2011 Miami Book Fair | Sandra Beasley

In Sandra Beasley’s poetry collection, I Was the Jukebox (Norton, $14.95), animals, flowers and mythological creatures speak their minds in a series of tell-it-like-it-is soliloquies, illustrating a complex and imaginative landscape in which, according to the poet Marie Howe, “desire pushes defeat against a wall, and the spirit climbs up from underground.” Beasley is also the author of the memoir and cultural history, Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life (Crown, $23.00). Like millions of other Americans, Beasly suffers from food allergies so severe, she dubbed herself “Allergy Girl.” With candor, wit, and a journalist’s curiosity, Sandra draws on her own experiences while covering the scientific, cultural, and sociological terrain of allergies.

2011 Miami Book Fair