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This Queer Book Saved My Life

Fans of On Being and Los Culturistas love this 2024 GLAAD Media Award nominee for Outstanding Podcast. Featuring Carmen Maria Machado, Alison Bechdel, Jennifer Finney Boylan, Greg Louganis, Becky Albertalli, and so many more, guests from across the rainbow tell these authors how their books helped them overcome alienation, gender dysphoria, familial homophobia, and being outed. Essayist and Lambda Literary Fellow J.P. Der Boghossian hosts the conversations with a gentle and energetic style, standing in as conversational partner for posthumous authors. Stay tuned to off-weeks which features new episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven and The Gaily Show.

Copyright: © 2022 This Queer Book Saved My Life!

Latest Episodes:

Angels in America with David Reddish Oct 29, 2024

This book gave me an understanding of the queer community that I hadn’t found anywhere else.

Today we meet David Reddish and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: Angels in America by Tony Kushner.

Self proclaimed uber-geek David Reddish is the award-winning author of Sex, Drugs & Superheroes trilogy. The third novel in the series, The Wrath of Comic-Con, came out earlier in 2024. His novel The Passion of St. Sergius & St. Bacchus celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. David is also a noted entertainment journalist having written for such publications as MovieWeb, ScreenRant, Queerty, and Playboy.

One of the most honored American plays in history, Angels in America was awarded two Tony Awards for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was made into an Emmy Award-winning HBO film directed by Mike Nichols. This two-part epic, subtitled "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," has received hundreds of performances worldwide in more than twenty-six languages.
Connect with David
muck rack: muckrack.com/david-reddish-5
instagram: @thegaymagneto
Buy David's books here and at your local bookstores.
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Buy your own copy of Angels in America here: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781559363846

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

The Gaily Show: Get out the VOTE! Oct 22, 2024

A new episode of This Queer Book Saved My Life drops next week on October 29! In our off weeks, we air the most recent episode of The Gaily Show which J.P. hosts for AM950 Radio.

On today's episode: Rae Leiner from the National LGBTQ Task Force and Matt Caffrey from Swing Left.

Let’s. Get. Out. The. Vote!

Phone bank with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Door knock with Swing Left: swingleft.org

Watch on YouTube
We're in video too! You can watch this episode at youtube.com/@thegailyshow

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Production and Distribution Support: Brett Johnson, AM950
Marketing/Advertising Support: Chad Larson, Laura Hedlund, Jennifer Ogren, AM950
Accounting and Creative Support: Gordy Erickson

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

The Hours with Samantha Mann Oct 15, 2024

Who am I going to be and what is my life going to look like?
Today we meet Samantha Mann and we’re talking about the queer book that saved her life: The Hours by Michael Cunningham.
Samantha writes essays & articles exploring culture, mental health, motherhood, & LGBTQ issues. Her work has been featured in The Cut, Vogue, Elle, TODAY, Romper, and more. Her forthcoming collection, Dyke Delusion, debuts June 2025.
The Hours tells the story of three women: Virginia Woolf, beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway as she recuperates in a London suburb with her husband in 1923; Clarissa Vaughan, beloved friend of an acclaimed poet dying from AIDS, who in modern-day New York is planning a party in his honor; and Laura Brown, in a 1949 Los Angeles suburb, who slowly begins to feel the constraints of a perfect family and home. By the end of the novel, these three stories intertwine in remarkable ways, and finally come together in an act of subtle and haunting grace.
Connect with Samantha
website: samantha-mann.com
instagram: @samantha.mann05
Shout out to Alyy Patel
For more information about Alyy Patel and the Queer South Asian Women's Network visit: qsawnetwork.com.
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Women with Mia Arias Tsang and Chloé Caldwell Oct 01, 2024

Am I the only one who feels this crazy about what's happening to me right now?

Today we meet Mia Arias Tsang and we’re talking about the book that saved her life: Women by Chloé Caldwell. And Chloé joins us for the conversation!

Mia is a writer, freelance editor, and former biologist based in Queens, NYC. She has conducted extensive research in evolutionary virology and epigenetics, and has studied with writers such as Chloé Caldwell, Sarah Stillman, Michael Cunningham, and Susan Choi.

Chloé is the author of the national bestseller, Women (Harper Perennial, 2024). Chloé’s next book, Trying, is forthcoming from Graywolf, on August 5th, 2025. She is also the author of the books I’ll Tell You In Person (2016), The Red Zone (2022), and Legs Get Led Astray (2012).

In Women, a young writer moves from the country to the city and falls in love with another woman for the very first time. With startling clarity and breathtaking tenderness, Chloé Caldwell writes the story of a love in reverse: of nights spent drunkenly hurling a phone against a brick wall; of early mornings hungover in bed, curled up together; of emails and poems exchanged at breakneck speed.
Connect with Mia and Chloé
Mia's website: miatsang.com
instagram: @mia.arias.tsang
Chloé website: chloesimonne.com
instagram: @chloeeeecaldwell
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Consenting Adult with Eric Marcus Sep 17, 2024

Is it possible that my family, my mother, could ever accept me?

Today we meet Eric Marcus and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: Consenting Adult by Laura Z. Hobson.

Eric Marcus is the author of a dozen books, including two editions of Making Gay History (the original 1992 edition is entitled Making History), Why Suicide?, and Breaking the Surface, the #1 New York Times bestselling autobiography of Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis. Eric is also the co-producer of Those Who Were There, a podcast drawn from the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. He is the founder and chair emeritus of the Stonewall 50 Consortium and is a founding board member of the American LGBTQ+ Museum.

In Consenting Adult, Tessa Lynn considers herself independent and progressive, a liberated woman of the 1960s. And yet, when she receives a letter from her youngest son, Jeff, informing her that he is gay, Tessa is distraught. At a time when homosexuality is regarded as a mental illness, she struggles with how best to be a parent to a gay son—and how to protect her family from the prejudices of the era. Elegant and subtly drawn, Consenting Adult is a stunning tribute to familial bonds, and a sympathetic portrait of a mother whose best intentions are often clouded by the stereotypes of her time.

Connect with Eric
Making Gay History website: makinggayhistory.org/about
instagram: @makinggayhistorypodcast
facebook: facebook.com/makinggayhistory

Fortunoff Video Archive podcast: fortunoff.library.yale.edu/education/podcasts

Listen to full episode with Damien Martin: makinggayhistory.org/podcast/damien-martin

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Permission to use the theme to Making Gay History provided by Eric Marcus. The theme was composed by Fritz Meyers.

Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast!

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

The Gaily Show: Lover of Men, The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln Sep 10, 2024

A new episode of This Queer Book Saved My Life drops next week on September 17! In our off weeks, we air the most recent episode of The Gaily Show which J.P. hosts for AM950 Radio.

Today, the director of the new documentary Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln is here. Also joining me are two historical experts from the film. It debuted in theaters on September 6. Check your local listings for showtimes and or for when it is streaming.

Watch on YouTube
We're in video too! You can watch this episode at youtube.com/@thegailyshow

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Production and Distribution Support: Brett Johnson, AM950
Marketing/Advertising Support: Chad Larson, Laura Hedlund, Jennifer Ogren, AM950
Accounting and Creative Support: Gordy Erickson

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Exile and Pride with Seeley Quest and Eli Clare Sep 03, 2024

Exile is not a choice that anyone wants to make. It’s something we come to through necessity.

Today we meet seeley quest and we’re talking about the book that saved hir life: Exile and Pride by Eli Clare. And Eli joins us for the conversation!

Seeley Quest (sie/hir) is a trans disabled environmentalist, working in literary and body-based composition, curation and facilitation.

Eli Clare (he/they): white, disabled, and genderqueer, Eli lives near Lake Champlain in unceded Abenaki territory (also known as Vermont). He is the author of Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure and Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation. Their next book, a mixed genre volume titled Unfurl, will be released in July, 2025.

In Exile and Pride, Eli Clare’s revelatory writing about his experiences as a white disabled genderqueer activist/writer unspools the multiple histories from which our sense of self unfolds. Their essays weave together memoir, history, and political thinking to explore meanings and experiences of home.
Connect with Seeley and Eli
Seeley's website and newsletter: questletters.net

Eli's website: eliclare.com

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase Exile and Pride visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780822360315

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Broken Horses with Brent Love Aug 20, 2024

This book isn’t about celebrity. It’s about queer heritage. And passing it on.

Today we meet Brent Love and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile.

Brent Love is the author of the memoir Leap which debuted in June 2024. He is also the host/producer of the podcasts Hope Works: A Surrogacy and You and Me and Everyone We Know. Brent currently resides in Hawaii with his family.

In Broken Horses, Brandi Carlile takes readers through the events of her life that shaped her very raw art--from her start at a local singing competition where she performed Elton John's "Honky Cat" in a bedazzled white polyester suit, to her first break opening for Dave Matthews Band, to many sleepless tours over fifteen years and six studio albums, all while raising two children with her wife, Catherine Shepherd.

Connect with Brent

website: heybrentlove.com
instagram: @heybrentlove
linkedin: @heybrentlove
podcast: Hope Works: A Surrogacy Podcast
podcast: You and Me and Everyone We Know

Our Bookshop

Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase Broken Horses visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780593237267

To purchase Leap visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9798889260202

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand with Robin Jeffrey Aug 06, 2024

No queer person is an island. Even if we start off that way.

Today we meet Robin Jeffrey and we’re talking about the book that saved her life: Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delaney.

Robin Jeffrey is the author of the series of classic murder mysteries with scifi-twists, The Cadence Turing Mysteries and the paranormal romance series The Night. A former academic librarian, she holds a B.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Washington and a M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Kentucky. Robin currently resides in the Pacific Northwest.

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is a science fiction masterpiece, an essay on the inexplicability of sexual attractiveness, and an examination of interstellar politics among far-flung worlds. First published in 1984, the novel's central issues―technology, globalization, gender, sexuality, and multiculturalism―have only become more pressing with the passage of time.

Connect with Robin Jeffrey
website: robinjeffreyauthor.com
instagram: @thesidekick_ig

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase The Clothesline Swing visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780819567147

To purchase .exe A Cadence Turing Mystery visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780578959344

To purchase Hungry Is The Night visit: https://books2read.com/hungry-is-the-night

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Katrina Monroe and Through The Midnight Door Jul 30, 2024

Today, Once Upon a Crime Books presents 7 Minutes in Book Heaven, the podcast where we interview LGBTQ authors about the new books they have coming out for us to love and cuddle up with. Visit them online: onceuponacrimebooks.com
Once Upon a Crime Books is an independent bookstore specializing in mystery fiction. Located in Uptown Minneapolis, you can shop in their store Monday through Saturday 11am – 5:30pm. Or, visit their website! There, you can browse all of their books, from new releases to classic mysteries.
In this new episode, Once Upon a Crime Books introduces us to Katrina Monroe and her new novel: Through The Midnight Door which is available to buy in paperback in-store, or on their website, and it is also available as a digital audio book.
Katrina Monroe is the author of They Drown Our Daughters, Graveyard of Lost Children, and Through the Midnight Door. She lives in Minnesota with her wife, two children, and Eddie, the ghost who haunts their bedroom closets.
Buy Through The Midnight Door
Visit Once Upon a Crime Books in-person or buy online: https://onceuponacrimebooks.com/book/9781728248264
Buy Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister:https://onceuponacrimebooks.com/book/9781633048010
Connect with Katrina
Website: katrinamonroe.com
Instagram: @authorkatmonroe
Newsletter: katrinamonroe.substack.com
Credits
Presented by: Once Upon a Crime Books
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Theme music: Summer Mood by lesfm

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

The Clothesline Swing with Mike Z. and Danny Ramadan Jul 23, 2024

You love your parents because they’re your parents. But would you if they weren’t? This and other queer stories from the Middle East to Canada.
Today we meet Mike Z. and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: The Clothesline Swing by Danny Ramadan. And Danny joins us for the conversation!
Mike Z. lives in Lebanon and works in art therapy.
Danny Ramadan is a Lambda-award winning Syrian-Canadian author. His novels, The Clothesline Swing and The Foghorn Echoes continue to receive accolades. His is the author of the award-winning children’s books The Salma Series. Ramadan has raised over $350,000 for LGBTQ+ refugees. His memoir, Crooked Teeth, came out May 2024. He lives in Vancouver with his husband and two dogs.
The Clothesline Swing is a journey through the troublesome aftermath of the Arab Spring. A former Syrian refugee himself, Ramadan unveils an enthralling tale of courage that weaves through the mountains of Syria, the valleys of Lebanon, the encircling seas of Turkey, the heat of Egypt and finally, the hope of a new home in Canada.
Connect with Danny Ramadan
website: dannyramadan.com
instagram: @thedannyramadan
facebook: facebook.com/dannyramadan
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase The Clothesline Swing visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780889713321
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

