Gays Reading | A Book Podcast for Everyone

Jason and Brett talk to Lev Grossman (The Bright Sword) about the difference between an adventure and a quest, being the hero of your own story, the trials of putting on armor, and what makes a king.

Lev Grossman is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Magicians trilogy—The Magicians, The Magician King, and The Magician’s Land—which has been published in thirty countries and adapted as a TV show that ran for five seasons on SYFY. He is also a screenwriter and the author of two children’s books, The Golden Swift and The Silver Arrow, and his journalism has appeared in Time, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, among many other places. He lives with his wife and children in New York City.

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Jason and Brett talk to Peng Shepherd (All This and More) about what it means to be real, the repercussions of the choices that we make, the many versions of our lives, and get the scoop on her very first published book. 

Peng Shepherd was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and has lived in Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, London, New York, and Mexico City. 

Her second novel, The Cartographers, became a national bestseller, was named a Best Book of 2022 by The Washington Post, and received a 2020 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her debut, The Book of M, won the 2019 Neukom Institute for Literary Arts Award for Debut Speculative Fiction, and was chosen as a best book of the year by Amazon, Elle, Refinery29, and The Verge, as well as a best book of the summer by the Today show and NPR’s On Point.

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Jason and Brett talk to Julia Phillips (Bear) about different sibling dynamics, the "bear" knocking on her door, and why she's wearing a snake in her wedding photos.

Julia Phillips is the bestselling author of the novel Disappearing Earth, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and one of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of the Year. A 2024 Guggenheim fellow, she lives with her family in Brooklyn.

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Jason and Brett talk to debut authors Solomon J. Brager (Heavyweight), Oisín McKenna (Evenings & Weekends), and August Thompson (Anyone's Ghost). They explore themes like inherited trauma and family history, queer identity, and the complexities of growing up. And they talk about some favorite snacks and date stories. 

Solomon J. Brager is a cartoonist and writer living in Brooklyn, New York. Their comics and research have appeared in The Nib, Jewish Currents, ArtForum, World War III Illustrated, Pinko Magazine, Refract Journal, and The New Inquiry, among other publications. They hold a PhD from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and teach as adjunct faculty in history, media, and gender studies.

Oisín McKenna was born in Dublin and lives in London. He was awarded the Next Generation Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland to write Evenings and Weekends and it was developed with further funding from Arts Council England. Evenings and Weekends has been awarded a 2022 London Writers Award, and in 2017, Oisín was named in the Irish Times as one of the best-spoken word artists in the country. He has written and performed four theatre shows, including ADMIN, an award-winning production at Dublin Fringe 2019, and has written for outlets including the Irish Times on issues such as gentrification and the alienation of Dublin’s youth. 

August Thompson was born and raised in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire, before he attended middle school in West LA. After surviving California optimism, he moved to NYC for his bachelor’s, studied in Berlin, and taught English in Spain for two years. He recently received his MFA at New York University’s creative writing program as a Goldwater Fellow.

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Jason and Brett talk to Catherine Newman (Sandwich) about ailments, weighted blankets, reproductive mayhem, peanut butter, queerness, and of course… sandwiches. 

Catherine Newman has written numerous columns, articles, and canned-bean recipes for magazines and newspapers, and her essays have been widely anthologized. She is the author of the novel We All Want Impossible Things; the memoirs Waiting for Birdy and Catastrophic Happiness; the middle-grade novel One Mixed-Up Night; and the bestselling kids’ life-skills books How to Be a Person and What Can I Say? She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

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Jason and Brett talked to Chris Whitaker (All the Color of the Dark) about what keeps friends in your life, horror stories from his time working in a library, what it means to have faith and hope, and Danny Zuko. 

Chris Whitaker is the award-winning author of Tall Oaks, All the Wicked Girls, and the New York Times bestseller We Begin at the End. Chris lives in the UK. All the Colors of the Dark was recently announced as the July 2024 Read with Jenna Book Club selection. 

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Jason and Brett are joined by Claire Lombardo (Same As It Ever Was), last month's Reese's Book Club pick for her novel, The Most Fun We Ever Had. They talk to Claire about  secrets in relationships, favorite children, Boo Radleyism, and debate Joni Mitchell.

What Guys & Dolls reference is Jason talking about in the intro? Listen here. 

More info about Claire & Jason in conversation at Warwick's HERE.

Claire Lombardo is the author of The Most Fun We Ever Had, which has been optioned for television by Reese Witherspoon. She lives in Iowa City, where she has taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Grinnell College and works part-time as a bookseller at Prairie Lights Books.

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In the final PRIDE installment of Upcoming/Up & Coming, Jason and Brett talk to debut* authors Kimberly King Parsons (We Were the Universe), KB Brookins (Pretty), and Santiago Jose Sanchez (Hombrecito). They talk about the theatre of parenthood, queer representation in books and media, and using writing to better understand your own story. 

*Debut-ish! Kimberly’s debut novel and KB’s debut memoir.

Kimberly King Parsons is the author of Black Light, a collection of stories that was long-listed for the National Book Award and the Story Prize. In 2020, she received the National Magazine Award for fiction. Born in Lubbock, Texas, she lives in Portland, Oregon, with her partner and children. We Were the Universe is her first novel.

KB Brookins is a Black, queer, and trans writer and cultural worker from Texas. They are the author of Freedom House and How to Identify Yourself with a Wound. Brookins has poems, essays, and installation art published in Academy of American Poets, Teen Vogue, Poetry Magazine, Prizer Arts & Letters, Okayplayer, Poetry Society of America, Autostraddle, and other venues. They have earned fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, PEN America, Equality Texas, and others.

Santiago Jose Sanchez (they/them), a Grinnell College assistant professor of English and a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, is a queer Colombian American writer. Santiago’s writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, ZYZZYVA, Subtropics, and Joyland and been distinguished in Best American Short Stories. They are the recipient of a Truman Capote Fellowship from the University of Iowa and an Emerging LGBTQ Voices Fellowship from Lambda Literary.

