Sunday You Learn How to Box

Fourteen-year-old Louis Bowman is in a boxing ring -- a housing project circa 1968 -- fighting "just to get to the end of the round." Sharing the ring is his mother, Jeanette Stamps, a ferociously stubborn woman battling for her own dreams to be realized; his stepfather, Ben Stamps, the would-be savior, who becomes the sparring partner to them both; and the enigmatic Ray Anthony Robinson, the neighborhood "hoodlum," in purple polyester pants, who sets young Louis's heart spinning with the first stirrings of sexual longing. Bil Wright deftly evokes an unrelenting world with quirky humor and clear-eyed unsentimentality.

Author: Bil Wright
Publisher: Touchstone Books
Published: 02/01/2000
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.52lbs
Size: 8.01h x 5.25w x 0.49d
ISBN: 9780684857954

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/10/2000 pg. 44
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/2000 pg. 16
Booklist 02/15/2000 pg. 1086
New York Times 02/20/2000 pg. 21
School Library Journal 09/01/2000 pg. 260
Booklist Ed Choice Adu Bk YA's 01/01/2001 pg. 860
School Library Journal 08/24/2000

About the Author
Bil Wright is an award-winning novelist and playwright. His novels include Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy (Lambda Literary Award and American Library Association Stonewall Book Award), the highly acclaimed When the Black Girl Sings (Junior Library Guild selection), and the critically acclaimed Sunday You Learn How to Box. His plays include Bloodsummer Rituals, based on the life of poet Audre Lorde (Jerome Fellowship), and Leave Me a Message (San Diego Human Rights Festival premiere). He is the Librettist for This One Girl's Story (GLAAD nominee) and the winner of a LAMI (La Mama Playwriting Award). An associate professor of English at CUNY, Bil Wright lives in New York City. Visit him at BilWright.com.