The Gaily Show: Libraries As Spaces Of Connection Jul 16, 2024

A new episode of This Queer Book Saved My Life drops next week on July 23rd! In our off weeks, we air the most recent episode of The Gaily Show which J.P. hosts for AM950 Radio.
Today, Jennie Garner and Andrew Frisbie join us from North Liberty Library to talk about book bans, how to support public libraries, and libraries as spaces for belonging and connection.
Connect with North Liberty Library
website: northlibertylibrary.org
instagram: @nlibertylibrary
blog: northlibertylibrary.org/blog
Watch on YouTube
We're in video too! You can watch this episode at youtube.com/@thegailyshow
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Production and Distribution Support: Brett Johnson, AM950
Marketing/Advertising Support: Chad Larson, Laura Hedlund, Jennifer Ogren, AM950
Accounting and Creative Support: Gordy Erickson

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Running With Scissors with Rex Ogle Jul 09, 2024

When the adults in your life are this reckless and dangerous, what do you do?
Today we meet Rex Ogle and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs.
Rex Ogle is an award-winning author and the writer of nearly a hundred children’s books, comics, graphic novels, and memoirs—most notably Free Lunch, which won the ALA/YALSA award for Excellence in Non-Fiction. He has written under several pseudonyms, including Trey King and Honest Lee, but is currently focused on reimagining classic literature as modern or fantastical graphic novels as REY TERCIERO, under which he penned bestselling Meg, Jo, Beth, & Amy, as well as Northranger, nominated for both a Harvey and GLAAD Media Award.
Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead-ringer for Santa and a lunatic in the bargain. Suddenly, at age twelve, Augusten Burroughs found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian in perfect squalor. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients, and a pedophile living in the backyard shed completed the tableau. Here, there were no rules, there was no school. The Christmas tree stayed up until summer, and Valium was eaten like Pez. And when things got dull, there was always the vintage electroshock therapy machine under the stairs.
Connect with Rex
website: rexogle.com
instagram: @thirdrex
substack: substack.com/@thirdrex
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase Running With Scissors visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780312422271
To purchase Free Lunch visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781324016946
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

More Tales of the City with David Ciminello Jun 25, 2024

After reading about the characters in this book, I made it my mission to have their kind of life for myself.
Today we meet David Ciminello and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: More Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin.
David Ciminello is a Lambda Literary Fellow and author of The Queen of Steeplechase Park. As an actor, David guest starred on Seinfeld (“The Barber”), Murder She Wrote, Matlock, and Kojak. His original screenplay Bruno was made into a motion picture directed by Shirley MacLaine and stars Kathy Bates, Gary Sinese, and Jennifer Tilly.
In More Tales of the City, the tenants of 28 Barbary Lane have fled their cozy nest for adventures far afield. Mary Ann Singleton finds love at sea with a forgetful stranger, Mona Ramsey discovers her doppelgänger in a desert whorehouse, and Michael Tolliver bumps into his favorite gynecologist in a Mexican bar. Meanwhile, their venerable landlady takes the biggest journey of all--without ever leaving home.
Connect with David
website: davidciminello.com
instagram: @djciminello
Facebook: facebook.com/david.ciminello
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase More Tales of the City visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780060929381
To purchase The Queen of Steeplechase Park visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781942436614
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Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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Paul Takes The Form of a Mortal Girl with Saraid de Silva and Andrea Lawlor Jun 11, 2024

This book made me think about how my relationship to myself is lifelong.
Today, we meet Saraid de Silva and we’re talking about the book that saved her life: Paul Takes The Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor. And Andrea joins us for the conversation!
Saraid de Silva is the author of Amma and is a screen writer on the TV series Shortland Street.

Andrea Lawlor teaches writing at Mount Holyoke College and has received the Whiting Award for Fiction. Their publications include a chapbook, Position Papers.

Paul Takes The Form of a Mortal Girl takes place in 1993 and follows Paul Polydoris who tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a dyke best friend, makes zines, and is a flaneur with a rich dating life. But Paul’s also got a secret: he’s a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub, Paul transforms his body and his gender at will as he crossed the country––a journey and adventure through the deep queer archives of struggle and pleasure.
Connect with Saraid and Andrea
instagram: @saraiddesilva
Saraid's linktree: linktr.ee/ammasaraiddesilva

Andrea's website: anderlawlor.com
instagram: @anderlawlor
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780525566182
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

LGBTQ Book Bans: Narrating the Crisis Jun 04, 2024

A deep dive into LGBTQ book bans with two of the nation's leading researchers.
Today, we are joined by Sabrina Baêta and Tasslyn Magnusson. They are leading researchers in the United States on LGBTQ book bans in our schools. They led efforts to research and write the new 2024 PEN America report Banned in the USA: Narrating the Crisis.
Here is part of the official description: "This report provides data, alongside a comprehensive narrative of the censorship crisis affecting public schools. It shows the nuance of the current moment and damage that occurs when stories—compassionate, reflective, educational, and entertaining—are restricted or removed on the basis of fear, intimidation, or bigotry."
Read the full report here: https://pen.org/report/narrating-the-crisis/
Check out our earlier coverage on Book Bans: thisqueerbook.com/book-bans/
Learn more about Sabrina and Tasslyn
Sabrina: sabrinabaeta.com
Tasslyn: tasslynmagnusson.com
Our Bookshop
Buy banned books! Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

The Fire Next Time with Kim Hines May 28, 2024

When I read his work, I feel like he is a close friend that I lost. That’s how much he resonates with me.
Today we meet Kim Hines and we’re talking about the book that saved her life: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin.
Kim Hines is a playwright, actor, director, and author. Her plays have been produced across the United States, including tours at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Kim has performed at many theaters including the Illusion Theater, Penumbra Theater, and the Guthrie Theatre. She was a founding member of Mixed Blood Theater. Kim has directed at theaters across the Twin Cities of Minnesota, and at Cornell University in New York, University of Northern Iowa, and Kansas University. Her YA novel Wingo Fly was published in 2020.

The Fire Next Time was a 1963 national bestseller. It galvanized the United States, giving passionate voice to the civil rights movement. Both a evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and an examination of racial injustice, this book is intensely personal and provocative. It is written as two "letters" on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Connect with Kim
facebook: facebook.com/kim.hines920/
website: simplykimhines.com
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase The Fire Next Time visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780679744726
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Jessie Chandler and Shanghai Murder May 21, 2024

Today, Once Upon a Crime Books presents 7 Minutes in Book Heaven, the podcast where we interview LGBTQ authors about the new books they have coming out for us to love and cuddle up with.
Once Upon a Crime Books is an independent bookstore specializing in mystery fiction. Located in Uptown Minneapolis, you can shop in their store Monday through Saturday 11am – 5:30pm. Or, visit their website! There, you can browse all of their books, from new releases to classic mysteries.
In this new episode, Once Upon a Crime Books introduces us to Jessie Chandler and her new novel: Shanghai Murder which is available to buy in paperback in-store, or on their website, and it is also available as a digital audio book.
Jessie Chandler is the author of seven novels, including the humorously suspenseful Shay O’Hanlon Caper Series. Her crime fiction has garnered a Lambda Literary finalist nod, three Golden Crown Literary Awards, three USA Book Awards, and an Independent Publisher Book Award.
Buy Shanghai Murder
Visit Once Upon a Crime Books in-person or buy Shanghai Murder online: https://onceuponacrimebooks.com/book/9781642475197
Buy the first book in the Shay O'Hanlon Caper series: https://onceuponacrimebooks.com/book/9781633048010
Connect with Jessie Chandler
Website: www.jessiechandler.com
Instagram: @jchandlerauthor
Facebook: facebook.com/shayohanloncaperseries/
Credits
Presented by: Once Upon a Crime Books
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Theme music: Summer Mood by lesfm

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

We Are All Armenian with Natalie Cruz May 14, 2024

Seriously though. When you're life is hyphenated, how do you put it altogether to live the life you want?
Today we meet Natalie Cruz and we’re talking about the book that saved her life: We Are All Armenian edited by Aram Mrjoian and featuring eighteen essayists.
Natalie lives in Philly, is the managing editor of the Queer Armenian Library, teaches Art History at Camden County College, and is a PhD candidate at Temple University.
We Are All Armenian brings together established and emerging Armenian authors to reflect on the complications of Armenian ethnic identity today. These personal essays elevate diasporic voices that have been historically silenced inside and outside of their communities, including queer, multiracial, and multiethnic writers. The eighteen contributors to this contemporary anthology explore issues of displacement, assimilation, inheritance, and broader definitions of home.
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase We Are All Armenian visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781477326794
Queer Armenian Library
Bookmark the Queer Armenian Library to view the art curation Natalie will provide: queerarmenianlibrary.com
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Permission to use a clip from Literary Lights provided by the International Armenian Literary Alliance
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Loveless with Jake Mier Apr 30, 2024

They say what matters most is love. But for a lot of us...that’s not what matters most.
Today we meet Jake Mier and we’re talking about the book that saved their life: Loveless by Alice Oseman.
Jake lives in the Twin Cities and works in restorative justice.
Loveless is the funny, honest, messy, completely relatable story of Georgia, who doesn't understand why she can't crush and kiss and make out like her friends do. She's surrounded by the narrative that dating + sex = love. It's not until she gets to college that she discovers the A range of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum -- coming to understand herself as asexual/aromantic. Disrupting the narrative that she's been told since birth isn't easy -- there are many mistakes along the way to inviting people into a newly found articulation of an always-known part of your identity.
Jake's Ace/Aro Book Recommendations
Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann
The City of Spires (series) by Claudie Arseneualt
Elatsoe and A Snake Falls To Earth by Darcy Little Badger
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase Loveless visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781338751932
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Catching the Queer Spirit! Apr 23, 2024

That moment when you meet kindred queer spirits in podcasting.
Today we have a special cross-pollination episode with the Queer Spirit podcast. The Queer Spirit podcast has conversations with embodied artists, practitioners and activists who care for, enliven and empower our 2SLGBTQ+ communities to thrive + flourish. Their hosts are Nick Venegoni, MA (he>they) and TanyaMarck Oviedo (they/them).
Nick is a holistic psychotherapist based on unceded Ohlone territory (San Francisco, CA), where he supports queer folks to heal from trauma and anxiety, to create more joyful lives and fulfilling relationships. Nick’s primary spiritual practices these days include Earth based wisdom, Buddhist Psychology, Mindfulness meditation, and sound healing.
TanyaMarck is an intuitive + trauma informed practitioner, guide, mentor, educator, witch, and medicine person who identifies as a queer, non-binary, native indigenous being of color, and person in recovery. Their healing arts practice (Vamonos) and home are based out of Tongva + Kizh and Chumash lands (Long Beach, CA).
Connect with Queer Spirit
website: queerhealingjourneys.com/podcast
instagram: @holisticqueerhealing
facebook: facebook.com/queerhealingjourneys
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Love Lives Here with Archie Arnold and Rowan Jetté Knox Apr 16, 2024

All the love in our queer families.
Today we meet Archie Arnold and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: Love Lives Here: A Story of Thriving in a Transgender Family by Rowan Jetté Knox.
Archie is a grant writer working at a community college in Minnesota. His career in grants and fundraising spans twenty years.
Rowan Jetté Knox is an author, speaker and human rights advocate. His work in LGBTQ2S+ inclusion and mental health awareness has sparked change worldwide. was humbled to be inducted into the 2021 Order of Ottawa for his advocacy of transgender, gender-creative, and non-binary youth.
Love Lives Here: A Story of Thriving in a Transgender Family is an inspirational story of accepting and embracing two trans people in a family--a family who shows what's possible when you "lead with love.". Told with remarkable candor and humor, and full of insight into the challenges faced by trans people, Love Lives Here is a beautiful story of transition, frustration, support, acceptance, and, of course, love.
Content warning: This episode contains brief mentions of interpersonal violence and suicide.
Connect with Rowan
website: rowanjetteknox.com
instagram: @maven_of_mayhem
facebook: facebook.com/mavenofmayhem
bluesky: @mavenofmayhem.bsky.social
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase Becoming A Man: Half A Life Story visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780735235175
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Becoming a Man with K Jason Bryan Apr 02, 2024

As gay kids we have to get through so much that we end up not remembering a lot of our childhoods.
Today we meet K Jason Bryan and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: Becoming A Man: Half A Life Story by Paul Monette.
Jason is a Sr Client Consultant for corporate insurance, and used to chair his company’s LGBT & Allies ERG. He is a former member of the Governors Board at the Human Rights Campaign. He also served as the Membership Director at Quorum, Minnesota's LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce.
Becoming A Man: Half A Life Story won the National Book Award and the LAMBDA Literary Award. Paul Monette was haunted, and finally saved, by a dream, "The thing I'd never even seen: two men in love and laughing." This searingly honest, witty, and humane merging of memoir and manifesto has become the definitive coming out story--and a classic of the coming-of-age genre.
Hear more Romanovsky and Phillips!
website: romanovskyandphillips.com
Featured song in this episode: "When Heterosexism Strikes" from their album Be Political, Not Polite (1991)
Connect with Jason
Facebook: facebook.com/kjason.bryan
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780060595647
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Permission to use a clip from "When Heterosexism Strikes" provided by Romanovsky and Phillips
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Swinging on the Garden Gate with Sandy Hope and Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew Mar 19, 2024

