Lambda Literary Award nominated author G. Winston James returns to the literary landscape with The Damaged Good—a raw, moving poetry collection of searing, unapologetic honesty. Homophobia, sex, desire, longing and liberation mark the terrain of these terse, often unsettling poems. From the unwelcoming streets of Kingston, Jamaica to the parks of Brooklyn, New York, G. Winston James skillfully chronicles new times in black and gay history. The Damaged Good is one of the bravest, most authentic collections of poetry in years.

Praise for The Damaged Good:

Do not wonder where this poet has been. A growing season has surely covered the broken road of him. What bruise and scar left by the scratch and slap of his poems have surely healed by their inspired stroke. Wonder instead if it is your name that appears in his ash, after the poet has washed his hands of you. Wonder if his pinky swear to your secret will hold. Wonder if your finger to his lips/his lisp will silence his fears. It is dangerous for a poet to have loved so much and to have remembered it all. Wonder what names, what dead will the paper cut of The Damaged Good bleed." Marvin K. White, author of Our Name Be Witness

"What an awesome read! At times painful/upsetting. Brilliant! Stark, raw, lusty, dangerous and intimate, G. Winston James gives us a gift. These poems fall like gems breaking away from the sky. This is our gift: to stare self in the unflinching mirror of truth, and fight back as if our lives depended on it." Cheryl Boyce-Taylor, author of Convincing the Body.

"The Damaged Good is a tale of new times in our history delivered with the intentionality and intensity of writers like Nikki Giovanni and Essex Hemphill." Borris Powell