI came across Audre Lordes Zami and I cried to think how lucky I was to have found her. She was an inspiration Jackie Kay