No one ever told me that I could be divine. That my sexuality was a gift.
Today we meet Sandy Hope and we’re talking about the book that saved her life: Swinging on the Garden Gate by Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew. And Elizabeth joins us for the conversation!
Sandy is a licensed mental health counselor whose practice focuses Internal Family Systems theory. She works with people around sexuality, spirituality, couples therapy, and people who struggle with eating disorders.
Elizabeth is an author, writing coach, spiritual director, and co-founder of the Eye of the Heart Center.
Swinging on the Garden Gate: A Memoir of Bisexuality and Spirit describes a period of time in award-winning writer and teacher Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew's life when she came to know bisexuality as an embodied manifestation of divinity. Andrew not only reconciles her United Methodist faith with her sexuality but realizes that her body is holy, her sexuality is holy, and the word she carried within her has always been holy.
Connect with Sandy and Elizabeth
Sandy's website: sandrahopecounseling.com
Elizabeth's websites: elizabethjarrettandrew.com and spiritualmemoir.com
Eye of the Heart Center: eyeoftheheartcenter.org
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase Swinging on the Garden Gate visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781558968783
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryant and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim with Jacob Budenz Mar 05, 2024

Everyone calls me ma'am on the phone. I love it.
Today we meet Jacob Budenz and we’re talking about the book that saved their life: Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris.
Jacob is a true multi-hyphenate: musician, author, performance artist, director, and witch. Jacob published their new book Tea Leaves in 2023 and is the front person for the band Moth Broth.
Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim is an essay collection where David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His world is alive with obscure desires and hidden motives -- a world where forgiveness is automatic and an argument can be the highest form of love.
Connect with Jacob
Website: jakebeearts.com
Instagram: @dreambabyjake
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780316010795
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryant and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Permission to use clips from the tracks Baba Yaga and Fairy Queen performed by Moth Broth provided by Jacob Budenz.
Audio clip from Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim read by David Sedaris is used here under the Fair Use doctrine for the purposes of literary commentary and criticism.
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

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Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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Am I Blue with Ricardo Galaviz and Bruce Coville Feb 20, 2024

When a closeted queer kid meets his fairy godfather what does he wish for?
Today we meet Ricardo Galaviz and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: Am I Blue? by Bruce Coville. And Bruce joins us for the conversation!
Ricardo (all pronouns) is the Associate Director of the Milwaukee LGBT Center.
Bruce (he/him) is the author of over 100 books including My Teacher is an Alien, Into the Land of Unicorns, and Jeremy Hatcher, Dragon Hatcher.
Am I Blue? Coming Out From The Silence is an anthology of short stories edited by Marion Dane Bauer and the title comes from the Bruce's short story Am I Blue? in which a fairy godfather offers a young queer kid three wishes.
Read more!
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote a fantastic article about this episode. Many thanks to Amy Schwabe!
Connect with Ricardo and Bruce
Ricardo's website: mkelgbt.org
Bruce's website: brucecoville.com
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase Am I Blue? visit Bruce's website: brucecoville.com
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our LGBT podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

To Kill A Mockingbird with Jean Gustafson Feb 06, 2024

A tomboy who wants to be Perry Mason (and has a crush on Della) included this book on job applications.
Today we meet Jean M. Gustafson and we’re talking about the book that saved her life: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Jean M. Gustafson is a seasoned attorney who specializes in various branches of law, including employment law, elder law, criminal and family law. She is licensed in the states of Minnesota, South Dakota, Utah and Federal Court of the District of Minnesota. She has also received training in Basic Mediation. Jean is a firm believer in mediation and she has seen it obtain better results for her clients than adversarial court battles. She is currently highly involved in the Minnesota bar association serving as a diverse attorney in two affinity bars, Elder Law Education committee member and former chair of the Elder Law Institute Planning Committee.
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father--a crusading local lawyer--risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.
Connect with Jean
website: guslaw.net
email: jean@guslaw.net
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase To Kill A Mockingbird: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780060935467
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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The Banned Book Club with John Bracken Jan 30, 2024

Are you ready to un-ban LGBT books in real time?
I share with you about The Banned Book Club and then I sit down with the head of the project: John Bracken who is the Executive Director of The Digital Public Library of America.

How to start reading:

Download the Palace Project App for iOS or Android in the Apple App store or Google Play.
Open the app
Select Banned Book Club
Start reading!

Banned Book Club website: thebannedbookclub.info
Digital Public Library of American website: pro.dp.la
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

The Front Runner with Leon Acord Jan 23, 2024

It was such a catharsis that I took the book into the woods and acted out scenes from it.
Today we meet Leon Acord and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren.
Leon Acord is the author of the memoirs Expletives Not Deleted and Sub-Lebrity: The Queer Life of a Showbiz Footnote. Leon created, wrote, and starred in the TV series Old Dogs & New Tricks on Amazon Prime Video. On stage, he has performed in numerous West Coast premieres at the New Conservatory Theatre Center, including Last Sunday in June, Dreamboy, and Thief River.
The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren was published in 1974. With 10 million copies in 7 languages, this landmark classic is the most popular gay love story of all time.
Connect with Leon
website: leonacord.com
instagram: @leonacord
threads: @leonacord
facebook: facebook.com/leonacordactor
Content Warning
We have a conversation that references and has a general description of sexual assault. Support organizaitons: National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color network, Forge, and CenterLink. Lifelines: the GLBT National Help Center 1-888—246–7743. Trans Lifeline 1-877—565-8860. The Black Line, created with an LGBTQ+ Black Femme lens 1-800-604-5841. DeQH hotline for South Asian/DESI LGBTQ persons 908-367-3374.
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase The Front Runner visit your local bookstore!
To purchase Leon's memoir Expletives Not Deleted visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9798449228505
To purchase Leon's memoir Sub-Lebrity: The Queer Life of a Showbiz Footnote visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9798622243110
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Permission to use audio clips from the audio book Expletives Not Deleted provided by Leon Acord
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

The Homosexualization of America with Philip Anthony and Dennis Altman Jan 09, 2024

You go to his place to hook up. The book that saves your life is on his coffee table.
Today we meet Philip Anthony and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: The Homosexualization of America by Dennis Altman. And Dennis joins us for the conversation!
Philip is based in Minneapolis and is host of the podcast The Downright Upright Show.
Dennis is the son of Jewish refugees, and a writer and academic who first came to attention with the publication of his book Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation in 1972. Altman is a Vice Chancellor's Fellow and Professorial Fellow in the Institute for Human Security at LaTrobe University in Melbourne.
The Homosexualization of America describes the emergence of an influential homosexual subculture as a result of the Gay Liberation Movement and examines the impact of this community on United States society. It is the follow-up to Altman's groundbreaking book Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation.
Connect with Philip and Dennis
Philip's website: am950radio.com/events/philip/
Dennis' website: scholars.latrobe.edu.au/daltman/about
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase The Homosexualization of America visit your local bookstore!
To purchase Dennis' novel Death in the Sauna visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780645732801
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
View the full video of Monday Conference with Dennis Altman through ABC’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/WXdAeJhR1RU?si=8gH08QHwHbaHteq3
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Jeff Billington and Summer's Second Dec 26, 2023

Today, we meet Jeff Billington and his new novel: Summer's Second.
In this novel, Asher Brock’s last summer of youth is far from ideal. His hopes for the future, including an escape from his constricting Ozark Mountains hometown, seem increasingly fragile as he faces hurdles of poverty and abuse, all while coming to terms with being gay.
Jeff Billington is the author of Chicken Dinner News and Summer's Second. He has worked as a journalist, Communications Director for a member of Congress, and for environmental and advocacy nonprofits.
Buy Summer's Second
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
Buy directly: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781648905926
Connect with Jeff Billington
Website: jeffbillington.com
Instagram: @jdbillington
Twitter: @jeffbillington
Facebook: facebook.com/jeffbillingtonauthor
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Accounting and Creative Support: Gordy Erickson

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

The Color Purple with Maya Williams Dec 12, 2023

My eighth grade brain was like: they're such great friends AND they kiss on the mouth?! That's great!
Today we meet Maya Williams and we’re talking about the book that saved their life: The Color Purple by Alice Walker.
Maya Williams (ey/em, they/them, and she/her) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who is currently an Ashley Bryan Fellow and the seventh Poet Laureate of Portland, Maine .
Maya's debut poetry collection, Judas & Suicide, is available through Game Over Books . And Maya's second poetry collection, Refused a Second Date, is available now through Harbor Editions.
A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early-twentieth-century rural Georgia. Through a series of letters spanning nearly thirty years, first from Celie to God, then from the sisters to each other, the novel draws readers into a rich and memorable portrayal of Black women--their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery.
Connect with Maya
Website: mayawilliamspoet.com
Instagram: @emmdubb16
Twitter: @emmdubb16

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase The Color Purple visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780143135692.
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Permission to use audio from the Kennedy Center Arts Across America - Maya Williams 'Definitions of Home' provided by Maya Williams.
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Princess Freak with Adrineh Der Boghossian and Nancy Agabian Nov 28, 2023

Without this book, I wouldn't have become me. And I guess I'd be married to a man.
Today we meet Adrineh Der Boghossian and we’re talking about the book that saved her life: Princess Freak by Nancy Agabian. And Nancy joins us for the conversation!
Princess Freak documents through poetry and prose texts Nancy's coming-of-age of as a shy, funny, bisexual Armenian-American woman who flees the small town of Walpole, Massachusetts to tell the stories of her family.
Adrineh Der Boghossian (no relation!) is an editor who works as a project manager for a Vancouver-based book publisher. Originally from Toronto, Adrineh taught at the American University of Armenia and researched factors affecting media trust at CRRC-Armenia.
Nancy Agabian is a writer, teacher, and organizer. A winner of the Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction, her new novel The Fear of Large and Small Nations is out now.
Connect with Adrineh and Nancy
Twitter: @_adrineh_
Instagram: @adrinehmacaan
Website: nancyagabian.com
Princess Freak newsletter (for updates about a reprint): nancyagabian.com/mailing-list
Instagram: @nancyagabian
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
Princess Freak is currently out of print. You may be able to find a copy through used book retailers. Sign-up for Nancy's newsletter for updates on a reprinting (see above).
To purchase The Fear of Large and Small Nations visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9798985969238. In December, Nancy is donating portions of book sales to the Women's Support Center in Armenia.
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Permission to use clips from Literary Lights: Nancy Agabian in conversation with Aida Zilelian provided by the International Armenian Literary Alliance.
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Joshua Moehling and Where The Dead Sleep Nov 21, 2023

Today, Once Upon a Crime Books presents 7 Minutes in Book Heaven, the podcast where we interview LGBTQ authors about the new books they have coming out for us to love and cuddle up with.
Once Upon a Crime Books is an independent bookstore specializing in mystery fiction. Located in Uptown Minneapolis, you can shop in their store Monday through Saturday 11am – 5:30pm. Or, visit their website! There, you can browse all of their books, from new releases to classic mysteries.
In this new episode, Once Upon a Crime Books introduces us to Joshua Moehling and his new novel: Where The Dead Sleep which is available to buy in paperback in-store, or on their website, and it is also available as a digital audio book.
Joshua Moehling (he/him) is the author of the Ben Packard series. The first book, And There He Kept Her, was a Barnes & Noble monthly Mystery/Thriller pick and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBTQ+ Mystery. His second novel, Where the Dead Sleep, was described as “a well-paced whodunit” and “devastating” by The New York Times. Joshua lives in Minneapolis and works in the medical device industry.
Buy Where The Dead Sleep
Visit Once Upon a Crime Books in-person or buy online: https://onceuponacrimebooks.indielite.org/book/9781728247922
Buy the first book in the series And There He Kept Her: https://onceuponacrimebooks.indielite.org/book/9781728275772
Also, in this episode, we talked about Five Decembers by James Kestrel, which is also available at Once Upon a Crime Books:
https://onceuponacrimebooks.indielite.org/book/9781789098679
Connect with Joshua Moehling
Website: joshuamoehling.com
Instagram: @jmoehling
Twitter: @JoshuaMoehling
Facebook: facebook.com/jmoehling
Credits
Presented by: Once Upon a Crime Books
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Theme music: Summer Mood by lesfm

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

The Song of Achilles with Christina Bagni Nov 14, 2023

Ancient queer Greek love. The Easter Bunny. And everything in between.
Today we meet Christina Bagni and we’re talking about the book that saved her life The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.
Christina is an editor, host of Classics and Chill, and the author of the YA novel My Only Real Friend is the Easter Bunny at the Mall.
For Christina, The Song of Achilles not only helped her to process a painful past relationship, but it also put her on a path to host a podcast based on the novel's source The Iliad, as well as to her write her own YA novel.
Connect with Christina
To connect to Christina's website, social media, her novel, and Classics and Chill, visit: linktr.ee/christinabagni
Buy The Song of Achilles and My Only Real Friend is the Easter Bunny at the Mall
Did you know that you can visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts? So many titles on sale now! bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase The Song of Achilles visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780062060624
To purchase My Only Real Friend is the Easter Bunny at the Mall visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781738767786
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Permission to use clips from Classics and Chill provided by Christina Bagni.
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

American Renaissance with Scott Bane Oct 31, 2023

You didn't realize you'd end up reading a charming gay couple's 3,100 love letters.
Today we meet Scott Bane and we’re talking about the book that launched a life-saving journey for him: American Renaissance by F.O. Matthiessen.
Scott is a Program Officer at the John A. Hartford Foundation and author of A Union Like Ours: The Love Story of F.O. Matthiessen and Russel Cheney.
Imagine coming across a book in a New York Times Book Review that introduces you to a writer whose little told life-long love story happened right in your hometown years before you lived there. After reading American Renaissance, Scott began a years-long journey to bring that love story to life.

