Shine

The story of a young hustler who navigates streets, sex, and family, only to discover the light of the dark can be cruel…

“Donnelle McGee’s powerful, poetic prose gives Shine a unique voice that is fresh, bold and completely seductive. Like Rechy’s City of Night, Shine brings us a hustler with a troubled soul, but sets itself apart with lush language that will echo in your memory and a lead character who will burrow his way into your heart.”

– Charles Rice-González, author of Chulito

“Shine is tenderness incarnate. All the love, violence and need of a life-time happen in the time it takes to read this brilliant, brief and searing new book by Donnelle McGee. I was altered by the reading of it. Then I read it again.”

– Bhanu Kapil, author of Incubation: a space for monsters and Schizophrene

“Donnelle McGee finds the intersection of elegy, violence, and eros in Shine. His novella etches into language the longing, bewilderment, affection, and grief of lovers, family members, and strangers. Crafted in finely compressed narrative fragments, McGee’s story details the kind of material and psychic anguish most American writers would rather not consider. McGee gazes into the most difficult material unflinchingly. His pacing and language will keep you hooked with astonishing understatement and compassion. For its sustained terror and love, Shine is an utterly singular debut.”

– Patrick Rosal, author of My American Kundiman and Uprock Headspin Scramble