New edition of this important YA novel coinciding with the new film starring Mo'Nique.

First published in 1986, Blackbird is a funny, moving, coming-of-age novel about growing up black and gay. Johnnie Ray Rousseau is a high school student upset over losing the lead role in the school staging of Romeo and Juliet. As if that weren't enough, his best friend has been beaten badly by his father, and his girlfriend is pressuring him to have sex for the first time. All the while, he's intrigued by Marshall MacNeill, whom he meets at an audition, surely the sexiest man to walk God's green earth--at least according to Johnnie Ray. This novel of adolescent awakening is as fresh and heartfelt as it was when first published.

A film version of Blackbird, starring Academy Award winner Mo'Nique, Isaiah Washington, and Julian Walker, was released in theatres and on VOD in 2015.

Arsenal first reissued Blackbird in 2006 under its Little Sister's Classics imprint.
This new edition includes an introduction by award-winning writer Michael Nava, and a new afterword by Blackbird's film director Patrik-Ian Polk.