Connect with Scott
Website: scott-bane.com
Russell Cheney art gallery: russellcheney.com
Buy American Renaissance and A Union Like Ours
Did you know that you can visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts? So many titles on sale now! bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase American Renaissance visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780195007596
To purchase A Union Like Ours visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781625346377
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Permission to use clips from Author Talk "A Union Like Ours: The Love Story of F. O. Matthiessen and Russell Cheney" provided by Scott Bane.
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Blind: A Memoir with David-Elijah Nahmod and Belo Miguel Cipriani Oct 17, 2023

I knew something was wrong, but what? This book helped me realize I have a disability. And it's treatable.
Today we meet David-Elijah Nahmod and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: Blind: A Memoir by Belo Miguel Cipriani. And Belo joins us for the conversation!
David-Elijah Nahmod is a freelance journalist in San Francisco, who writes for publications all over the country and in Canada.
Belo Miguel Cipriani is a digital inclusion strategist, author, and publisher. Blind: A Memoir is the story of how he became blind as a result of an assault.
In Blind, Belo chronicles the two years immediately following the assault. At the age of 26, Belo found himself learning to walk, cook, and date in the dark. Armed with visual memory and his newly developed senses, Belo shows readers what the blind see. He narrates the little known world of the blind, where microwaves, watches, and computers talk, and where guide dogs guard as well as lead.
The topics we discuss today include interpersonal violence resulting in blindness, brief descriptions of interpersonal violence, as well as conversations on emotional abuse, depression, and anxiety. Please listen with your self-care in mind.
If you feel like you are, or may be, in need of support, don’t go through this alone. There are people ready to help. There is the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color network to find a provider near you. There is Forge, who focuses on supporting trans and non-binary survivors. CenterLink can connect you to your local LGBT center. And there are a number of lifelines that you can call for immediate support: the GLBT National Help Center 1-888—246–7743, the Trans Lifeline 1-877—565-8860, the Black Line, created with an LGBTQ+ Black Femme lens 1-800-604-5841, and the DeQH hotline for South Asian/DESI LGBTQ individuals, family, and friends 908-367-3374.
Connect with David-Elijah and Belo
David-Elijah on Facebook: facebook.com/DavidElijahNahmod
Belo's website: belocipriani.com
Oleb Books' website: olebbooks.com
Oleb Media's website: olebmedia.com
Buy Blind: A Memoir
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
To purchase Blind: A Memoir: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781732312722
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Permission to use clips from Firsts: Coming of Age Stories by People with Disabilities

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Dianna Hunter and Clouded Waters Oct 10, 2023

We meet Dianna Hunter and her new novel Clouded Waters which releases today: October 10!
What's it about? When a local water scientist goes missing, newspaper owner Susan B. Ellingson follows a trail of evidence from a tiny, off-grid community into a global tangle of lies, corruption, whistleblowing, and danger. All the while her mother-in-law leads a group of Ojibwe and Métis grandmothers fighting to protect the water, and when after an intriguing new woman comes to town, Susan isn't sure how to feel or act.
Dianna Hunter (she/her or they/them) is the author of Wild Mares: My Lesbian Back-to-the-Land Life and Breaking Hard Ground: Stories of the Minnesota Farm Advocates. Both were finalists for the Minnesota Book Award. Dianna was a farmer and farm advocate before beginning a career in writing and college teaching. She earned an MA in English (Creative Writing) from Iowa State University,
Buy Clouded Waters
Visit our Bookshop at bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook or buy directly right now: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781737405160
Also, we talked about the poem "Election Season" by Julie Gard. It's in Julie's collection I Think I Know You. Buy it here: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781952593338
Connect with Dianna Hunter
Website: diannahunter.com
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Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Steven Flamm, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
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The Velvet Rage with Chris Tompkins Oct 03, 2023

Coming out wasn’t a switch that fixed everything. This book explained why.
Today we meet Chris Tompkins and we’re talking about the book that saved Chris' life: The Velvet Rage by Alan Downs.
Chris is an LGTBQ affirmative therapist and author of the new book Raising LGBTQ Allies: A Parent's Guide to Changing the Messages from the Playground.
In The Velvet Rage, psychologist Alan Downs draws on his own struggle with shame and anger, contemporary research, and stories from his patients to passionately describe the stages of a gay man's journey out of shame and offers practical and inspired strategies to stop the cycle of avoidance and self-defeating behavior.
Connect with Chris
Instagram: @aroadtriptolove
Twitter: @aroadtriptolove
Facebook: facebook.com/aroadtriptolove
Website: aroadtriptolove.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/christompkinslife
Buy The Velvet Rage and Raising LGBTQ Allies
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
Buy The Velvet Rage directly: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781538136263
Buy Raising LGBTQ Allies directly: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781538136263
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Permission to use the TEDx talk "What Children Learn From The Things They Aren't Told" provided by Chris Tompkins.
Additional permissions provided by Chris Tompkins.
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

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Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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Valencia with Leslie Vincent and Michelle Tea Sep 19, 2023

I had no queer friends. I kept going to the same bookstore hoping a girl would hit on me.
Welcome to our new season! Today we meet Leslie Vincent and Michelle Tea!
We’re talking about the book that saved Leslie's life: Valencia by Michelle Tea.
As a music maker, Leslie Vincent performs jazz and the great American Songbook. She released her new album About Last Night earlier this year.
Michelle Tea is a writer, Guggenheim Fellow, founder of Drag Queen Story Hour, and host of the podcast Your Magic with Michelle Tea.
Valencia is the fast-paced account of one girl's search for love and high times in the drama-filled dyke world of San Francisco's Mission District.
Connect with Leslie and Michelle
instagram: @leslie_della_vincent
website: lesliedellavincent.com
facebook: facebook.com/LeslieVincentMusic
website: www.michelle-tea.com
instagram: @michelleteaz
twitter: @TeaMichelle
Buy Valencia
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts.
Or, buy Valencia directly: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781580052382
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Permission to use "Laura" and "Stars Fell Over Alabama" provided be Leslie Vincent.
Permission to use the film trailer to Valencia provided by Michelle Tea.
Permission to use Your Magic with Michelle Tea provided by Michelle Tea.
Music credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

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Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Rebecca Turkewitz and Here in the Night Sep 12, 2023

Welcome to our Summer of Book Love series!
Our series concludes today as we meet Rebecca Turkewitz and her new new spooky story collection: Here in the Night. New episodes of This Queer Book Saved My Life! drop next Tuesday! September 19th!
What's it about? The thirteen stories in Rebecca Turkewitz’s debut collection, Here in the Night, are engrossing, strange, eerie, and emotionally nuanced. Preoccupied with all manner of hauntings, these stories traverse a boarding school in the Vermont woods, the jagged coast of Maine, an attic in suburban Massachusetts, an elevator stuck between floors, and the side of an unlit highway in rural South Carolina.
At the center of almost every story is the landscape of night, with all its tantalizing and terrifying potential. After dark, the familiar becomes unfamiliar, boundaries loosen, expectations fall away, and even the greatest skeptics believe—at least fleetingly—that anything could happen.
Buy Here in the Night
Visit our Bookshop or buy directly right now: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781625570574
And read Danez Smith's The 17 Year Old and the Gay Bar here at The Poetry Foundation's website.
Connect with Rebecca Turkewitz
Website: rebeccaturkewitz.com
Instagram: @Rebecca_Turkewitz_Writes
Twitter: @R_Turkewitz
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Steven Flamm, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

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7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Rob Kirby and Marry Me A Little Sep 05, 2023

Welcome to our Summer of Book Love series!
Every Tuesday this summer we will feature new episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven which has your next summer read! New episodes of This Queer Book Saved My Life! drop September 19th.
Today we meet Robert Kirby and his new graphic memoir: Marry Me A Little.
What's it about? Rob recounts his experience of marrying his longtime partner, John, just after same-sex marriage was legalized in Minnesota in 2013. Heartwarming, honest, and slyly humorous, Marry Me a Little is a wonderfully illustrated celebration of a romantic partnership between two men and a personal account of a momentous and historic moment in the fight for gay rights.
Buy Marry Me A Little
Visit our Bookshop or buy directly right now: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781637790397
Connect with Rob Kirby
Website: robkirbycomics.com
Instagram: @robkirbycomics
Twitter: @robkirbycomics
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Marisa Crane and I Keep My Exoskeletons To Myself Aug 29, 2023

Welcome to our Summer of Book Love series!
Every Tuesday this summer we will feature new episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven which has your next summer read! New episodes of This Queer Book Saved My Life! drop this September.
Today we meet Marisa Crane and their new novel: I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself.
What's it about? Dept. of Speculation meets Black Mirror in this lyrical, speculative debut about a queer mother raising her daughter in an unjust surveillance state. Kris is a new mother, grieving the loss of her wife and thoroughly unprepared for the reality of raising a child alone. Kris teeters on the edge of collapse, fumbling in a daze of alcohol, shame, and self-loathing. Yet as the kid grows, Kris finds her footing, raising a child whose irrepressible spark cannot be dampened by the harsh realities of the world. She can’t forget her wife, but with time, she can make a new life for herself and the kid, supported by a community of fellow misfits who defy the Department to lift one another up in solidarity and hope.
Buy I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself
Visit our Bookshop or buy directly right now: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781646221295
We also talk about the writing craft book Meander, Spiral, and Explode by Jane Alison. Buy it here: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781948226134
Connect with Marisa Crane
Website: marisacrane.org
Instagram: @marisa_crane
Twitter: @mcrane_12
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Tristan Taormino and A Part of the Heart Can't Be Eaten Aug 22, 2023

Welcome to our Summer of Book Love series!
Every Tuesday this summer we will feature new episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven which has your next summer read! New episodes of This Queer Book Saved My Life! drop this September.
Today we meet Tristan Taormino and their new memoir: A Part of the Heart Can't Be Eaten.
What's it about? Sex educator, filmmaker, and podcast host Tristan Taormino shares her coming-of-age story, revealing how her radical sexuality and unconventional career grew out of an extraordinary queer father-daughter relationship. Tristan’s world began to fall apart when her dad was diagnosed with AIDS. After a series of devastating events, she moved to the messy, glorious world of 1990s New York City. In the midst of grief and depression, she helped change queer sexual subculture with her zine Pucker Up, her infamous The Village Voice column, and her editorship of legendary lesbian porn magazine On Our Backs. After the publication of her first book, The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women, Tristan followed her own path that marked the beginning of her work as a trailblazing feminist pornographer.
Releasing in September 2023, you can pre-order through Duke University Press!
Connect with Tristan Taormino
Website: tristantaormino.com
Instagram: @tristantaormino
Twitter: @tristantaormino
Facebook: facebook.com/tristantaormino
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Lin Thompson and The House That Whispers Aug 15, 2023

Welcome to our Summer of Book Love series!
Every Tuesday this summer we will feature new episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven which has your next summer read! New episodes of This Queer Book Saved My Life! drop this September.
Today we meet Lin Thompson and their new novel: The House That Whispers.
What's it about? Eleven-year-old Simon and his siblings, Talia and Rose, are staying the week at Nanaleen's century-old house. This time, though, it’s not their usual summer vacation trip. In fact, everything’s different. It’s fall, not summer. Mom and Dad are staying behind to have a “talk.” And Nanaleen’s house smells weird, plus she keeps forgetting things. And these aren’t the only things getting under Simon’s skin: He’s the only one who knows that his name is Simon, and that he and him pronouns are starting to feel right. But he’s not ready to add to the changes that are already in motion in his family.
Buy The House That Whispers
Visit our Bookshop or buy directly right now: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780316277112
We also talk about When the Angels Left The Old Country by Sacha Lamb. Buy it here: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781646141760
Connect with Lin Thompson
Website: linthompson.com
Instagram: @linthompsonbooks
Twitter: @lin__thompson
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Lucian Childs and Dreaming Home Aug 08, 2023