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Jason and Brett talk to Rufi Thorpe (Margo’s Got Money Troubles) about her obsession with wrestling (and how learning about it was like an all-cereal buffet), having a public persona and the chaos of the modern internet, falling in love with strangers, and of course, @tooturnttony.

Rufi Thorpe is the author of The Knockout Queen, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award; Dear Fang, with Love; and The Girls from Corona del Mar, which was long-listed for the International Dylan Thomas Prize and the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize. A native of California, she currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.

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Jason and Brett continue PRIDE 2024 with celebrated authors. They’re joined in conversation with Jen Silverman (There’s Going to Be Trouble), David Levithan (Wide Awake Now), and Emma Copley Eisenberg (Housemates) talking about the cyclical nature of history, queer inheritance, intersectionality of arts and queerness, and much more.

Jen Silverman is a New York-based writer, playwright, and screenwriter. Jen is the author of novel We Play Ourselves, which is short-listed for a Lambda Literary Award, the story collection The Island Dwellers, which was longlisted for a PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for debut fiction, and the poetry chapbook Bath, selected by Traci Brimhall for Driftwood Press. Additional work has appeared in Vogue, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, LitHub, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. Jen’s plays have been produced across the United States and internationally. Jen is a three-time MacDowell fellow, a member of New Dramatists, and the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts grant, a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Fellowship, the Yale Drama Series Award, and a Playwrights of New York Fellowship. Jen is a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow for Prose and a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow for Drama. Jen also writes for TV and film.

When not writing during spare hours on weekends, David Levithan is editorial director at Scholastic and the founding editor of the PUSH imprint, which is devoted to finding new voices and new authors in teen literature. His acclaimed novels Boy Meets Boy and The Realm of Possibility started as stories he wrote for his friends for Valentine’s Day (something he’s done for the past 22 years and counting) that turned themselves into teen novels. He’s often asked if the book is a work of fantasy or a work of reality, and the answer is right down the middle—it’s about where we’re going, and where we should be.

Emma Copley Eisenberg is a queer writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her first book, The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, was named a New York Times Notable Book and was nominated for an Edgar Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and an Anthony Award, among other honors. Her fiction has appeared in Granta, McSweeney’s, VQR, American Short Fiction, and other publications. Raised in New York City, she lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts.

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In this Pride edition of Upcoming/Up & Coming, Jason and Brett talk to Justinian Huang (The Emperor and the Endless Palace) about living life romantically, KT Hoffman (The Prospects) about how anyone can play baseball, and Myriam Lacroix (How it Works Out) about a twist on autofiction.

Born to immigrants in Monterey Park, California, Justinian Huang studied English at Pomona College and screenwriting at the University of Oxford. He is now based in Los Angeles with Swagger, a Shanghainese rescue dog he adopted during his five years living in China. The Emperor and the Endless Palace is his debut novel.

KT Hoffman is originally from Beaverton, Oregon and currently lives in Brooklyn. He received his bachelor’s degree in English and Creative Writing from Stanford University. If he isn’t writing about trans hope and gay kissing, he’s probably white-knuckling his way through the ninth inning of a Seattle Mariners game. The Prospects is his debut novel.

Myriam Lacroix was born in Montreal to a Québécois mother and a Moroccan father, and currently lives in Vancouver. She has a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and an MFA from Syracuse University, where she was editor in chief of Salt Hill Journal and received the New York Public Humanities Fellowship for creating Out-Front, an LGBTQ+ writing group whose goal was to expand the possibilities of queer writing.

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Jason and Brett kick off PRIDE 2024 with some incredible queer authors! They talk to Carvell Wallace (Another Word for Love) about the key to your ability to fight for what's right, R.O. Kwon (Exhibit) about art and how taking a choreography workshop got her in the body of her characters, and Byron Lane (Big Gay Wedding) about why he thinks he'd thrive in prison.

Carvell Wallace grew up between Southwestern PA, Washington DC, and Los Angeles. He attended Tisch School for the Arts and worked as a stage actor before spending fifteen years in direct service youth non-profits. He has covered arts, entertainment, music, culture, race, sports, and parenting for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Slate, GQ, Pitchfork, MTV News and others. As a podcast host, he has been nominated for a Peabody and won a Kaleidoscope Award and was the Slate parenting advice columnist. He is the co-author of the New York Times best-selling basketball memoir The Sixth Man with Andre Iguodala. He lives in Oakland and has two adult children, a comfortable couch, and a lot of plants.

R. O. Kwon is the author of the nationally bestselling novel The Incendiaries, which was named a best book of the year by more than forty publications and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award. With Garth Greenwell, Kwon coedited the bestselling Kink, a New York Times Notable Book. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Yaddo, and MacDowell. Born in Seoul, Kwon has lived most of her life in the United States.

Byron Lane is the author of A Star Is Bored, hailed by the New York Times Book Review as “wildly funny and irreverent.” He’s a playwright, screenwriter, Emmy Award–winning journalist, and former assistant to actress Carrie Fisher. He’s originally from New Orleans and lives in Palm Springs, California, with his husband, author Steven Rowley, and their rescue dogs, Raindrop and Shirley.

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In the fourth installment of their debut novelists series UPCOMING / UP & COMING, Jason and Brett talk to three new writers about their recently and soon-to-be released books. Zoë Bossiere (Cactus Country, May 21) talks about navigating identity growing up in a trailer park; Alan Murrin (The Coast Road, June 4) shares how short stories transformed into a novel; and Essie Chambers (Swift River, June 4) talks about how ancestral inheritance shaped her book, and also learns about the cootie shot.  

