One of the BBCs 100 Novels That Shaped Our World If I didnt define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other peoples fantasies for me and eaten alive A little black girl opens her eyes in 1930s Harlem, weak and half-blind. 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, life-affirming 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 Race I came across Audre Lordes Zami, and I cried to think how lucky I was to have found her. She was an inspiration Jackie Kay