Arts & Culture :: Books

James Bidgood March 28, 1933 — January 31, 2022

James Bidgood March 28, 1933 — January 31, 2022

  • by Jim Provenzano
  • Feb 1, 2022

Known mostly for his underground gay art film 'Pink Narcissus,' artist James Bidgood died while hospitalized on January 31. He was 88.

Billy Porter's memoir 'Unprotected' - Broadway & TV actor's life story

Billy Porter's memoir 'Unprotected' - Broadway & TV actor's life story

  • by Brian Bromberger
  • Feb 1, 2022

After reading 'Unprotected,' Porter's frank, blunt, raw memoir, no one can ever accuse him of dissembling on a 30-year rocky circuitous journey to reach his current level of fame.

Memory serves: Nate Lippens' 'My Dead Book'

Memory serves: Nate Lippens' 'My Dead Book'

  • by Jim Piechota
  • Feb 1, 2022

If the best things come in small packages, the diminutive chapbook by author Nate Lippens should pack a punch, and it certainly does. This fictional excavation of a man's past through the dead friends and lovers he'd managed to survive is worth the ride.

Edmund White faces the future in 'A Previous Life'

Edmund White faces the future in 'A Previous Life'

  • by Timothy Pfaff
  • Feb 1, 2022

With the publication of his latest novel, 'A Previous Life,' Edmund White joins the ranks of the great prolific artists who end their careers on a note of high ribaldry.

Brian Hutchison's gay noir audio tale

Brian Hutchison's gay noir audio tale

  • by David-Elijah Nahmod
  • Jan 25, 2022

'I Still Think About You,' a dark film noir-styled podcast done as a dramatic reading, is the new work of 'Boys in the Band' actor Brian Hutchison, with several of his actor friends in supporting roles.

 '80s awakening: Ken Harvey's 'The Book of Casey Adair'

'80s awakening: Ken Harvey's 'The Book of Casey Adair'

  • by Jim Piechota
  • Jan 25, 2022

After a novel and a short story collection, Ken Harvey's latest effort chronicles the life of a young gay man in the 1980s as he wanders stateside and internationally in search of love and adventure.

Latinx love: Edgar Gomez' 'High-Risk Homosexual'

Latinx love: Edgar Gomez' 'High-Risk Homosexual'

  • by Jim Piechota
  • Jan 18, 2022

In his outstanding new coming-of-age memoir, Florida-born queer Latinx author Edgar Gomez navigates a modest 13-year-old adolescence dominated by poverty and cultural machismo.

James Magruder: playwright's new novel, 'Vamp Until Ready'

James Magruder: playwright's new novel, 'Vamp Until Ready'

  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Jan 11, 2022

James Magruder is a funny guy. His wonderfully wicked sense of humor comes through in his plays, and in his new novel, 'Vamp Until Ready.'

Transit tales: Johnny Townsend's 'Orgy At The STD Clinic'

Transit tales: Johnny Townsend's 'Orgy At The STD Clinic'

  • by Jim Piechota
  • Jan 11, 2022

Johnny Townsend's new book chronicles the escapades of Todd Tillotson, a middle-aged, paunchy Seattle gay man and ex-Mormon riding the public transit bus in the present day pandemic while cruising for sex.

'Better' than ever: author Philip Dean Walker

'Better' than ever: author Philip Dean Walker

  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Jan 5, 2022

Washington, D.C.-based gay writer Philip Dean Walker's third book contains six short stories consisting of fictionalized situations involving characters whose names will be familiar to many readers.

Matthew Aucoin on 'The Impossible Art: Adventures in Opera'

Matthew Aucoin on 'The Impossible Art: Adventures in Opera'

  • by Timothy Pfaff
  • Jan 5, 2022

Matthew Aucoin's new book, "The Impossible Art: Adventures in Opera," focuses on opera's mysteries, the alchemy of opposites that fires it, and, perhaps most surprising of all, its unique and lasting power.

Sharon Gless: 'Queer as Folk' and 'Cagney & Lacy' star on her new memoir

Sharon Gless: 'Queer as Folk' and 'Cagney & Lacy' star on her new memoir

  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Dec 28, 2021

Multiple Emmy Award-winning actress Sharon Gless shares highlights and low times in her new memoir, 'Apparently There Were Complaints.'

'Solid Ivory: Memoirs' - gay filmmaker James Ivory's career told

'Solid Ivory: Memoirs' - gay filmmaker James Ivory's career told

  • by Brian Bromberger
  • Dec 28, 2021

Prolific gay film director James Ivory's candid, urbane, and meandering book is a pastiche scrapbook of letters, diary entries, travelogue, magazine articles, sketches of famous show business personalities, and reflections on his childhood.

Tripping through history: 'The Letters of Thom Gunn' as a roadmap to San Francisco's past

Tripping through history: 'The Letters of Thom Gunn' as a roadmap to San Francisco's past

  • by Michael Flanagan
  • Dec 22, 2021

'The Letters of Thom Gunn' is both an intimate portrait of the poet and a window on the development of what would become gay and leather culture, and the rise of the hippies and drug culture.