Welcome to our Summer of Book Love series!
Every Tuesday this summer we will feature new episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven which has your next summer read! New episodes of This Queer Book Saved My Life! drop this September.
Today we meet Lucian Childs and his new novel: Dreaming Home.
What's it about? When a sister's casual act of betrayal awakens their father's demons--ones spawned by his time in Vietnamese POW camps--the effects of the ensuing violence against her brother ripple out over the course of forty years, from Lubbock, to San Francisco, to Fort Lauderdale. Swept up in this arc, the members of this family and their loved ones tell their tales. A queer coming-of-age, and coming-to-terms, and a poignant exploration of all the ways we search for home, Dreaming Home is the unforgettable story of the fragmenting of an American family.
Buy Dreaming Home
Visit our Bookshop or buy directly right now: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781771965491
Connect with Lucian Childs
Website: lucianchilds.com
Instagram: @lucian_childs
Facebook: Lucian-Childs-Author
Twitter: @lucianchilds
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Dr. Gwen Bass and Immaculate Misconception Aug 01, 2023

Welcome to our Summer of Book Love series! New episodes of This Queer Book Saved My Life! drop this September.
Every Tuesday this summer we will feature new episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven which has your next summer read!
Today we meet Dr. Gwen Bass and her new memoir: Immaculate Misconception: A Story of Biology and Belonging.
What's it about? In the early 1980’s, 95% of all artificial inseminations were performed for married, heterosexual couples. Among the other 5% were people like Gwen’s parents– lesbians navigating a homophobic medical system ready to deny them children. They found a doctor willing to perform the procedure in secret, using sperm from an anonymous donor.
She grew up straddling two worlds. In one–rainbow flags waved and love made a family. In the other– she and her family tried to fit in with everyone else. Immaculate Misconception isn’t just a window into a sliver of queer history, it raises questions we all grapple with: who we are and the forces that influence us. It’s a reflection on nature, nurture, identity, and belonging.
After earning her BA in Psychology and Education, Gwen became a teacher and school counselor. She then pursued an M.Ed in school counseling and her doctorate in special education while training and mentoring teachers on practical, evidence-based tools to nurture kids’ educational and emotional well-being.
Buy Immaculate Misconception
Visit our Bookshop or buy directly right now: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9798889269526
Connect with Dr. Gwen Bass
Website: drgwenbass.com
Instagram: @drgwenbass
Facebook: facebook.com/drgwenbass
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dr-gwen-bass
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Christine Suggs and ¡Ay, Mija! Jul 25, 2023

Welcome to our Summer of Book Love series!
Every Tuesday this summer we will feature new episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven which has your next summer read!
Today we meet Christine Suggs and their graphic novel ¡Ay, Mija! My Bilingual Summer in Mexico.
In this bilingual, inventive, and heartfelt debut, graphic novel sixteen-year-old Christine explores a trip they took to Mexico to visit family, embracing and rebelling against their heritage and finding a sense of belonging.
At first, Christine struggles to connect with family they don't yet share a language with. Soon Christine settles into life in Mexico, eating pan dulce, drawing what they see, and growing more comfortable with Spanish. But when Mom joins their trip, Christine's two worlds collide. Through exploring the impacts of colonialism in both Mexico and themselves, they find their place in their family and start to feel comfortable with their mixed identity.
Christine (they/them) is a comic artist and designer living in Dallas, TX with their wonderful partner, 1 dog, and 2 cats. Christine's work explores the intersection of their identities, namely being a queer, fat, Latinx leftist who loves all things cute. Bonus facts: their day job is in app design, they are an avid Dungeons & Dragons player, and they're quite obsessed with their cats.
Buy ¡Ay, Mija! My Bilingual Summer in Mexico
Visit our Bookshop or buy directly right now: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780316591928
Connect with Christine Suggs
Website: christinesuggs.com
Instagram: @csuggsillustration
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Kelly Balch and Aphrodite's Sister Jul 18, 2023

Welcome to our Summer of Book Love series!
Every Tuesday this summer we will feature new episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven which has your next summer read!
Today we meet Kelly Balch and their novel Aphrodite's Sister.
This novel series follows Petra Ambrosi, who is a Goddess with empathic abilities, though she is emotionless herself. Throughout the novel, and its subsequent sequel, she is sent down to earth, falls in love with a mortal woman, wrestles to understand her diminishing gifts, breaks Zeus' laws, and navigates an uprising against the gods.
Kelly Balch is an author of an adult queer-fantasy/fiction. Drawing on their passion for storytelling, Kelly brings a creative and empathetic approach to their photography, always striving to understand and convey the unique truths of their clients and couples. Their warm and compassionate demeanor has made them a trusted and beloved photographer in the industry.
Also, Kelly is an accomplished wedding and editorial photographer based in Los Angeles, California! With over 14 years of experience in the industry, Kelly has established themselves as a pioneering force in the queer wedding industry, having started their career before queer love was legalized in the United States. Visit their website below to see videos, photo galleries, and Human Capitol workshop.
Buy Aphrodite's Sister
Visit our Bookshop or buy directly right now: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9798218022143
Connect with Kelly Balch
Website: kellybalch.com
Instagram: @kellybalch
Facebook: facebook.com/kellybalchphoto
Vimeo: vimeo.com/kellybalch
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with C.H. Williams and One of a Thousand Names Jul 11, 2023

Welcome to our Summer of Book Love series with our newest episode of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven! Every Tuesday we feature your next summer read.
Meet C.H. Williams and his new book One of a Thousand Names.
This fantasy novel follows Rose, who is on a mission to avenge her father's death. As she sacrifices her friends, she must make a decision about whether avenging her father is worth the increasingly steep price. With gods and shadows and betrayal after betrayal, Rose will have to decide whether coming face-to-face with the person who killed her father is really worth the high price of justice.
C.H. Williams is a fantasy author and illustrator living in the Mid-Atlantic with his husband. His writing couples the darker side of fairy tales with the radiance and joy of queer love. In addition to his fantasy fiction, C.H. published Gender and Personality Stereotyping in Collegiate Orchestras (Univ. of No. Colorado 2018) and Transition which is featured in Lockdown Literature: Anthology of Pandemic Literature.
Buy One of a Thousand Names
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781733356954
C.H. William's website: https://www.chwilliamsliterary.com/store/one-of-a-thousand-names-handbound-7shxg
Connect with C.H. Williams
Website: chwilliamsliterary.com
Instagram: @chwilliamsliterary
Newletter: chwilliamsliterary.com/stay-in-the-loop
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Fag Hag with Clark Carlton and Robert Rodi Jun 27, 2023

The book where your self-proclaimed fag hag decides to kidnap you.
Today we meet Clark Carlton and Robert Rodi!

Our guest is novelist, playwright, and producer Clark Carlton. You may know him from his sci-fi/fantasy novel Prophets of the Ghost Ants which launched his Antasy series.
Our featured author is Robert Rodi who has published seven novels, and he also writes comic books, nonfiction, as well as a spoken-word performer and jazz singer.
We’re talking about the book that saved Clark's life: Fag Hag by Robert Rodi.
Fag Hag is a cult classic. Set in Chicago, the novel is about Natalie who is obsessed with her gay best friend Peter. When Natalie’s attempts to sabotage Peter’s new relationship with the love of his life, Natalie is forced to resort to … let’s say extreme measures.
Connect with Clark and Robert

twitter: @clarktcarlton
website: clarkthomascarlton.com

website: robertrodi.com
Facebook: @RobertRodi
Visit our website for more links to Robert's and Clark's projects: thisqueerbook.com/fag-hag.
Buy Fag Hag
Visit our Bookshop or buy directly: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781469953168
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Edith Can Shoot Things And Hit Them with Nick Bussett and A. Rey Pamatmat Jun 20, 2023

Queer kids have to grow up so fast to protect ourselves.
Our guest todays are Nick Bussett and A. Rey Pamatmat!
Nick is the co-host of Gay Talk 2.0 and the Director of Development at the Shubert Theatre. Rey is an award winning playwright and writer. He is a GLAAD and Lambda nominee and the co-Director of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab.
We’re talking about the play that saved Nick's life: Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them by A. Rey Pamatmat.
Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them is about three kids - Kenny, his sister Edith, and their friend Benji – who are all but abandoned on a farm in remotest Middle America. With little adult supervision, they feed and care for each other, making up the rules as they go.
We’re going to talk about seeing yourself represented on stage for the first time, having too grow up to fast, and rebuilding relationships with our family.
Connect with Nick and Rey

Instagram: @Nbussett
Instagram: @gaytalk2.0
website: gaytalk20.com

Twitter: @AReyP
Instagram: @a_rey_p
Buy Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them
Visit our Bookshop or buy directly: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780573700163
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

The Waves with Steph Colbourn Jun 13, 2023

All of the queer futures that we can build for ourselves.
Our guest today is the CEO and founder of editaudio, Steph Colbourn.

editaudio is a podcast production company with a mission to hire more women, nb and trans people in media. Founded in 2014, Steph put together an amazing queer team of producers and staff to make the audio industry more representative of what the word actually looks like. And it looks queer!
Steph (they/she) shares with us the book that saved her life: The Waves by Virginia Woolf. And what are we exploring in this episode? What’s that feeling when you read an unrequited love story from decades before your time? How does that feel to know we were there, queer people falling in love? And how does it feel feel to read on the page your queer life being normalized, even your anxiety?
The Waves is one of Woolf's most experimental novels. Some say, her masterpiece. It begins with six children—three boys and three girls—playing in a garden by the sea, and follows their lives as they grow up, experience friendship and love, and grapple with the death of their beloved friend.
Connect with Steph
Twitter: @steph_colbourn
Instagram: @stephcolbourn
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/steph-colbourn-52b11212a
email: hello@editaud.io
website: https://editaud.io
Buy The Waves
Visit our Bookshop or buy immediately: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780156949606
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with A.J. Irving and The Wishing Flower Jun 06, 2023

Meet A.J. Irving and her new book The Wishing Flower!

An LGBTQ-inclusive story about understanding your peers, your feelings, and yourself, The Wishing Flower is a love letter to longing, belonging, and longing to belong. With stunning illustrations by Kip Alizadeh, The Wishing Flower will inspire readers to honor their wishes and show the world their truest selves.

A.J. Irving grew up in Boise, Idaho, writing stories and daydreaming about becoming an author. Now, she writes picture books and poetry beneath an old elm tree in Salt Lake City. A.J. reads kidlit every day and dances every chance she gets. She is also the author of Dance Like a Leaf (Barefoot Books, 2020).
Buy The Wishing Flower
Head to our Bookshop store or buy directly: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780593430446
Connect with A.J. Irving
Website: ajirving.com
Twitter: @aj_irving
Instagram: @aj_irving
Facebook: facebook.com/ajirvingauthor
Show links
As promised in the episode, links to:

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Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

I Am Not Myself These Days with Nathan Eckstein May 30, 2023

Drag. Vodka. 90s subculture. And knowing you're gonna be ok.
Our guest today is Nathan Eckstein (he/they) who is a writer, playwright, and graduate student at the University of Minnesota pursuing a Masters degrees in Architecture. They are also a candidate for another masters degree in Science Research Practices.

Nathan shares with us how the memoir I Am Not Myself These Days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell saved his life. What’s extra special about this episode is that it was recorded live in front of an audience at Lush Lounge and Theater in Northeast Minneapolis. This was a Drag Edition of our podcast with performances by the Haus of Taylor: Connie Taylor, Maiden Taiwan, and a special performance by Eduardo (Nathan!).

I Am Not Myself These Days follows Josh's life, as well as his drag persona Aqua's life. By day, he works at a So-Ho advertising agency. By night, he performs drag throughout New York. His is a life of vodka and a new relationship with Jack, a BDSM sex worker. The memoir is a tragic-comedy-romance, charting Josh's, Aqua's, and Jack's life as they navigate love, substance abuse, and New York's 90s subculture.

Donate to the ACLU's Drag Defense Fund
During our live event, we fundraised for the ACLU's Drag Defense Fund. Join us by donating here: https://action.aclu.org/give/support-drag-defense-fund

Buy I Am Not Myself These Days
Visit our Bookshop or buy it here: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780060817329

Connect with Nathan and the Haus of Taylor
On Instagram:
Nathan Eckstein: @notstraightnate
Connie Taylor: @connie_taylormn
Maiden Taiwan: @maiden.taiwan

Also, shout out to photographer Nick Lents who shot the live event! Follow him on Instagram: @nicklents
Watch Nathan's Play: Technically Love
https://youtu.be/ZTBW3irw-_I

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olilla, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Mário César and Blessed Cure May 23, 2023

Meet four-time HQ MIX Trophy winner for best Webcomic, Mário César and his new book Blessed Cure.

