Arts & Culture :: Books

Out in the Bay: Steven Rowley's 'The Guncle' heals grief with humor

Out in the Bay: Steven Rowley's 'The Guncle' heals grief with humor

  • by Eric Jansen
  • May 21, 2021

What's the role of a gay uncle? "The Guncle" suggests possibilities, dishing out lots of laughs as a guncle, his niece, and nephew deal with deep past and current grief.

Thoroughly 'Modern' - actor, comedian & poet Catherine Cohen

Thoroughly 'Modern' - actor, comedian & poet Catherine Cohen

  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • May 18, 2021

Cohen's debut poetry collection 'God I Feel Modern Tonight: Poems from a Gal About Town' strikes a careful balance between the poetic ("I love sex and I love before it—/the double vodka soda leg touch") and the playful.

Michael Nava's 'Lies With Man' brings back the mystery

Michael Nava's 'Lies With Man' brings back the mystery

  • by Jim Piechota
  • May 18, 2021

Attorney and prolific author Michael Nava's impressive, engrossing ninth mystery novel in his Henry Rios detective series flashes back to the 1980s where big hair ruled, neon lit up the night, and the dark storm clouds of the AIDS epidemic began.

Flower of Iowa playwright Lance Ringel imagines male intimacy during WWI

Flower of Iowa playwright Lance Ringel imagines male intimacy during WWI

  • by Mark William Norby
  • May 18, 2021

Lance Ringel's expansive novel 'Flower of Iowa' centers on native 18-year old Tommy Flowers, who was raised in rural Iowa and sent to France by the U.S. Military in June 1918, the final months of World War I.

AIDS activism by the book: 'Let the Record Show' captures a movement's rise and decline

AIDS activism by the book: 'Let the Record Show' captures a movement's rise and decline

  • by Jim Provenzano
  • May 11, 2021

In the lengthy 'Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993,' author Sarah Schulman documents and analyzes the ideals, actions, successes and failures of the people who made up the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power.

Drawn out: Cartoon Art Museum's Queer Comics Expo's online May 15 & 16

Drawn out: Cartoon Art Museum's Queer Comics Expo's online May 15 & 16

  • by Jim Provenzano
  • May 9, 2021

Meet your favorite artists, hang out with fans and attend comics-themed chats at the 2021 Queer Comics Expo. Although online this year, the two-day gathering will still provide illustrative fun for attendees.

Sisters cookbook serves up dishes and drag

Sisters cookbook serves up dishes and drag

  • by Jim Provenzano
  • May 4, 2021

Whip up some tasty dishes while supporting LGBT teen education with the new Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence's cookbook fundraiser for The Point Foundation.

Queer spring non-fiction

Queer spring non-fiction

  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • May 4, 2021

After a brutal winter, made even more difficult by the pandemic and killer storms, the Spring Equinox has arrived and warmer weather days are in sight. The following new non-fiction books are a good way to welcome the new season.

Sam Rush's 'Swallow' - poet shatters the mold of identity

Sam Rush's 'Swallow' - poet shatters the mold of identity

  • by Mark William Norby
  • Apr 27, 2021

In the new poetry collection 'Swallow' by Sam Rush (Sibling Rivalry Press), we're given a lot of content that wakes up the reader into identity, forms, breaking forms, and into freedoms that are part of our constant becoming.

Curiouser comics - 'Alice in Leatherland's kinky capers

Curiouser comics - 'Alice in Leatherland's kinky capers

  • by Jim Provenzano
  • Apr 25, 2021

Queer comic fans, rejoice. 'Alice In Leatherland,' the series by writer Iolanda Zanfardino and illustrator Elisa Romboli follows a young woman's journey to San Francisco and its sexy subcultures.

Mississippi mudpuppies: Samuel R. Delany's 'Big Joe'

Mississippi mudpuppies: Samuel R. Delany's 'Big Joe'

  • by Jim Piechota
  • Apr 19, 2021

Delany's latest creation is a racy, pungent illustrated novella of explicit gay erotica inspired by and dedicated to childhood friend Kenroy Thorsten "who started it all on the first night of summer camp in the boys' bunk-five tent in 1952."

Mike Nichols: A Life, celebrated in new biography

Mike Nichols: A Life, celebrated in new biography

  • by Brian Bromberger
  • Apr 13, 2021

Written by Mark Harris, the husband of gay playwright Tony Kushner, the new Mike Nichols biography profiles a prickly genius who was a virtuoso observer of others, yet a stranger to himself.

Allen Ginsberg's first recorded "Howl"

Allen Ginsberg's first recorded "Howl"

  • by Jason Victor Serinus
  • Apr 13, 2021

It was the poem that defined a generation. "Howl," Allen Ginsberg's defiantly gay manifesto, and other poems, will be released on audio by Omnivore Recordings on CD, LP, and in multiple streaming and download formats.

Reading Out Women's History Month

Reading Out Women's History Month

  • by Victoria A. Brownworth
  • Mar 23, 2021

Another Women's History Month is winding down with lesbian, bisexual, queer and trans women largely left in the shadows, where they have spent most of history.