by Alicia D. Williams
2020 Finalist
Genesis has a list of reasons to hate about herself, started by girls in a Detroit school she attends, and she keeps adding to it. Born dark-skinned in a family that values light-skin black people, Genesis craves to feel loved by her alcoholic, gambling-addicted father. Amidst verbal abuse and poverty, thirteen-year old Genesis struggles to find her voice and story of her family with the help of her music teacher, friends, and mother.