Zoë Bossiere (they/she) is writer from Tucson, Arizona. They are the managing editor of Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction. as well as the coeditor of two anthologies: The Best of Brevity (Rose Metal Press, 2020) and The Lyric Essay as Resistance: Truth from the Margins (Wayne State UP, 2023). Bossiere's debut, Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir, chronicles their experiences growing up as a trans boy in a Tucson, Arizona trailer park.

Alan Murrin is an Irish writer based in Berlin. His short story, “The Wake,” won the 2021 Bournemouth Writing Prize and was shortlisted for short story of the year at the Irish Book Awards. The Coast Road was shortlisted for the PFD Queer Fiction prize. Murrin is also the recipient of an Irish Arts Council Agility Award and an Arts Council Literature Bursary. He is a graduate of the prose fiction masters at the University of East Anglia, and writes for the Irish Times and the Times Literary Supplement, as well as Art Review and e-flux.

Essie Chambers earned her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and has received fellowships from the MacDowell Vermont Studio Center, and Baldwin for the Arts. A former film and television executive, she was a producer on the documentary Descendant, which was released by the Obamas’ Higher Ground production company and Netflix in 2022. Swift River is her debut novel. 

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Jason and Brett talk to Steven Rowley (The Guncle Abroad) about sea cave adventures in Capri, Varla Jean Merman's rendition of "Ring Them Bells,"  the best Wang Chung song, and obviously: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Grease 2.

Steven Rowley is the bestselling author of five novels including, Lily and the Octopus, a Washington Post Notable Book; The Editor, an NPR Best Book of the Year; The Guncle, winner of the 22nd Thurber Prize for American Humor and Goodreads Choice Awards finalist for Novel of the Year; and The Celebrants. His fiction has been translated in twenty languages. He resides in Palm Springs, California.

Truffle hunt in Rome: https://matteo-truffles.com/

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Jason and Brett talk to Kaliane Bradley (The Ministry of Time) about transforming her once-serious novel about Cambodia and being mixed-race into the latest genre-defying Good Morning America book club pick. They learn how Kaliane was able to experience the 21st century as an adventure, gush over the only photo of a footnote of a historical figure, and debate about chilled red wine.

Kaliane Bradley is a British-Cambodian writer and editor based in London. Her short fiction has appeared in Somesuch Stories, The Willowherb Review, Electric Literature, Catapult, and Extra Teeth, among others. She was the winner of the 2022 Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Prize and the 2022 V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize. 

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Jason and Brett talk to Hannah Murphy Winter and Billie Winter, the couple behind Queer Power Couples, as they delve into the essence of queer power partnerships, offering intimate insights into documenting this untapped element of queer history. They then talk to Ryan Fitzgibbon (A Great Gay Book, on sale May 21) about his curation of a time capsule featuring essays, poems, and photographs, immortalizing layers of queer history and rich tapestry of LGBTQ+ experiences.

Hannah Murphy Winter (she/they) is a journalist who writes about queerness and policies that impact LGBTQ+ lives. Her work frequently appears in Rolling Stone. She lives in Seattle with her wife, Billie Winter, three cats they found in their shed, and their rescue dog, Pippin. The first person she ever recognized as queer was Spinelli from Recess.

Billie Winter (she/her) is a photographer and videographer. She grew up in Queens, NY, and worked at Rolling Stone as a photo editor for fifteen years until she moved to Seattle and became an organic, regenerative farmer. She still has a crush on Cheetara from ThunderCats.

Ryan Fitzgibbon is an artist and publisher. After beginning as a communication designer at IDEO in San Francisco, California, he founded Hello Mr. in 2012. Fitzgibbon self-published the magazine from Brooklyn, New York, before moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma in January of 2020. In addition to organizing to protect LGBTQ+ rights and expanding HIV/AIDS care and prevention in Oklahoma, his work includes supporting the Black Wall Street Times through the production of multiple print publications, and the opening of their newsroom and storefront in Greenwood. Fitzgibbon is a 2021-2023 awardee of the Tulsa Artist Fellowship.

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In their 50th episode, Jason and Brett talk to Rachel Khong (Real Americans) about cooking eggs, mugwort baths, growing into the person who could write this book, and how friction allows for change.

Rachel Khong is the author of Goodbye, Vitamin, winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction, and named a Best Book of the Year by NPR; O, The Oprah Magazine; Vogue; and Esquire. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Cut, The Guardian, The Paris Review, and Tin House. In 2018, she founded The Ruby, a work and event space for women and nonbinary writers and artists in San Francisco’s Mission District. She lives in California.

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In the April episode of their debut novelists series UPCOMING / UP & COMING, Jason and Brett talk to three new writers about their soon-to-be released books. Jiaming Tang (Cinema Love, May 7) talks about explaining his "accent" to people in Alabama; Melissa Mogollon (Oye, May 14) expresses her love of Rainforest Cafe; and Yael van der Wouden (The Safekeep, May 28) shares the secrets of erotic writing.

Jiaming Tang is a queer immigrant writer. He holds an MFA from the University of Alabama, and his writing has appeared in such publications as AGNI, Lit Hub, Joyland Magazine, and elsewhere. He is a 2022-23 Center for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Cinema Love is his first novel.

Melissa Mogollon holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a BA from the George Washington University. Originally from Colombia and raised in Florida, she now teaches at a boarding school in Rhode Island, where she lives with her partner and dog. Oye is her first novel.

Yael van der Wouden is a writer and a teacher. She lives in Utrecht, Netherlands, and The Safekeep is her first novel.

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Jason and Brett talk to Yulin Kuang (How to End a Love Story) about Lisa Frank fan fiction, underrated 90s rom coms, the struggles of watching cooking shows on TV, how she came to adapt two Emily Henry novels, and much more.