Like Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, César's Blessed Cure uses comics to explore queer life.
In this book, our hero, Acacio do Nascimento, knew he was a different boy from others. He would rather be playing with dolls than playing soccer. The hula hoop interested him more than cowboy pistols. Scared by the possibility of their son being a homosexual, Acacio's parents begin conversion therapy, starting when he was five years old, to make him a "normal boy" like the others.

Mario Cesar is an awarded comic book's author from Brazil. He has published comics since 2006 and he was one of the first openly gay authors to address issues of sexual and gender diversity in Brazilian comics with the book Ciranda da Solidão (2013). He is also one of the creators and producers of POC CON, the first brazilian LGBTQ+ Comic Con.

Buy Blessed Cure
Head to our Bookshop store or buy directly: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781908030542

Connect with Mário César
Twitter: @mas_que_mario
Instagram: @mas_que_mario

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

The Glass Menagerie with Jonathan Fried May 16, 2023

I read it as a teenager. Then starred in it with Olympia Dukakis.
Our guest today is writer, actor, and teacher Jonathan Fried. Jonathan shares with us how the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams saved his life. What’s extra special about this for Jonathan is that not only did this play have life-saving features for him as a teenager, he went on to star in it in a production with Olympia Dukakis!

The Glass Menagerie follows the lives of the dysfunctional Wingfield family, son Tom, mother Amanda, daughter Laura. Tom longs to escape from his stifling home, wanting to be a poet and escape the realities of working in a shoe warehouse. While he "goes to the movies" every night, his mother struggles to find a husband for Laura who lives with a disability.

Buy The Glass Menagerie
Visit our Bookshop or buy it directly right now: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780811214049

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Join us May 18th!

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with A.J. Bermudez and Stories No One Hopes Are About Them May 09, 2023

Meet A.J. Bermudez and her darkly playful (and Lambda Literary Award nominated!) story collection: Stories No One Hopes Are About Them.
These short stories explore characters who are ni de aquí, ni de allá—neither from here nor there—straddling competing worlds, disrupting paradigms, and transitioning from objects of other people’s stories to active subjects and protagonists of their own.
Big things happen in this collection. But it’s also a collection of small intimacies: misremembered names, chipped teeth, and private rituals; unexpected alliances and barely touched knees beneath uniform skirts; minutiae of the natural world; incidents that quietly, achingly, and delightfully transgress the familiar.
Buy Stories No One Hopes Are About Them
Head to our store at thisqueerbook.com/bookshop or click: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781609388638

Connect with A.J. Bermudez
Twitter: @AmandaJBermudez
Instagram: @a.j.bermudez
Website: https://amandajbermudez.com

Check out this Lambda Literary award (Lammy) finalist:
We shout out Gods of Want by K-Ming Chang in the show. Here's where you can buy it: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780593241585

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
We're back live in May 2023!

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Metes And Bounds with David Rephan and Jay Quinn May 02, 2023

To be queer, young, and surfing on the beach. Where's your queer true north?
Our guests today are attorney David Rephan and Lambda Literary Award finalist Jay Quinn!

David shares with us how Jay's novel Metes and Bounds saved his life and how David continues to return to the novel as a queer true north. This was Jay's first novel and he went on to write four more as well as a memoir.

Metes and Bounds follows 18-year surfer, Matt, as he leaves home after his high school graduation to work for his uncle, a land surveyor. It’s about Matt's story of claiming his place as a surfer and as a gay man in the small and large world of construction sites, fishing piers, and surf breaks.
Buy Metes and Bounds
AbeBooks has a variety of copies for you to peruse. Check them out here:
https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/metes-and-bounds/author/jay-quinn/

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Joseph Plaster and Kids on the Street Apr 25, 2023

Meet Joseph Plaster and his new book Kids on the Street: Queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco's Tenderloin. It's 7 Minutes in Book Heaven! Where we meet queer authors and talk with them about the new books they have coming out for us to love and cuddle up with.

What's Kids on the Street about? Joseph explores the informal support networks that enabled abandoned and runaway queer youth to survive in tenderloin districts across the United States. He shows how they collectively and creatively managed the social trauma they experienced, in part by building relationships with johns, bartenders, hotel managers, bouncers, and other vice district denizens. By highlighting a politics where the marginal position of street kids is the basis for a moral economy of reciprocity, Plaster excavates a history of queer life that has been overshadowed by major narratives of gay progress and pride.
Buy Kids on the Street
Visit Duke University Press: https://www.dukeupress.edu/kids-on-the-street
Connect with Joseph Plaster
Twitter: @Jplaster3
Facebook: Joey Plaster
Website: https://www.josephplaster.com
Check out the film Song of Love (Un Chant d'Amour) that we chatted about
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043084/
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Goodbye To Berlin with Allison Vincent Apr 18, 2023

Seriously, though. How DO we thread together all of our queer identities?
Our guest is writer, educator, and theater maker Allison Vincent and we talk about the queer book that saved her life: the novella Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood.
Goodbye to Berlin is a Queer classic. Our hero moves to Berlin where he meets the incomparable Sally Bowles. They become roommates as he explores Berlin and his sexuality. The novella was adapted into the award-winning theatrical production and film Cabaret.

For Allison, it not only saved her in writing her college thesis, but it also provided visibility to her as a Queer woman to see herself represented in history. We dive into all the queer meanings of the novella's most famous line: "I am a camera with a shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking" and threading together all of our different identities.

Buy Goodbye to Berlin
Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase Goodbye to Berlin and all the books we discuss on our podcasts.

Connect with Allison
Twitter: @allisonrvincent
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=13955074
Transatlantic Love Affair: https://www.transatlanticloveaffair.org

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

E-Lending Library
Quatrefoil Library has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with McKenzie Wark and Raving Apr 11, 2023

Meet McKenzie Wark and her new book Raving. It's 7 Minutes in Book Heaven! Where we meet queer authors and talk with them about the new books they have coming out for us to love and cuddle up with.
What's Raving about?McKenzie takes us into the undisclosed locations of New York's thriving underground queer and trans rave scene. Techno, first and always a Black music, invites fresh sonic and temporal possibilities for this era of diminishing futures. Raving to techno is an art and a technique at which queer and trans bodies might be particularly adept but which is for anyone who lets the beat seduce them. Extending the rave's sensations, situations, fog, lasers, drugs, and pounding sound systems onto the page, Wark invokes a trans practice of raving as a timely aesthetic for dancing in the ruins of this collapsing capital.
Buy Raving
Visit our Bookshop page at thisqueerbook.com/bookshop or at https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781478019381

Connect with McKenzie
Twitter: @mckenziewark
Instagram: @mckenziewark3000

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

The Bisexual Option with William Burleson Apr 04, 2023

Going from unseen to seen.
This episode is the recording of our live event at Lush Lounge and Theater. And we welcome back William Burleson! You remember him from Season One, when we discussed how his book Bi America was life-giving for our guest Neil Aasve. Now, William talks with me about the book that saved his life: The Bisexual Option by Fritz Klein, MD. He shares with us, "I have to say, coming out as Bi, at first to myself, and then later to other people, there is really an uphill climb to find community. It's better today. We have Google. But nonetheless, it's still difficult. So when I went into a bookstore and I found the book The Bisexual Option, that was revolutionary."
And....William went on to meet Fritz who wrote the forward to Bill's own book!
Buy the books we discuss on this episode!
Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase The Bisexual Option or at https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780985871703.
You can also purchase William's books too!
Home: Anthology at https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781733976329.
Bi America: Myths, Truths, and Struggles of an Invisible Community at https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781560234791
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

E-Lending Library
Quatrefoil Library has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Gerardo Sámano Córdova and Monstrilio Mar 28, 2023

Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with. Today, we meet Gerardo Sámano Córdova and his new novel Monstrilio.

What it's about?Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago’s lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family’s decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses—though curbed by his biological and chosen family’s communal care—threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.
Buy Monstrilio
Visit our Bookshop page at thisqueerbook.com/bookshop or at https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781638930365

Connect with Gerardo
Website: gerardosamanocordova.com
Twitter: @samanito
Instagram: @samanito

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Sponsors

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

The Magic Mountain with Gerard Cabrera Mar 21, 2023

When you go up that mountain you don't know what you'll find.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode, we meet Gerard Cabrera (he/him) and I talk with him about The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. Gerard tells me that, "The Magic Mountain is about educating yourself and trying to make decisions for how you want to live your own life. Do you want to follow a path of seeking freedom or do you want to follow a path of just maintaining a status quo so that you can survive? With AIDS raging, I think that was a very salient sort of internal debate for me."
Gerard is the author of the new novel Homo Novus and I talk with him all about it. What is the plot? It's Holy Week 1987. And Fr. Linus Fitzgerald, a Catholic priest, is confined to his hospital bed by an AIDS diagnosis, while being comforted by the seminarian he sexually abused as an adolescent.
Episode transcripts and more info are available at thisqueerbook.com/podcast/magic-mountain.
Buy the books we discuss on this episode!
Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase Gerard's novel Homo Novus and Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain.
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our LGBT podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
E-Lending Library
Quatrefoil Library has created a curated lending library made up of the LGBT books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Visit our friends!

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with B.G. Wolfe and April Renegade Mar 14, 2023

Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.

Today, we meet B.G. Wolfe and and her new novel April Renegade. B.G. aims to write diverse characters and storylines, with emphasis on those in the LGBTQ+ community and those who struggle with their mental health like she does.

April Renegade is a coming-of-age punk rock and roll romance. According to Ash Lancing's fans, he has it all. He is the lead singer for a popular punk rock band, he's got a literal model for a girlfriend, a beautiful loft in NYC, and through the past ten years, he's had his best friend, Drew Dawson by his side through it all. But Ash doesn't really have it all. Because the one thing he desires, he can only have in the shadows and behind closed doors, and the exhaustive secrecy is no one's fault but his own.

Buy April Renegade
Visit our Bookshop page at thisqueerbook.com/bookshop or at https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9798800797916
Connect with B.G.
Website: bgwolfe.com
Facebook: facebook.com/bgwolfeauthor
Instagram: @author_bgwolfe

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Simon vs. The Homosapiens Agenda with Jacob Aloi and Becky Albertalli Mar 07, 2023

Reclaiming our coming out stories.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode, we meet Jacob Aloi (he/him) and I talk with him about Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. This YA novel follows 16-year old Simon Spier as he navigates coming out as well as meeting his first love. The book really tackles coming out stories and owning them. It was also adapted into the rom-com Love, Simon which was the first LGBT rom-com by a major film studio.

Plus, Becky (she/her) joins us to discuss writing Simon and the challenges she had writing the novel as she navigated her own coming out journey.

Ticket Giveaway!
Email us at thisqueerbook@gmail.com to be entered into our contest to give 2 free tickets to the Guthrie Theater's production of Born With Teeth. The tickets are for March 10th. Email us by March 8th and we'll announce the winners on March 9th! Buy tickets at guthrietheater.org
Buy The Books We Discussed On This Episode!
Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase Becky's novels Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda and Imogen, Obviously.
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
E-Lending Library
Quatrefoil Library has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Michele Kirichanskaya and Ace Notes Feb 28, 2023

Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this short podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.

Today, we meet Michele Kirichanskaya and their new book Ace Notes: Tips and Tricks on Existing in an Allo World. Michele is a freelance journalist, primarily writing book reviews, interviews, pop-culture think pieces, and more.
Michele's book Ace Notes covers everything from coming out, explaining asexuality and understanding different types of attraction, to marriage, relationships, sex, consent, gatekeeping, religion, ace culture and more. This is the ultimate arsenal for whatever the allo world throws at you.

Pre-order Ace Notes!
To pre-order visit our Bookshop page! or at https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781839975226
You can also find the books we chat about on this episode: The Invisible Orientation (Julie Decker) and Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex (Angela Chen).

Connect with Michele!
Website: michelekirichanskaya.com
Twitter: @michelekiricha1
Instagram: @michelekirichanskaya

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Joshua Gonzales and Keep Sweet: My Homemade Recipe for a Fulfilling Gay Life Feb 21, 2023

Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this short podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.
Today, we meet Joshua Gonzales and his new book Keep Sweet: My Homemade Recipe for a Fulfilling Gay Life. He is an LGBTQ+ Latino actor and writer living in NYC. He is also the host of the podcast Keep Sweet: The Positive World podcast.
Joshua's book Keep Sweet tells the story of his life as a Mexican-American kid, raised in the small town of Huntsville, Texas, and believing in his innate fabulousness. This is no Misery Memoir. Through tough lessons learned, Joshua shows that, with your own foresight and self-determination, you can skirt the path of potential misery, while keeping your humor and optimism intact. And may we all help the next generation of queer youth grow into the out, proud, empathetic, kind, and powerful adults they were born to be.
Pre-order Keep Sweet!
To pre-order visit: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or iBooks.

