Jim Grimsley

More than sixty years ago, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that America's schools could no longer be segregated by race. Critically acclaimed novelist Jim Grimsley was eleven years old in 1966 when federally mandated integration of schools went into effect in the state and the school in his small eastern North Carolina town was first integrated. Until then, blacks and whites didn't sit next to one another in a public space or...

Jim Grimsley's 1995 novel, Dream Boy, was a revelation--a pungent, beautifully written, poetic look at what it means to grow up gay in the rural South--that was both mythical and frightening, sublime and enlightening. Now, in My Drowning Grimsley tells the story of Ellen Tote, a young girl born to a poor family who finally, after years of abuse and poverty, grows up and "comes out"--not as a lesbian, but as her own person--when she discovers that...

At the University of North Carolina, Ronny's made some friends, kept his secrets, survived dorm life, and protected his heart. Until he can't. Ben is in some ways Ronny's opposite; he's big and solid where Ronny is small and slight. Ben's at UNC on a football scholarship. Confident, with that easy jock swagger and an explosive temper always simmering. He has a steady stream of girlfriends. Ben's aware of the overwhelming effect he has on Ronny....