Yulin Kuang is a screenwriter and director, whose credits include The CW’s I Ship It and Hulu’s Dollface. She was once fired from a Hallmark movie for being ‘too hip for Hallmark’ and is the adapting screenwriter of Emily Henry’s People We Meet On Vacation, as well as the writer/director of the forthcoming Beach Read film for 20th Century Studios. She lives in Pasadena with her husband Zack and their orange cat, Eloise.

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Jason and Brett talk to Holly Gramazio (The Husbands) about how her life was changed by a misfiled library book, her strong convictions about jewelry, five finger shoes, and High School Musical 3. 

The Husbands is April's Read with Jenna book club pick.

Holly Gramazio is a writer, game designer and curator from Adelaide, currently based in London. She founded the experimental games festival Now Play This, and wrote the script for the award-winning indie video game Dicey Dungeons. Her recent projects include New Rules, a zine collecting essays about play during the pandemic, and a collaboration with artist Lawrence Lek on a game for his exhibition NOX. She’s particularly interested in rules, play, cities, gardens, games that get people acting creatively, stories that buy into a ridiculous premise and then really commit to it, and art that gets people interacting with their surroundings in new ways. The Husbands is her first novel.

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Jason and Brett talk to Douglas Westerbeke (A Short Walk Through a Wide World) about the research that went into setting up his modern fairy tale, the impact of technology on storytelling, and the importance of staying curious.

Douglas Westerbeke is a librarian who lives in Ohio and works at one of the largest libraries in the US. He has spent the last decade on the local panel of the International Dublin Literary Award, which inspired him to write his own book.

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Jason and Brett talk to Tommy Orange (Wandering Stars) about dreams and spirituality, learn about sound engineering and roller hockey, and how understanding your history can shape your future. Come for special insider info about a character's playlist, stay for a Moulin Rouge debate.

Tommy Orange is a graduate of the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, he was born and raised in Oakland, California. His first book, There There, was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and received the 2019 American Book Award. He lives in Oakland, California.

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Jason and Brett take a break from talking to authors to answer your questions! Everything from choosing books and finding time to read to their experience and relationship to books as queer people. 

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Jason and Brett talk to Armistead Maupin (Mona of the Manor) about living in the world of Tales of the City for 50 years, inspiration for the character of Mona, a day in his life at nearly-80, shows he's seen in the West End recently, Bernadette Peters, and more.

Armistead Maupin is the author of the Tales of the City series, which includes Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others, Sure of You, Michael Tolliver Lives, Mary Ann in Autumn, and The Days of Anna Madrigal. His other books include the memoir Logical Family and the novels Maybe the Moon and The Night Listener. Maupin was the 2012 recipient of the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Pioneer Award. He lives in London with his husband, Christopher Turner.

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In the second installment of their debut novelists series UPCOMING / UP & COMING, Jason and Brett talk to three new writers about their soon-to-be released books. Lottie Hazell (Piglet, Feb 27) talks about working as a board game designer; Ursula Villarreal-Moura (Like Happiness, Mar 26) shares her stories writing fan letters; and Alexandra Tanner (Worry, Mar 26) tells real-life stories that inspired her book.

Lottie Hazell is a writer, contemporary literature scholar, and board game designer living in Warwickshire, England. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Loughborough University, where she studied food writing in twenty-first century fiction. Piglet is her first novel.

Ursula Villarreal-Moura was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling, a flash fiction collection. Like Happiness is her first novel.

Alexandra Tanner is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor. She is a graduate of the MFA program at The New School and the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell and The Center for Fiction. Her writing appears in The New York Times Book Review, Gawker, and Jewish Currents, among other outlets. Worry is her first novel.

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Jason and Brett talk to Bianca Bosker (Get the Picture) about the immersive approach to her writing, why we need to unlearn how to behave around art, developing new tastes, and the importance of context in the context of art.

Bianca Bosker is the New York Times bestselling author of Cork Dork and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Best American Travel Writing, and been recognized with awards from the New York Press Club, Society of Professional Journalists, and more.

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Jason and Brett talk to Ijeoma Oluo (Be a Revolution) about actionable steps for making social change, the importance of diversifying where you get your information, doing your own research, outlining a blueprint for being the catalyst of change.

Ijeoma Oluo is a writer, speaker, and internet yeller. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race and, most recently, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America. Her work has been featured in the Guardian, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, among many other publications. She was named to the 2021 Time 100 Next list and has twice been named to the Root 100. She received the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award and the 2020 Harvard Humanist of the Year Award from the American Humanist Association. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

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Jason and Brett talk to Mark Daley (Safe) about his new memoir chronicling a piece of his journey becoming an adoptive parent. They talk about some of the systemic issues within the adoption process, chosen family, and the impetus to telling this story.

Mark Daley is a social activist, entrepreneur, and foster-turned-adoptive father. Daley has over two decades of experience in message development, communication strategy, and public policy, including as a communications director and spokesperson for then-Senator Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. He has worked with more than thirty members of Congress, numerous governors, and other elected officials. He is the founder of One Iowa, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ equality organization, and TheFosterParent.com, a national platform to connect interested families with foster organizations. Daley lives in Southern California with his husband and three children.

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Jason and Brett talk to Dolly Alderton (Good Material) about hetero optimism (yes, it's a thing), Geri Halliwell as a sexual awakening, Robbie Williams as... another sexual awakening, Nora Ephron (unrelated to sexual awakenings), and so much more. Grab your Zabar's mug and enjoy.

Dolly Alderton is an award-winning author, screenwriter and journalist based in London. She is a columnist for The Sunday Times Style and has also written for GQ, Red, Marie Claire and Grazia. She is the former co-host and co-creator of the podcast The High Low. Her first book, Everything I Know About Love, became a top five Sunday Times best-seller in its first week of publication, won a National Book Award (UK) for Autobiography of the Year and was made into a BBC One TV Series. Ghosts, her first novel, was published in 2021. Dear Dolly, a collection of her agony aunt columns from the Sunday Times Style magazine, was published in 2022 and was also a Sunday Times best-seller.

