Strange Fruit

Garth Greenwell got out of Louisville as soon as he could, at age 16. "I really felt like this place was killing me," he says. His family didn't accept his gay identity, and few other adults took took any interest in supporting him — with the life-changing exception of his high school choir teacher, whom he credits with saving his life. "David Brown at the Youth Performing Arts School was the first adult in my life to suggest my life had value," he explains. Greenwell's path took him from performing arts to poetry, and now to prose. His first novel, "What Belongs to You," was published last month, and has been met with almost universal praise from critics, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, and Publishers Weekly. "What Belongs to You," which Greenwell says is largely autobiographical, is about the relationship between an American teacher in Bulgaria, and a hustler he meets in a public men's room. It's a scenario not unfamiliar to many gay