Books

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Book Review: ‘Walking the Dog’ by Elizabeth Swados

Even from the description, Elizabeth Swados book Walking the Dog sounds like a thrill; lauded as “a singular and unequaled artist,” this was the last published work that Swados wrote before she died in January of 2016. The book details the struggles of “former child prodigy and rich-girl kleptomaniac” Ester Rosenthal (aka Carleen Kepper) as she navigates a post-prison life as a high-end professional dog walker. The novel also maps the relationship between the ex-con protagonist and her hyper-religious Orthodox daughter. The descriptions don’t do the novel justice—not only is this a story of a woman brutalized by a system that […]

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Book Review: ‘Cursed Legacy: The Tragic Life of Klaus Mann’ by Frederic Spotts

Klaus Mann, son of Thomas Mann, author of Mephisto, was one of the first in Germany to write gay novels and plays. Not since reading Judith Thurman’s excellent biography of Colette some years back, have I been so captivated by a piece of writing and scholarship and the creative life and historical period it captures. The reverberations with our own contemporary times are uncanny and raise provocative questions about the role of the queer artist in society, especially a society faced with the lure of fascism and anti-liberal conservatism. Klaus was an early foe of Nazism, writing against the wave […]

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Book Review: ‘How to Whistle’ by Gregg Shapiro

Some know how to whistle. Others merely blow air and spit. This skill cannot be learned from friends or You Tube videos. Either you’ve got it, or you don’t. And Gregg Shapiro…he’s got it. How to Whistle is Shapiro’s second collection of short fiction, among other chapbooks. Set in myriad East Coast cities, these tales shine with an expert, balanced blend of heart, sex and comedy. The flawless opener, “Autograph,” invites readers into 1980s Boston. While two friends embark on an evening fit for rock and roll gods, readers revel in Beantown’s classic landmarks like Paradise, Newbury Street and Metro. […]

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Book Review: ‘True Homosexual Experiences: Boyd McDonald and Straight to Hell’ by William E. Jones

As with the recent interest in Samuel Steward, the Midwestern sex chronicler and tattoo artist, gay scholarship has begun to recover the legacy of gay men from the pre-Stonewall generation, who were part of a thriving homosexual underground. These were the sexual outlaws and renegades who found their homosexuality as an alternative to the conformity of heterosexual America, which Boyd McDonald characterized as a “sexual dictatorship” McDonald was one of the literate stars of this underground. Known for his homoerotic series of chapbooks, Straight to Hell, beginning in 1973, he published the true stories of men who had sex with […]

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Book Review: ‘Imagine Me Gone’ by Adam Haslett

To sum up Imagine Me Gone (Little, Brown) as a novel about an affluent family’s struggle with mental illness is to make it sound far more predictable than it actually is. With this novel of familial strife, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominee Adam Haslett moves beyond cliché and immerses Imagine Me Gone in contemporary ideas about racial and economic justice in America—he does so by having each of the five family members serve as alternating narrators. Even the family’s most conventional character—Margaret, the much-burdened matriarch—asserts, “I’m not a doll in the house of my mother’s imaginings. I got […]

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28th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced

  New York, NY – The winners of the 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards ( the “Lammys” ) were announced last night in a gala ceremony hosted by comedienne Kate Clinton at NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. The Lambda ceremony brought together over 500 attendees, sponsors, and celebrities to celebrate excellence in LGBT literature and 28 years of the groundbreaking literary awards. The celebration continued at Le Poisson Rouge at the Official After-Party with celebrity DJs Sammy Jo and Tikka Masala, VJ Bleue Liverpool and an electrifying performance by Macy Rodman.As master of ceremonies, Clinton once again took […]

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June is GLBT Book Month; Nation’s Libraries Stand Firm in Support of GLBT Literature

In a year when Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) communities are facing divisive “religious freedom” and “bathroom privacy” legislation, libraries are working against legislating discrimination by fostering acceptance through the power of books. The American Library Association (ALA), and hundreds of libraries will celebrate June 2016 as GLBT Book Month™, a nationwide celebration of the authors and books that reflect the GLBT experience. The celebration is consistent with ALA’s commitment to diversity, inclusiveness, and mutual respect for all human beings, as well as recognizing the significant contributions of GLBT authors, with the Stonewall Book Awards, the first and longest-enduring […]

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Book Review: ‘In Case of Emergency, Break Glass’ by Sarah Van Arsdale

“Come back inside,” Imiut says. “It’s dark, and cold. Someone wants you inside.” The “someone” could mean anyone, but it’s clear what Imiut means: hirself. If this were happening in another time, Simut would say I’m sorry, or don’t worry, or I love you, but this is happening so early in the time of people that she doesn’t have the words, and so she follows Imiut back. -Sarah Van Arsdale, In Case of Emergency, Break Glass Sarah Van Arsdale’s book, In Case of Emergency, Break Glass begins with a novella about people in the early times of people. People who […]

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Book Review: ‘From Up River and for One Night Only’ by Brett Josef Grubisic

To call novelist Grubisic’s latest work “your typical coming-of-age Rock’N’Roll story” would be selling it short. As readers, we are used to seeing recurring tropes in new adult texts: first love, a rule-breaking adventure, domestic upheaval, or existential crisis. However, they’re often written in comprehensible, syntactically coherent sentences, and plot driven texts. We nod and smile at the moments we recognize and frown at those we’ve pushed far into the depth of our memories. From Up River and for One Night Only is a linguistic brouhaha, lending itself to non-associative devices. These tropes are no longer intelligible; rather, they are […]

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Book Review: ‘The Cosmopolitans’ by Sarah Schulman

Welcome to 10th Street, Greenwich Village, 1958. This is New York City on the cusp of a new modernity: marketing, brands, and television are ushering in the commercial age, and Sarah Schulman’s latest novel, The Cosmopolitans, is set right in the thick of it. The Cosmopolitans opens with Bette, a white secretary exiled from her Midwestern family, watching the world outside her second-story apartment the way others do movies. Life teems below, and Bette—single, in her 50s, nurturing a longstanding unrequited love—is keen to it all, creating stories to fit upon her neighbors and passersby. As Bette watches, she waits […]

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