Michael Kaler

Introspective and understated, Lot gives voice to the silenced pain of Houston’s Black and Latinx working class. The collection of thirteen linked short stories alternates between tracking an unnamed narrator’s coming of age and exploring the diverse experiences of the boy’s fellow Houstonians. In terse prose, author Bryan Washington fully renders the inner lives of gay men struggling to endure the hardships of poverty and racism, while also sketching a nuanced portrait of a rapidly gentrifying city. The collection opens with the compelling “Lockwood,” a short tale recounting the Afro-Latino narrator’s sexual awakening. “Too dark for the blancos, too Latin for the […]

A debut collection of linked short stories about love, loss, and intimacy, Oranges is a gentle look at what it means to come of age and grow older as a gay man in the Midwest. The slim collection of nine tales sketches the life of Michael Dolin, a civil lawyer who grew up closeted in Mason City, Iowa, before finding self-respect in Minneapolis as an adult. In spare prose, author Gary Eldon Peter portrays Michael’s lifelong journey toward inner peace with care and compassion. The first story, “Blankets,” opens the collection with the protagonist at his most vulnerable. A recent college graduate, Michael struggles […]

A debut collection of linked short stories about love, loss, and intimacy, Oranges is a gentle look at what it means to come of age and grow older as a gay man in the Midwest. The slim collection of nine tales sketches the life of Michael Dolin, a civil lawyer who grew up closeted in Mason City, Iowa, before finding self-respect in Minneapolis as an adult. In spare prose, author Gary Eldon Peter portrays Michael’s lifelong journey toward inner peace with care and compassion. The first story, “Blankets,” opens the collection with the protagonist at his most vulnerable. A recent […]