History should always trump nostalgia because “nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.” Whoever first said these words—baseball icon Yogi...
"The trick, then, is how we intentionally employ the mischief or menace of language. How have other sort-of poets and artists bucked coherency to make meaning for themselves?" Read More
I still recall prowling the stacks of the Epiphany branch of the New York Public Library on East 23rd Street,...
"One thing I learned in writing for mainstream magazines, as a gay man, who often wanted to write about gay stuff--death and homophobia and boyfriends, assuming those are separate categories--was that straight men, straight male editors--and straight women, just as often, I should add--thought that if they ran one piece about homophobia or AIDS or gay rights or Lesbian Avengers, they had covered the entire topic for all time..." Read More
"After hanging out last night, I struggle to rouse myself from bed at the appointed 8 o’clock hour. Susan Sontag said something about this being the latest possible moment she should wake up in order to have a productive writing day. But then again, she also had her son stand by her typewriter and change her ashtrays while she typed and chain-smoked. I’m not going to have children because they cost too much, but I think that if I did have some, they should earn their keep by doing useful things." Read More
"I’m not going to argue that Purdy’s writing is for everyone—I don’t imagine James would have, either—but when Sontag wrote in the 1960s that he was 'indisputably one of the half-dozen or so living American writers worth taking seriously,' she was on to something." Read More
As world leaders converge on South Africa this week to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela, the rest of us are...
Fear of Flying, Jong’s first novel after publishing two volumes of poetry, turned 40 years old this year, and the celebration of its reissue reveals the sad fact that Jong’s groundbreaking work is still woefully misunderstood. Read More
Academic freedom, and, simply put, teaching in general, is a precarious enterprise for the queer adjunct. Read More
Authors and readers reflect on reading John Rechy's iconic City of Night. Read More
