Swag Tuesday II

Courtesy of Oxford University Press, our second Swag Tuesday prize this week is The AIDS Generation: Stories of Survival and Resilience by Dr. Perry Halkitis, which is now available online and at booksellers nationwide.

For young gay men who came of age in the United States in the 1980s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic was a formative experience in fear, hardship, and loss. Those who were diagnosed before 1996 suffered an exceptionally high rate of mortality, and the survivors -- both the infected individuals and those close to them -- today constitute a "bravest generation" in American history. The AIDS Generation: Stories of Survival and Resilience examines the strategies for survival and coping employed by these HIV-positive gay men, who together constitute the first generation of long-term survivors of the disease. Through interviews conducted by the author, it narrates the stories of gay men who have survived since the early days of the epidemic; documents and delineates the strategies and behaviors enacted by men of this generation to survive it; and examines the extent to which these approaches to survival inform and are informed by the broad body of literature on resilience and health. The stories and strategies detailed here, all used to combat the profound physical, emotional, and social challenges faced by those in the crosshairs of the AIDS epidemic, provide a gateway for understanding how individuals cope with chronic and life-threatening diseases. Halkitis takes readers on a journey of first-hand data collection (the interviews themselves), the popular culture representations of these phenomena, and his own experiences as one of the men of the AIDS generation.

We have three copies of The AIDS Generation to give away. Enter to win by commenting on this post. Only enter once and please remember to include an email address. Entries close at midnight on Thursday, west coast time. Publicists: If you'd like to take part in Swag Tuesday on JMG, please email me.

RELATED: This Thursday SAGE and GMHC will host Dr. Halkitis and activists Eric Bartley, Scott Jordan and Sean McKenna for roundtable discussion on the themes in his book. The event starts at 7PM at SAGE's office in Chelsea at 305 Seventh Avenue. Facebook event page here.