Steve Majors – författare

Not all little boys want to grow up to be like their dads. The shy ones, the sensitive ones, the ones people mock as strange or call queer, sometimes want to grow up and be loved by men who stand in for their fathers. They'll put up with bullying from an older brother, taunts from the gym teacher, long work hours from a boss, and even discipline from a gay daddy, all as a means to discover what kind of man they truly want to be. In this poignant and provocative memoir, Steve Majors takes us on a journey of his own self-discovery as he grows from a gay boy in search of a father figure to a gay man grappling with what it means to be a father himself. In doing so, Majors creates various snapshots of time in which his - and the world's - understanding of what it means to be a gay man changes.

They called him “pale faced or mixed race.” They called him “light, bright, almost white.” But most of the time his family called him “high yella.” Steve Majors was the white passing, youngest son growing up in an all-Black family that struggled with poverty, abuse, and generational trauma. High Yella is the poignant account of how he tried to leave his troubled childhood and family behind to create a new identity, only to discover he ultimately needed to return home to truly find himself. And after he and his husband adopt two Black daughters, he must set them on their own path to finding their place in the world by understanding the importance of where they come from.In his remarkable and moving memoir, Majors gathers the shards of a broken past to piece together a portrait of a man on an extraordinary journey toward Blackness, queerness, and parenthood. High Yella delivers its hard-won lessons on love, life, and family with exceptional grace.

Shipped away for the summer, Trey finally meets the parts of himself that he can’t outrun.Light, Bright is a heartfelt graphic novel about navigating family upheaval and identity. In this coming-of-age story, a mixed-race teen explores what it means to find himself when everything familiar is falling apart.Fifteen-year-old Trey was looking forward to a summer of street hockey, fireworks, and hanging out with his friends—not his parents’ separation or his exile to a rural town to live with a grandmother he barely knows. Cut off from home and unsure of where he belongs, Trey feels like he’s losing everything. In this new place, surrounded by Black relatives who see him differently because of his light, bright skin, he is forced to confront questions he has long avoided about race, privilege, family, and his own identity. With the help of his outspoken cousin Tee and an intriguing new friend named Kareem, Trey begins to untangle painful truths, face prejudice head-on, and forge unexpected connections that make the unfamiliar start to feel like home.Tender, funny, and deeply relatable, Light, Bright is a hopeful story about claiming your identity in a complicated world—and learning that who you are is something that you can choose.