Connect with Joshua!
Twitter and Instagram and Tiktok: @joshwadam
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Ties That Bind with Barrak Alzaid and Sarah Schulman Feb 07, 2023

Facing the homophobia in our families.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast!
In this episode, we meet Barrak Alzaid (he/him) and talk with him about Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences by Sarah Schulman. This book invites us to understand familial homophobia as a cultural crisis, rather than a personal or an individual problem. Barrak shares with us, "What I think saved me is not just feeling seen in the book, but also feeling like I had a roadmap and a set of tools for reengaging with a family where I experienced scapegoating, shunning and cruelty."
Plus, Sarah joins us to discuss writing Ties that Bind, the challenges of getting Lesbian fiction past publishing gatekeepers, and the interventions we need to make within families to stop homophobia.
Literary Lights
Join me on 2/7, as I'm in conversation with Taleen Voskuni about her novel Sorry, Bro
More info at armenianliterary.org and register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMvd-ivqzwrE93AmJg62886-Vs0b9os7W7N
Buy The Books We Discussed On This Episode!
Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase: Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences , Faltas : Letters to Everyone in my Town Who Is Not My Rapist (Cecilia Gentili), Army of Lovers (KM Soehnlein), Confessions of the Fox (Jordy Rosenberg), The World We Make (N.K. Jemisin), The White Album (Joan Didion).
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Loren A. Olson, MD and No More Neckties: A Memoir in Essays Jan 31, 2023

Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this short podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.
Today, we meet Loren A. Olson, MD and his new book No More Neckties: A Memoir in Essays. Loren is the award-winning author of Finally Out: Letting Go of Living Straight and in this new memoir he flings open the doors on the hard stuff in this candid and inspiring new memoir. A practicing psychiatrist and a proud husband and grandfather, Dr. Olson writes about intensely personal events such as tragedy and loss; love and heartbreak; infidelity and betrayal; fear of aging; and never feeling good enough.
Order Today!
Buy No More Neckties at thisqueerbook.com/bookshop.
Literary Lights
Join me on 2/7, as I'm in conversation with Taleen Voskuni about her novel Sorry, Bro
More info at armenianliterary.org and register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMvd-ivqzwrE93AmJg62886-Vs0b9os7W7N
Connect with Dr. Loren!
Facebook: facebook.com/LorenAOlsonMD
Twitter: @LorenAOlsonMD
Website: www.lorenaolson.com
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit with Shannon TL Kearns Jan 24, 2023

God cares about the most marginalized bodies.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode we’re talking with the Reverend Shannon TL Kearns (he/him) about Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson. Rev. Kearns was raised fundamentalist Evangelical, however he went on to become the first openly Transgender man ordained to the Old Catholic Priesthood. Our wide-ranging conversation includes how Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit helped him reconcile his gender identity, sexuality, and faith tradition. We also talk queerest stories in the Bible and I ask Shannon if Christianity needs Queerness to survive into the future.

Buy the books featured on our podcast at thisqueerbook.com/bookshop

Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Quatrefoil Library has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Connect with Reverend Kearns!
All social media platforms: @shannontlkearns
Website: shannontlkearns.com and queertheology.com

CREDITS:

Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Supporters: Awen Briem, Stephen D., and Thomas Michna.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Tess Sharpe and 6 Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did) Jan 17, 2023

Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life!

In this podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.
Today, we meet Tess Sharpe and her upcoming book 6 Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did). What’s this new YA novel about? After years of bickering, Penny and Tate have called a truce: they’ll play nice. They have to. Their mothers (life-long best friends) need them to be perfect, drama-free daughters when Penny’s mother becomes a living liver donor to Tate’s mom. Forced to live together as the Moms recover, the girls’ truce is essential in keeping everything—their jobs, the house, the finances, the Moms’ healing—running smoothly. They’ve got to let this thing between them go. There’s one little hitch: Penny and Tate keep almost kissing.

Available January 24, you can order it now at thisqueerbook.com/bookshop.

Connect with Tess!
Twitter: @sharpegirl
Instagram: @forest_of_arden
Website: https://www.tess-sharpe.com

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, and Bill Shay

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Out Of Time with Nicole Olila and Paula Martinac Jan 10, 2023

I didn't really understand, until I read this book, what was my meaning? What was I here for?
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode we’re talking with Nicole Olila (she/her) about the Lambda Literary Award winning novel Out of Time by Paula Martinac. Today’s conversation is one of those life imitates art imitates life moments as Nicole’s work as an archivist and owner of a vintage feminist and queer bookshop mirrors Out of Time’s main character Susan who finds a scrapbook in a vintage store that leads her on a ghostly journey into the past lives of the four Lesbians featured in the scrapbook.

Plus, Paula (she/her) joins us for the conversation and we talk about her training as a historian, how queer storytelling has changed, and the persistent question she asks in her work: how do queer people find each other?
Buy the books featured on our podcast at thisqueerbook.com/bookshop
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Quatrefoil Library has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1
Connect with Paula!
Facebook: facebook.com/pmartinac
Website: paulamartinac.com
Visit Nicole’s website lspotshop.com to learn more about her, and connect to her vintage bookshop on Etsy—The L Spot Bookshop—where she holds space for Sapphic, feminist and offbeat reads.
Nicole is always interested in connections and collaborations. If you want to chat about open access issues, vintage LGBTQIA materials, recommend a chocolate stout, or anything else, do not hesitate to reach out.
CREDITS:
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Bill Shay, and Paul Kaefer

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Peter Darling with Henry Holden and S.A. Chant Dec 27, 2022

The first time I saw a potential future for someone like me.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode we’re talking with Henry Holden (he/they) about Peter Darling by S.A Chant. This novel is a sequel and really a re-telling of Peter Pan, in which Peter is trans, an adult now, and starts a relationship with Captain James Hook! For Henry, he told us, that reading Peter Darling was, "the first moment that I saw a potential future for someone like me. And I think it was the first time I was allowed to let myself say, 'Yes, you're trans.'"

Plus, S.A. joins us for the conversation and we get into where the idea for this novel came from, as well as queering fairy tales and how Peter Pan can represent a possibility space for queerness and transness.

Buy Peter Darling at our Bookshop page: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
Connect with Henry on Instagram: @the_names_henry
Connect with S.A. at austinchant.com and on Twitter: @essaychant.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Lindsey A. Freeman and Running Dec 20, 2022

Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life!

In this short podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.

Today, we meet Lindsey A. Freeman and her upcoming book is Running. What’s it about? Lindsey presents the feminist and queer handbook of running that she always wanted but could never find. For Freeman, running is full of joy, desire, and indulgence in the pleasure and weirdness of having a body. It allows for a space of freedom—to move and be moved.
Buy Running at our Bookshop page: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
Follow Lindsey on social!
Twitter: @lindseyafreeman
Instagram: atomic_lindsey_freeman

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Secret Society with LaSaia Wade and Miasha Dec 13, 2022

Building a language to be able to talk with my parents.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode we’re talking with community organizer and activist LaSaia Wade (she/they) about Secret Society by Miasha. This novel starts as a story about two flashy women who hustle men for money, but then dives into the twists and turns of living and loving in the world as trans women of color. LaSaia tells us that Secret Society "was part of me building the language to translate transness to my parents."
Plus! Miasha (she/her) joins us to talk discuss her inspiration for the novel, what she hoped for it, and how she turned it into a film franchise.
Buy Secret Society at our Bookshop page: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
Stream Secret Society on Tubi or purchase it at Amazon Prime.
Connect with LaSaia at lasaiawade.com
Stay connected with Miasha on Instagram: @miashaofficial

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Crossover episode with The Sewers of Paris Dec 06, 2022

On today’s episode, we have a special crossover episode for you with one of my favorite podcasts The Sewers of Paris. The Sewers of Paris is a podcast about how queer people's lives are shaped by our favorite books, movies, music, and shows. So, how could we not have a crossover?

The host is writer, podcaster, and video-maker Matt Baume. He’s been nominated for a GLAAD award for journalism and he created the YouTube pop culture series Culture Cruise and the LGBTQ news shows Weekly Debrief and Marriage News Watch. He is an author with a new book on the way called Hi Honey! I’m Homo!

Matt interviews me about the entertainment that changed my life (Phantom of the Opera!) and I interview Matt about the Queer book that saved his life: Harriet the Spy.

Subscribe to the Sewers of Paris on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sewers-of-paris/id983828051
Pre-order Hi Honey! I'm Homo at Matt's website: mattbaume.com/hi-honey-im-homo
Follow Matt on Instagram and Twitter: @mattbaume
Buy the books featured on our podcast at bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Tales Of The City with Troy Stanley Nov 29, 2022

Be who you are. And don't apologize.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast and in this episode we’re talking with actor Troy Stanley (he/him) about Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. This novel kicked off a landmark series as well as numerous television adaptations. For Troy, he told us, "I think what Tales of the City said to me was be who you are don't apologize for who you are be who you want to be."
See Troy live in these upcoming productions!
MNM Theatre Company’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The show opens December 2, 2022 and runs through the 18th. https://mnmtheatre.org
Anything Goes at the Wick Theatre. It runs from January 12, 2023 through February 12th. https://thewicktheatre.thundertix.com/events/197579
Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s production of Oliver. It runs from March 14 through April 2nd. https://www.jupitertheatre.org/season-productions
Buy Tales of the City and other books from our LGBT podcast at our Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/thisqueerbook

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Dr. Nyri Bakkalian and Confluence: A Person Shaped Story Nov 22, 2022

Welcome to the LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven - presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life!

In this short podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.
Today, we meet Dr. Nyri Bakkalian. Her new book is Confluence: A Person Shaped Story. What’s it about? It is a novel set in Japan's Northern Tohoku region in a cyberpunk world. It's about a trans-lesbian couple. An Armenian-American combat specialized cyborg and her Japanese cyberneticist spouse Isawa Kasu. Their intense loyalty to each other carries them through a fight against long odds and systemic injustice.
Purchase today at Balance of Seven (https://balance-of-seven.square.site/product/confluence/161?cs=true&cst=custom).
For international sales visit Sapphic Sweets and Reads (https://shop.sweetreadsict.com/products/confluence-a-person-shaped-story).
Follow Nyri!
@riversidewings on itch.io, Twitter, Twitch, Patreon, Mastodon, Countersocial, and Tumblr.

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Bless Me, Ultima with finn schneider Nov 15, 2022

Room to breathe and ask my own questions.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast and in our new episode we're talking with dr. finn schneider (they/them) about Bless Me, Ultima. It is a coming-of-age novel by Rudolfo Anaya. For finn it saved their life three (!) different times and we’ll talk all about them, especially as the novel created a space to explore their spirituality in a new and meaningful way. As finn told us, "It created some room metaphorically for me to breathe into this my own questions around spirituality."
Buy Bless Me, Ultima and other books from our LGBT podcast at our Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/thisqueerbook
Read finn's publication in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, vol 35, issue 4.
finn's book chapter will be published this week (18 November) in Narrating the Insider Outsider Paradox as LGBTQ Educators in Higher Education and Student Affairs. Here is the link: https://www.routledge.com/Queerness-as-Being-in-Higher-Education-Narrating-the-InsiderOutsider-Paradox/Duran-Miller-Jourian-Cisneros/p/book/9781032185859

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

DEI Is: This Queer Book Saved My Life! Nov 08, 2022

It's election day! Go vote!
And then listen to our podcast crossover event with the podcast DEI Is. Host Enrico Manalo and I interview Brian McComak the founder of Hummingbird Humanity. Much of Brian's work focuses on LGBTQ inclusivity at organizations throughout the world, but his work is very expansive as a consultant, speaker, author and facilitator. He has a new book coming out in 2023: Humanity in the Workplace, A Framework for Developing a Human Centered Culture.