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Jason and Brett talk to Crystal Hefner (Only Say Good Things) about life following her time in the famed Playboy mansion, beauty standards and carrying the burden of how we want to be perceived in the world, and what she's discovering about herself now that she's on the other side.

Crystal Hefner is a world-renowned model, advocate, and entrepreneur. A former Playboy Playmate, she now works to bring awareness to issues she is passionate about, speaking out on social media to her 10 million followers about body image, objectification, and beauty standards in the media. 

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Jason and Brett talk to Kaveh Akbar (Martyr!) about his transition from poet to novelist, listening to your dreams, how language is a sense memory, parallels with the musical Pippin, and much more.

Kaveh Akbar’s poems appear in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. He is the author of two poetry collections: Pilgrim Bell and Calling a Wolf a Wolf, in addition to a chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic. He is also the editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 110 Poets on the Divine. He lives in Iowa City.

New York Times Review HERE. 

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In the first episode of the new year, Jason and Brett discuss books they’re excited to check out in 2024. They’re joined by editor and author Jenny Jackson (who initially put The Rachel Incident on their radar—one of Jason’s Most Memorable 2023 Books!) Jenny talks about titles, some of which she served as editor, that she’s looking forward to this year.

You’ll also find an Easter egg for an upcoming (unannounced) episode.

Check out Jason's earlier interview with Jenny HERE. 

Jenny Jackson is a vice president and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf. A graduate of Williams College and the Columbia Publishing Course, she lives in Brooklyn Heights with her family. Her debut novel Pineapple Street, a Good Morning America Book Club pick, was released in March 2023. 

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In the season finale of Gays Reading, Jason and Brett share not the "favorite" and not the "best," but their most memorable books of 2023. What makes a memorable book? Do any overlap? Check out this episode and prep for the new year by adding a whole bunch of books to your TBR. 

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Jason and Brett's love for books and Broadway come together in this exciting episode!  They talk to musical book writer and lyricist Kait Kerrigan about adapting The Great Gatsby for the stage, Merri Sugarman about the casting process and her new book From Craft to Career, and Matthew Chisling (aka @mattyandthebooks) about book adaptations coming to Broadway. A behind-the-scenes conversation you won't want to miss!

Kait Kerrigan is an award-winning lyricist, book writer, and playwright. She is an alumnus of Barnard College and the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop and a member of the Dramatists Guild. Off Broadway: book and lyrics for The Mad Ones, and Henry & Mudge. Regional: The Great Gatsby (Paper Mill Playhouse), plays (Father/Daughter and Imaginary Love) and musicals (Justice, Earthrise, and Rosie Revere, Engineer & Friends). Digital credits include: A Killer Party. Her immersive house party The Bad Years (book and lyrics) had two sold-out pop-up productions in Brooklyn. Awards include: Kleban Award for libretto, Jonathan Larson Award for lyric-writing, Most Promising Lyricist Award from the Theatre Hall of Fame, Edgerton Award, and residencies at Page 73, Dramatists Guild Fellows, Rhinebeck, Goodspeed’s Johnnie Mercer Project, and MacDowell.

Initially an actress (Les Misérables, Aspects of Love), Merri Sugarman found herself in L.A. where she quickly made a name for herself at Liberman/Hirschfeld Casting working on such shows as Seinfeld, HBO's Band of Brothers, and the feature film My Big Fat Greek Wedding, to name a few. Following that, at Dreamworks Studios, Merri was the Casting Executive in charge of TV Pilots and Series. She is a Senior Casting Director at Tara Rubin Casting. Credits: Ain't Too Proud, Jersey Boys, Phantom Of The Opera, Les Misérables, School of Rock, Miss Saigon and A Bronx Tale. Off Broadway: Clueless and Trevor.

Matthew Chisling has worked for a decade in the professional theatre space as a marketer, producer, ticketing manager and strategist. He is currently a senior director of campaign marketing at TodayTix Group, a technology company in the performing arts space. Matt is an avid reader and runs an instagram account called @mattyandthebooks

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Jason and Brett talk to Stephen Markley (The Deluge) about writing his climate fiction epic over the course of 13 years, scaring Stephen King,  differences between writing for television and novels, and growing up in Ohio. 

Stephen Markley is the acclaimed author of Ohio, which NPR called a “masterpiece.” A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Markley’s other books include the memoir Publish This Book and the travelogue Tales of Iceland. 

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'Tis the season to be under a blanket, sitting by a fireplace, reading a book! Just in case your TBR doesn't have something you're in the mood for, Jason and Brett have some cozy recommendations for you. If that's not enough, they also enlist  the help of bestselling author Jasmine Guillory (The Wedding Date, The Proposal) to share her recs.

Jasmine Guillory is a New York Times bestselling author of novels including The Wedding Date, the Reese's Book Club selection The Proposal, and Drunk on Love. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, Bon Appetit, and Time, and she is a frequent book contributor on The Today Show. She lives in Oakland, California. @jasminepics

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Jason and Brett talk to Mick Peterson, Bill Lyons, Robert Reeves, and Jessay Martin aka The Old Gays (The Old Gays Guide to the Good Life) about chosen family, the importance of talking about the past, social media bringing people together, and their admiration for the younger generation's acceptance.

The Old Gays, best friends Robert, Mick, Jessay, and Bill, have won over the hearts of fans young and old alike with their heartwarming and humorous content on TikTok. In addition to sharing hilarious reactions to pop culture and their excitement about their growing celebrity following, the guys, who live in Cathedral City, California, have also become educators on the strides made in the LGBTQ+ community over the past five decades. With endless experiences and wisdom to share, and their fan base continuing to flourish, the Old Gays are inspiring, shining examples of how to make the most of life no matter your age.

