Author Description

"In a small conservative Florida town in the 1980s, several people accused Dr. David Acer, a dentist, of infecting them with HIV. David's gayness, and sickly appearance from his own AIDS-related illness, made him the perfect scapegoat and victim of mob mentality. In these early years of the AIDS epidemic, when transmission was little understood, and homophobia rampant, people like David were villainized. The libelants landed People magazine cover stories and book deals. With a poet's eulogistic and psychological intensity, A Quilt for David recovers the life and death of this man who also stands in for so many lives destroyed not only by HIV, but a diseased society that used stigma against the most vulnerable. It's impossible not to make connections between this story and how the 21st century pandemic has also been defined by medical misinformation and cultural bias. Inspired by years of investigative research into the lives of David and his plaintiffs, Reigns has stitched together a hauntingly poetic narrative that retraces an American history, questioning the fervor of his accusers, and recuperating a gay life previously shrouded in secrecy and shame"--