We talk about books and human-centered workplaces!
Connect with Brian at BrianMcComak.com or HummingbirdHumanity.com.
Listen to the DEI Is podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Follow them at @diveritypbc on Instagram and DiVerity PBC on YouTube.
You can also connect with them here: linktr.ee/diverity

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Whipping Girl with Rachael Cady and Julia Serano Nov 01, 2022

Can I give myself permission to be myself?
Welcome to our LGBT podcast This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this episode, we talk with lighting designer, radio host, and teacher Rachael Cady (she/her) about the book that saved her life: Whipping Girl by Julia Serano. It's a collection of personal essays that debunk many of the myths and misconceptions that people have about trans women, femininity, and gender.
Rachael shares with us that, "for the first time I saw someone who was like me. It was incredible. It was an epiphany for me. Finally, I was able to give myself permission to be myself."
And Julia (she/her) -- the slam poetry champion, spoken word artist, and musician, with a PhD in Biochemistry -- joins us for the conversation. She explains why she wrote Whipping Girl, "The book felt necessary for me to write because I wrote it as I was making sense of the first time in my life I was actually moving through the world as a woman, but then I was also facing the day-to-day sexism and sexualization that many women face."
Don't forget to join us on November 10 at Lush Lounge and Theater in NE Minneapolis for our 2nd ever live event! We're recording the new episode "From Unseen to Seen" with author and publisher William Burleson. It's free, but we recommend you RSVP: https://bit.ly/liveatlush
Buy Whipping Girl and other books from our LGBT podcast at our Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/thisqueerbook
Follow Julia on Twitter: @juliaserano
www.juliaserano.com
Julia's music Soft Vowel Sounds is here: https://softvowelsounds.com
Follow Rachael on Facebook: RachaelKCMO
Rachael (as KC Vixen) co-hosts Siren Song on KKFI: https://kkfi.org/program/siren-song/

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7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Taleen Voskuni and Sorry, Bro Oct 25, 2022

Welcome to our new LGBT podcast short 7 Minutes in Book Heaven - a partner podcast to This Queer Book Saved My Life!
We spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.
On our premiere episode, we meet Taleen Voskuni. Her new book is Sorry, Bro. What's it about? An Armenian-American woman rediscovers her roots and embraces who she really is in this vibrant and heartfelt queer rom-com.
Episode Transcript: https://thisqueerbook.com/podcast/sorry-bro
Pre-order the book here: https://bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
Follow Taleen!
Twitter: @taleenvoskuni
Instagram: @taleenauthor
www.taleenvoskuni.com

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The Evening Crowd At Kirmser's with James Darville Oct 18, 2022

Being gay together is an act of resistance.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast This Queer Book Saved My Life! This episode is the recording of our first-ever live event at Lush Lounge and Theater. We talk with James Darville (he/him) about the LGBT book The Evening Crowd at Kirmser's by Ricardo J. Brown. This memoir invites us into Kirmser's, which was the first and only queer gay bar in St. Paul, MN in the 1940s. When the book came to James, he was in college in North Dakota and on his own coming out journey as a gay black man. He shares, "It was the right book for the right time for what I was experiencing in my life."
Buy the LGBT books on this LGBT podcast at our Bookshop page! (bookshop.org/thisqueerbook)

Join us on November 10th at Lush Lounge and Theater for our second-ever recording in front a live audience. We're calling the episode, "From Unseen to Seen." We'll be chatting with William Burleson, author and Founder of Flexible Press. The event is free, but we encourage RSVPs: https://bit.ly/liveatlush

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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This Queer LIT Saved My Life! Oct 11, 2022

It’s an LGBT podcast crossover event with the delightful Queer Lit podcast! We enter a unicorn union with guest host Lena Mattheis and discuss the Queer Armenian Library and the books that saved each of our lives. We laugh, we sigh… an unmissable double feature that will turn you gay on the spot.
Listen to new episodes of Queer Lit at: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/queer-lit/id1562201493
Follow Lena on Twitter and Instagram: @queerlitpodcast
Check out the Queer Armenian Library (queerarmenianlibrary.com)
Buy the LGBT books on this LGBT podcast at our Bookshop (bookshop.org/thisqueerbook)!
Join us on November 10th at Lush Lounge and Theater for our live recording event with William Burleson, author and Founder of Flexible Press. The event is free, but we encourage RSVPs: https://bit.ly/liveatlush

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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Breaking The Surface with Joe Perazzo and Greg Louganis Oct 04, 2022

To be happy on my own terms.
Welcome to the Season 2 premiere of our LGBT podcast This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this episode, we talk with Joe Perazzo (he/him) about the LGBT memoir Breaking the Surface by Greg Louganis (he/him), with special guest: 4-time gold medalist Greg Louganis! Breaking the Surface is Greg's memoir and it shares his journey not only in becoming the greatest diver of all time, but also as a gay man living with HIV. For Joe, the memoir played a crucial role in his life. First, when he was about 12-years old and dealing with gay slurs. Then at 16-years old as he came out. And then again in his early 20s as he began his career as a nurse and in HIV research. As Joe shares with us, "It's liberating to read it and then you want to live the same experience. You want to stop giving people so much power over you and become happy on your terms."
Buy the LGBT books on this LGBT podcast at our Bookshop (bookshop.org/thisqueerbook)!

Learn more about Greg and his writing at greglouganis.com. Follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok: @greglouganis

Follow Joe on Twitter: @writer_RN
Join us on November 10th at Lush Lounge and Theater for our live recording event with William Burleson, author and Founder of Flexible Press. The event is free, but we encourage RSVPs: https://bit.ly/liveatlush

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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Dreadnought with Michael Barakiva and April Daniels Aug 23, 2022

Telling stories that are unabashed and unapologetic.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode, I talk with Michael Barakiva and April Daniels!
Writer and Director Michael Barakiva (he/him) shares the LGBT book that saved his life: Dreadnought by April Daniels. Dreadnought is a groundbreaking YA novel about a trans teen superhero. Michael tells us, “The honesty of her anger and the challenges that she faces helped me come to terms in really profound ways about my own coming out process.”
Then, Michael and April Daniels (she/her) talk about the politics of comics, writing queer superheroes, and what writing and publishing has meant to April as a trans author. She shares, “Writing was an escape for me. It was a way for me to take control of my life in a world that frequently strips me of control.”

Join us August 24 for Toasting Historic LGBTQ Twin Cities Nightlife at Lush Lounge and Theater. More details on our website at https://thisqueerbook.com/toasting-queer-nightlife/ or on Facebook https://fb.me/e/51jKKC697
Episode transcript available at thisqueerbook.com/podcast/dreadnaught
Learn more about Michael and his writing at michaelbarakiva.com
Stay tuned to April’s writing and when the next novel in her trilogy will arrive at aprildaniels.com
Buy the books we discuss on this episode!
Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase Dreadnought and One Man Guy.
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
E-Lending Library
Quatrefoil Library has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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Conundrum with David LaRochelle Aug 16, 2022

Bringing empathy to all aspects of our lives.
In this episode, we talk with award-winning children’s author David LaRochelle (he/him) about the LGBT book Conundrum by Jan Morris. David shares with us, "So, on the one hand this book taught me a lot, but the bigger impact that this book had on me was the feeling that just because I don't experience something doesn't mean that it's not true.”

We have a fascinating conversation with David about knowing our true selves, expanding our empathy, as well as LGBTQ children’s literature.

Buy the LGBT books on this LGBT podcast at our Bookshop!
Join us for Toasting Twin Cities Historic LGBTQ Nightlife on August 24, 2022: https://fb.me/e/51jKKC697
Visit davidlarochelle.com to read David's books and to invite him to speak at your school!
The transcript of this episode is available at: thisqueerbook.com/podcast/conundrum
Here is the link to the Dr. Sarah McKay's neuroscience about empathy I reference in the episode: https://drsarahmckay.com/this-is-your-brain-on-empathy/

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Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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Fun Home with Lara Lillibridge and Alison Bechdel Aug 09, 2022

You can tell your story and live.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode, I talk with Lara Lillibridge and Alison Bechdel!
Writer and teacher Lara Lillibridge (she/zher) shares the LGBT book that saved her life: Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel. Lara tells us, "There's two things about Fun Home that were huge for me. The first was just representation. I had never seen anything at all like my family in a book."
We are SO proud to welcome Alison Bechdel (she/her) to the podcast! We have a fascinating conversation about writing Fun Home, part of her coming out story, and reflecting on writing about our families. She told us her take that we shouldn't wait to write about people until after they are deceased. However, she said, "There is something monstrous when you turn people in your life into characters. There's no way around that. It’s an aggressive act no matter how loving or well written it is."
Episode transcript available at thisqueerbook.com/podcast/fun-home.
Learn more about Lara Lillibridge and her writing at her website: laralillibridge.com
Read more of Alison Bechdel's books and comics at: dykestowatchoutfor.com
Buy the books we discuss on this episode!
Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase Fun Home and Only Mama.
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
E-Lending Library
Quatrefoil Library has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Bi America with Neil Aasve and William Burleson Aug 02, 2022

What it really means to have a bi community.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In today's episode I talk with Neil Aasve and William Burleson!
Fundraiser and philanthropist Neil Aasve (he/him) shares the LGBT book that saved his life: Bi America: Myths Truths and Struggles of an Invisible Community by William Burleson. Neil recalls the first time he read Bi America, "I remember my heart pounding. I just remember saying the words out loud: I’m bisexual!"
William joins us to talk about how he saw writing Bi America as an opportunity to preserve history.
Become a donor to the Visibility Impact Fund: visibilityimpactfund.org/about-us
Shop Flexible Press book and view their submissions page: flexiblepub.com
Buy the books we discuss on this episode!
Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase Bi America and the other books we discussed.
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
E-Lending Library
Quatrefoil Library has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

She's Not There with Ellie Krug and Jennifer Finney Boylan Jul 26, 2022

This was exactly what I needed to pivot towards my gender transition.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode we talk with ellie krug and Jennifer Finney Boylan!
Idealist, legal advocate, and author ellie krug (she/her) shares how the LGBT book She's Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan saved her life. ellie told us, "I will say that the book caused me to pivot. It did. There’s no question about it. But it also helped me believe that maybe I can write a book."
Then we discuss writing She's Not There with Jennifer Finney Boylan (she/her) nearly 20 years after it was first published. Jenny shared, "Looking at it now, I think there’s a little bit of the aroma of apology to the book. There’s a certain sense in She’s Not There of trying to justify myself." Our conversation with ellie and Jenny range from cathartic writing vs. good storytelling, navigating loss while living authentically, and how trans narratives have changed over the past two decades.
Transcripts available at: thisqueerbook.com/podcast/shes-not-there
Buy the books we discuss on this episode!
Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase She's Not There, Mad Honey, and Getting to Ellen: A Memoir about Love, Honesty, and Gender Change.
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
E-Lending Library
Quatrefoil Library has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

Don't Sweat The Small Stuff with Zaylore Stout Jul 19, 2022

There is strength in knowing about the struggles and triumphs.
In this episode, we talk with Zaylore Stout (he/him) about the book Don't Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson. Zaylore told us, "I was digging through the archives of the library, trying to see if there was anybody like me...and it’s like you have to piece these things together, on your own." Our discussion spring boards into Zaylore’s legal career, his coming out journey, and writing his own LGBT book: Our Gay History in 50 States which is an LGBTQI plus history book that highlights significant people places and queer facts on a state-by- state basis.
Transcripts available at: thisqueerbook.com/podcast/dontsweat
Buy the LGBT books on this LGBT podcast at our Bookshop: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
Buy Our Gay History in 50 States: www.gay50states.com

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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Quatrefoil: A Modern Novel with Paul Kaefer Jul 12, 2022

I'm part of a community that has always existed and will always exist.
In this episode, we talk with Paul Kaefer (he/him) about the LGBT book Quatrefoil: A Modern Novel by James Barr. We discuss how Quatrefoil: A Modern Novel helped Paul learn that he has the power to decide when and how to share his LGBTQ story. We also learn about Paul's plan to read a book from every country in the world!
Episode transcripts available at: thisqueerbook.com/podcast/quatrefoil.
Buy the books on this podcast at our Bookshop: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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Stone Butch Blues with Suyane Oliveira Jul 05, 2022

This is who we are and there is no stopping.
In this episode, we talk with Suyane Oliveira (she/they) about the LGBT book Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg. Suyane told us, "Books don't really make me cry and this book made me cry so many times. It just pulled something out of me. I've never cried so much while reading a book." We discuss how Stone Butch Blues opened up a whole new world for Suyane and how it inspired the work she does at the New Haven Pride Center.
Episode transcripts are available at thisqueerbook.com/podcast/stonebutchblues
Buy the books on this podcast at our Bookshop: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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Giovanni's Room with Gary Nygaard Jun 28, 2022

I'm not willing to lead a double life.
In this episode, we talk with Gary Nygaard (he/him) about the LGBT book Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. This novel is a classic of LGBTQ literature. For Gary, he read it as a cautionary tale of how destructive it can be to pretend to be straight and how damaging it can be for yourself not to live an authentic life. We discuss how Giovanni's Room shaped and reaffirmed the life decisions he was making, particularly as he attended seminary.
Episode transcripts are available at: thisqueerbook.com/podcast/giovannisroom
Buy the books on this podcast at our Bookshop: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

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In The Dream House with Nancy Agabian and Carmen Maria Machado Jun 21, 2022

Queer people need warning stories too.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode, we talk with Nancy Agabian and Carmen Maria Machado!
Writer and literary organizer Nancy Agabian (she/her) shares the LGBT book that saved her life: In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado. It is a memoir about an abusive queer relationship Carmen had with an ex-girlfriend. Then we meet Carmen (she/her) to discuss the writing of her memoir and how it was like passing a kidney stone - something she needed to do to move on to get to the writing she wanted to do.
Episode transcripts are available at thisqueerbook.com/podcast/inthedreamhouse
Buy the books we discuss on this episode!
Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase In the Dream House and Nancy's novel The Fear of Large and Small Nations.
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
E-Lending Library
Quatrefoil Library has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Find out how to vote at vote.org
Help get out the vote by going to swingleft.org, voteforward.org, and with the National LGBTQ Taskforce: thetaskforce.org

Support the show

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