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Jason and Brett talk to sexpert Zachary Zane (Boyslut) about bisexuality, kinks, overcoming  shame, and the importance of talking openly and honestly about sexual expression in its many forms. In case the title of the episode doesn't make it clear: sex comes up a lot in this episode.

Zachary Zane is a Brooklyn-based columnist, sex expert, and activist whose work focuses on sexuality, culture, and the LGBTQ+ community. He is the author of Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto. He’s also the coauthor of Men’s Health: Best. Sex. Ever.
 
He has two columns: “Sexplain It” the sex and relationship advice column at Men’s Health and “Navigating Non-Monogamy” at Cosmo, where he shares all the mistakes he’s made in his polyamory journey, so you don’t have to.
 
He is also the founder and editor in chief of Boyslut zine, which publishes real sex stories from kinksters worldwide. His work on sexuality and relationships has been published in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, GQ, OUT, and many others.

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Jason and Brett talk to Greg Marshall (Leg) about Speedos, the importance of finding your community, Speedos (there's a lot of Speedo talk), parents (of course, we're all gay), and how queer people are responsible for inventing culture.

Greg Marshall was raised in Salt Lake City. A National Endowment for the Arts Fellow in Prose, Marshall is a graduate of the Michener Center for Writers. His work has appeared in The Best American Essays and been supported by MacDowell and the Corporation of Yaddo. Leg is his first book.

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Jason and Brett talk to Jedediah Jenkins (Mother, Nature) about topics ranging from starter words on Wordle to the best time to eat donuts,  about complicated parent relationships, the nuances of LTRs, and everything in between.

Jedidiah Jenkins is the New York Times bestselling author of To Shake the Sleeping Self and Like Streams to the Ocean. A graduate of USC and Pepperdine University School of Law, Jenkins began his professional career with the nonprofit Invisible Children, where he helped orchestrate multinational campaigns to end the use of child soldiers in central Africa. His parents, Peter and Barbara Jenkins, are the authors of the bestselling A Walk Across America series. He is the executive editor of Wilderness magazine. Jenkins’s work has appeared in The Paris Review and Playboy, and he has been covered by National Geographic.

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Jason and Brett talk to RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Ginger Minj (Southern Fried Sass) about how to keep your house and heart open, auditioning for the live action Little Mermaid, naming Bette Midler as her new drag mom, and the important differences between throwing shade and reading. 

Ginger Minj is the stage name of Joshua Allen Eads, an American drag queen, actor, singer-songwriter, and reality television personality. After achieving recognition for placing as runner-up on the seventh season of the reality television competition series RuPaul’s Drag Race, Minj returned to compete on the second and sixth seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars. Minj has acted in three Netflix productions: Dumplin’, Super Drags, and AJ and the Queen­; made an appearance in Disney’s Hocus Pocus 2; and has released three studio albums. Southern Fried Sass is her first book.

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Jason and Brett talk to Everything Iconic podcast host Danny Pellegrino (The Jolliest Bunch) about traditions, how to avoid "stuffing disappointment," Judy Greer dream casting, a shocking piece of advice about *that* Mariah song, and much, much, more.

Danny Pellegrino is the New York Times bestselling author of How Do I Un-Remember This?: Unfortunately True Stories and The Jolliest Bunch: Unhinged Holiday Stories. He's also a comedian, actor, and screenwriter who created and hosts the hit podcast Everything Iconic with Danny Pellegrino. Guests include people like Drew Barrymore, Kelly Ripa, Keke Palmer, Katie Couric, Rosie O'Donnell, Elizabeth Olsen, Andy Cohen, Cameron Diaz, Miss Piggy, and more!

Danny is from Solon, Ohio, and can be found on social media via @DannyPellegrino, or in front of the TV with a glass of bed wine.

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To kick off #NonfictionNovember, Jason and Brett share some of their favorite nonfiction books before talking to prolific nonfiction author, Sy Montgomery. (How many times can one say "nonfiction" in a description?) They talk to Sy about the nonfiction genre, how she decides her topics, and about her newest book Of Time and Turtles. (Nonfiction count: 4. Technically 5.)

In addition to researching films, articles, and thirty-six books, National Book Award finalist Sy Montgomery has been honored with a Sibert Medal, two Science Book and Film Prizes from the National Association for the Advancement of Science, three honorary degrees, and many other awards. She lives in Hancock, New Hampshire, with her husband, Howard Mansfield, and their border collie, Thurber.

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Do you know what the "I" in LGBTQIA+ stands for? In case you don't, Jason and Brett talk to Pidgeon Pagonis (Nobody Needs to Know) about what intersex means and Pidgeon's experience living "in between." They also discuss the best Chicago-style pizza, gush over diners, and debate a controversial A League of Their Own question. 

Check out Pidgeon's website: http://pid.ge/

Intersex Resources: http://pid.ge/resources

Check out Pidgeon's brand, Too Cute to Be Binary: https://toocutetobebinary.com/

Pidgeon Pagonis is an activist on behalf of intersex and marginalized people. They have advanced youth advocacy with interACT, launched an intersex YouTube channel, written for Everyday Feminism, cofounded the Intersex Justice Project (IJP) and the #EndIntersexSurgery campaign, and introduced the intersex and nonbinary clothing line Too Cute to Be Binary. They’ve created two short documentaries, The Son I Never Had, which premiered at Outfest, and A Normal Girl, which screened at the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival; appeared on the cover of National Geographic’s “Gender Revolution” special issue; and been honored as an LGBT Champion of Change by the Obama White House. They are currently documenting intersex people of color for Physical Record, a new photo series subsidized by Astraea’s Intersex Human Rights Fund.

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In this spoiler-free conversation, Jason and Brett talk to Dann McDorman (West Heart Kill) about his reverence for the classic mystery story, why so many people are drawn to the genre, his least favorite trope, and his experience writing his debut novel.

Dann McDorman is an Emmy-nominated TV news producer, who has also worked as a newspaper reporter, book reviewer, and cabinet maker. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children. @dann_mcdorman

*Reiterating that as always, Gays Reading is spoiler-free, so you can listen whether you've read the book or not!

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Jason and Brett talk to Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider (In the Form of a Question) about life before and after her lauded run on the show, the impact of teachers, her experience writing nonfiction and stand-up comedy, and how hard it is to execute the infamous "Jeopardy! poker face."

Amy Schneider is an American software engineer and recent Jeopardy! champion. Following an impressive forty-game winning streak, she became the most successful woman ever to compete on Jeopardy!. She is second all-time in the show’s history, trailing only Ken Jennings. Amy is also the first openly transgender contestant to qualify for the Tournament of Champions. She has been covered in People, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, USA TODAY, and more, and she has appeared on Good Morning America. 

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Jason and Brett talk to Ashley Winstead (Midnight is the Darkest Hour) about twist pressure, the difference between mysteries and thrillers, Twilight, and more. This episode also features special guest Dennis Michel aka @scaredstraightreads who talks about favorite thrillers.

Ashley Winstead is an academic turned novelist with a Ph.D. in contemporary American literature. She lives in Houston with her husband, two cats, and beloved wine fridge. ashleywinstead.com

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Jason and Brett talk to Alex Gino (Green) about favorite sweets, book banning, their experience as a banned book author, using the singular they pronoun, and creating a safe world for young readers.

Alex Gino writes queer and progressive middle grade novels, including the Stonewall and Lambda Award-winning Melissa. They love glitter, ice cream, gardening, wordplay, and stories that reflect the complexity of being alive. Alex is from Staten Island, NY and now lives in Western Massachusetts with Thunder the Wonder Cat. alexgino.com

Melissa Cover Fix
Get your sticker if you have an old cover for Melissa HERE.

More info about PEN America HERE. 

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Jason and Brett talk to Nathan Hill (Wellness) about monogamy, parental relationships, social media and the algorithm, and how stories can be both constructed and constricted by the worlds we live in.

Wellness is the September 2023 Oprah’s Book Club Pick

Nathan Hill’s best-selling debut novel, The Nix, was named the number one book of 2016 by Entertainment Weekly and one of the year’s best books by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Slate, and many others. It was the winner of the Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction from the Los Angeles Times and was published worldwide in more than two dozen languages. A native Iowan, Hill lives with his wife in Naples, Florida.

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Jason and Brett talk to Gaby Wood, the Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation about the prize process. Gaby talks about choosing judges, facilitating meetings, and other aspects of her role which includes making some difficult decisions. They also talk to three-time Booker Prize listee, Tan Twan Eng about his experience as a nominee and his unique insight as an 2023 International Booker Prize judge. Twan is currently represented on the 2023 longlist with his book, The House of Doors.

- Watch how the Booker Prize works in this animated video

- Official Booker Prize rules

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Jason and Brett talk to Mona Awad (Rouge) about the key ingredients of a fairy tale, the cult of the beauty industry, and how her own biracial background influenced her writing this contemporary gothic Snow White.

Mona Awad is the author of the novels All’s Well, Bunny, and 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl. Bunny was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award and the New England Book Award. It was named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, and the New York Public Library. It is currently being developed for film with Bad Robot Productions. All’s Well was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award. 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Awad’s forthcoming novel Rouge, is being adapted for film by Fremantle and Sinestra. This spring, Margaret Atwood named Awad her ‘literary heir’ in The New York Times’s T Magazine. She teaches fiction in the creative writing program at Syracuse University and is based in Boston.

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Jason and Brett talk to acclaimed actor, playwright, and male actress Charles Busch (Leading Lady) about his career, the evolution of drag performers, and iconic stories featuring the likes Liza Minnelli, Carol Channing, and more.

Charles Busch is an actor, playwright and drag legend. He is the author and star of many plays, including Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, one of the longest-running plays in Off-Broadway history. His play The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife played 777 performances on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for Best Play. Busch wrote and starred in the film versions of his plays Psycho Beach Party and Die Mommie Die, the latter of which won him the Best Performance Award at the Sundance Film Festival. He has been honored with a special Drama Desk Award for career achievement as both performer and playwright and he also received the Flora Roberts Award for Sustained Achievement in the theater by the Dramatist’s Guild.

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Jason and Brett talk to Lara Love Hardin (The Many Lives of Mama Love) about her journey from soccer mom, to opiate addict with 32 felonies, to literary agent turned bestselling author. They talk about the complexities of shame, identity, and empathy, reflect on the power of storytelling, and the courage it takes to confront one's past. And they laugh a lot, too, if you can imagine.

Lara Love Hardin is a literary agent, author, and president of True Literary. Prior to founding True Literary, she was the co-CEO of Idea Architects. She has an MFA in creative writing and is a four-time New York Times bestselling collaborative writer, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Designing Your Life, and 2018 Oprah Book Club pick, The Sun Does Shine, which she coauthored with Anthony Ray Hinton. In 2019 she won a Christopher Award for her work “affirming the highest values of the human spirit.” In 2019 she was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award and short-listed for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Love Hardin lives in La Selva Beach, California, with her husband, Sam. She has four children, two step-children, five dogs, three cats, twenty-one chickens, and four ducks.

- Register for Lara's event in conversation with Jason HERE

- Watch Lara's TED Talk HERE

- Learn about Lara's organization The Gemma Project HERE

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Jason and Brett talk to Angie Kim (Happiness Falls) about the importance of managing expectations, maintaining your happiness baseline, and of all things, their favorite musicals. Warning: This episode may or may not include a sing-along. Okay, it definitely does.

As always, Gays Reading is spoiler-free, so you can listen whether you've read the book or not!

Angie Kim moved as a preteen from Seoul, South Korea, to the suburbs of Baltimore. After graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy, she studied philosophy at Stanford University and attended Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Her debut novel, Miracle Creek, won the Edgar Award, the ITW Thriller Award, the Strand Critics’ Award, and the Pinckley Prize and was named one of the best books of the year by Time, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and the Today show. Angie Kim lives in northern Virginia with her family. @angiekimask

Learn more about Angelman Syndrome HERE. 

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BONUS EPISODE! Jason and Brett talk to Rasheed Newson (My Government Means to Kill Me) about his firsthand experience on the WGA picket line and get the inside scoop on what the writers are fighting for. They also chat about gay history and the exciting project that Rasheed is keeping himself busy with in the meantime. 

Rasheed Newson is a writer and producer of Bel-Air, The Chi, and Narcos. He currently resides in Pasadena, California with his husband and two children. My Government Means to Kill Me is his debut novel.

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Jason and Brett talk to Alice Winn (In Memoriam) about the lack of iced coffee in Europe, the books that inspired her WWI journey, and how she created intimate sex scenes for her gay characters. In Memoriam is shortlisted for the 2023 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize.

Alice Winn grew up in Paris and was educated in the UK. She has a degree in English literature from Oxford University. She lives in Brooklyn.

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Jason and Brett talk to R. Eric Thomas (Congratulations, the Best is Over!) about Ann Patchett, The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, Parnassus Books owned by Ann Patchett, and some other things entirely unrelated to Ann Patchett such as the sequel to the best pickleball movie, what Charles Dickens might've talked about over brunch, and so much more. This episode also features special guest Hunter McLendon (aka shelfbyshelf on Instagram) who joins Jason and Brett to discuss some of his favorite essay collections.

R. Eric Thomas is the bestselling author of Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America, a Lambda Literary Award finalist; and the YA novel Kings of B’more, a Stonewall Honor book. Both books were also featured as Read with Jenna book club picks on Today. He is also a television writer (Apple TV+’s Dickinson, FX’s Better Things), a Lambda Literary Award–winning playwright, and the long-running host of the Moth in Philadelphia. For four years, Thomas was a senior staff writer at Elle online, where he wrote the popular “Eric Reads the News” column. @oureric

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CW: This episode includes sexually explicit content as well as conversations about sexual abuse and trauma. If you or anyone you know needs resources for sexual violence, please visit rainn.org.

Jason and Brett talk to Kyle Dillon Hertz (The Lookback Window) about seeking justice, the nuance of fact vs. fiction in writing, and the queerness of the video game Fortnite.

Queer-Owned Bookstore Shout Out: A SEAT AT THE TABLE BOOKS (Elk Grove, CA)
At Elk Grove’s bookstore, café, and community hub, everyone deserves a seat at the table! Our family-owned, inclusive business will be your new favorite place to shop for books and gifts, meet up with friends, get work done, relax, and connect with the community. Learn more about A Seat at the Table HERE and make sure to listen to the episode for a discount code!

Additional reading:
Check out Kyle's Esquire article
Check out Kyle's interview in Interview magazine

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Jason and Brett chat with author Tim Murphy (Speech Team) and they recount shared teenage experiences, what it means to be a bully, the search for like-minded peers, and kvell over the brilliance of one 80s soap opera.

Tim Murphy is the author of Correspondents and Christodora, which was long-listed for the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian. He has also been a journalist for the past twenty-five years.

Queer-Owned Bookstore Shout Out: BETTIE'S PAGES!
Bettie’s Pages is a queer-owned independent bookstore in Lowell, MI. Their mission is to cultivate community, empower readers, and maintain a welcoming space that is diverse, inclusive, and affirming. You can learn more about them HERE. 

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Jason and Brett talk to author Javier Fuentes (Countries of Origin) about the fears surrounding immigration, mysteries of young love, joy in a perfect dessert, and the places we find home.

Gays Reading is excited to shout out queer-owned independent bookstore Libélula Books & Co in the Barrio Logan neighborhood in San Diego, CA.  “Libélula is a home for love of language and radical sh*t!” You can learn more about them HERE and purchase your copy of Countries of Origin from them HERE.

Javier Fuentes is a Spanish American writer, a 2018 Lambda Literary Fellow, who earned an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University where he was a teaching fellow. Born in Barcelona, he lives in New York.

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Jason and Brett talk to New York Times bestselling author Caroline O'Donoghue about her new book, The Rachel Incident.  They talk about the unique relationship between straight women and gay men,  scabies and one-night stands, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and address big questions like: What does Sally Field do in her downtime?

Gays Reading is excited to partner with The King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, UT, a queer-owned independent bookstore matching books to readers since 1977. You can use the code GAYSREADING to get a discount on your entire order when you purchase HERE.

Caroline O’Donoghue is the New York Times bestselling author of All Our Hidden Gifts, her YA debut fantasy, which has been published in more than twenty territories around the world. She has written for The Times and The Guardian, and is the host of an award-winning podcast, Sentimental Garbage. She was born in Ireland and lives in London. The Rachel Incident is her first adult novel to be published in the U.S.

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Jason & Brett discuss their top five best books so far in 2023. Between them, they only share one common title so there are nine other books to add to your TBR or brag to all your friends about because you're amazingly well-read! 

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In celebration of Pride and the inaugural episode of Gays Reading, hosts Brett Benner and Jason Blitman talk about how this podcast came to be and highlight some LGBTQIA+ books that had an impact on them. If you like what you're hearing so far, be sure to like, follow, subscribe, review, etc. wherever you get your podcasts! 

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We're Gays Reading! Brett Benner and Jason Blitman here, your new favorite gay readers who just wanted to pop in to say hello. We're excited to share a bit about what's in store for you in our new weekly bookish podcast.  

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