This Queer Book Saved My Life

Latest Episodes:

The Deviant's War with Tim Jon Semmerling Aug 26, 2025

Show notes

I was combating homophobia against one of the most powerful institutions in the world.

Today we meet Tim Jon Semmerling and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America by Eric Cervini.

Tim Jon Semmerling is an award-winning author, a respected mitigation expert, and an attorney in Illinois. His books and publications are held in over 900 libraries throughout the world and they are highly quoted in books, articles, and papers discussing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, politics, post-colonialism, discrimination, racism, and visual culture. His written work has informed and inspired museum displays at the Mark Twain Boyhood Museum. Christie's Auctions cites Semmerling’s scholarship to value political and propaganda art for sale. Tim Jon holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from Indiana University, an M.A. in Middle East Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and a J.D. from DePaul University’s College of Law.

In The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America, Eric Cervini tells the story of Frank Kameny, a rising astronomer working for the U.S. Defense Department. When President Eisenhower issues an Executive Order to fire all LGBTQ federal employees, the Pentagon investigates and then fires Kameny for his sexuality. But he fights back. He founds The Mattachine Society of Washington, the first organization to protest the systematic persecution of gay federal employees.

Eric Cervini is an award-winning historian of LGBTQ+ culture and politics. He received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Cambridge. He is also the creator and executive producer of The Book of Queer, which airs on Discovery+.

Connect with Tim Jon

website: themercuryendeavor.com
instagram: @timjonsemmerling

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 The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781250798503

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Credits

Host/Founder: John Parker
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, Sofia Nerman, 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

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Notes of a Crocodile with Caro De Robertis Aug 12, 2025

Show notes

How do we live radiantly when the world seems bent on our erasure?

Today we meet Caro De Robertis and we’re talking about the queer book that saved their life: Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin, translated by Bonnie Huie.

Caro’s books best-selling books have Stonewall Book Awards and the Golden Poppy Octavia E. Butler Award; and, they have been finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award, Lambda Literary Award, and the Kirkus Prize. These books include The Palace of Eros, The President and the Frog, Cantoras, The Gods of Tango, and Perla. Caro was the first openly nonbinary person to received the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature. A professor at San Francisco State University, Caro is co-curating Conjuring Power: the Roots & Futures of Queer & Trans Movements, for San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. It will open Spring 2026. Their newest book is So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color.

Set in the post-martial-law era of late-1980s Taipei, Notes of a Crocodile is a coming-of-age story of queer misfits discovering love, friendship, and artistic affinity while hardly studying at Taiwan’s most prestigious university. Told through the eyes of an anonymous lesbian narrator nicknamed Lazi, this cult classic is a postmodern pastiche of diaries, vignettes, mash notes, aphorisms, exegesis, and satire by an incisive prose stylist and major countercultural figure.

Connect with Caro

website: caroderobertis.com
instagram: @caro_derobertis

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 Notes of a Crocodile: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781681370767

Buy So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781643756875

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Confessions of the Fox with Ilana Masad and Jordy Rosenberg Jul 22, 2025

Show notes

Where are all the queer people in history?

Today we meet Ilana Masad and we’re talking about the queer book that saved her life: Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg. And Jordy joins us!

Ilana Masad is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and criticism. Their work has appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, NPR, The Atlantic, StoryQuartlerly, Catapult, Buzzfeed, Joyland, The Account, and many more. She is the author of the novel All My Mother’s Lovers and the forthcoming Beings.

Jordy Rosenberg is the author of the novels Confessions of the Fox and Night Night Fawn, as well as a scholarly monograph about 18th-century religious enthusiasts. Confessions was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, a Lambda Literary Award, among many other awards. Jordy is a professor in the Department of English and Associated MFA Faculty in the Program for Poets and Writers at The University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

In Confessions of the Fox, Jack Sheppard and Edgeworth Bess were the most notorious thieves, jailbreakers, and lovers of eighteenth-century London. Yet no one knows the true story. Their confessions have never been found. Until now. Reeling from heartbreak, a scholar named Dr. Voth discovers a long-lost manuscript—a gender-defying exposé of Jack and Bess’s adventures. But is it autobiography or a hoax? As Dr. Voth is drawn deeper into Jack and Bess’s tale of underworld resistance and gender transformation, it becomes clear that their fates are intertwined—and only a miracle will save them all.

Connect with Ilana and Jordy

website: ilanamasad.com
instagram: @ilanaslightlyignorant
bluesky: @ilanaslightly
newsletter: buttondown.com/imasadcritic

website: jordy-rosenberg.com
instagram: @jordyrosenberg

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 Confessions of the Fox: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780399592287

Pre-order Beings: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781639737000

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Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality with Paul Cram Jul 08, 2025

Show notes

Is there any theology in the religion that I grew up in that is meaningful? Or is it just hate with a halo?

Today we meet Paul Cram and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality by John Boswell.

Described as “Honest, a little quirky,” Paul is a Twin Cities-based character actor, book lover, and multimedia designer. For over 15 years, he has been performing in films and onstage. He’s shared the screen with Woody Harrelson, Cillian Murphy, and Susan Sarandon. He stars in the upcoming film Anniversary, directed by Jim Cole. For the short film To Myself he was nominated for Best Actor at Z-Fest. A voracious reader, Paul launched the monthly “Men-Who-Read” nonfiction book club in 2019 which now has over 85 book lovers. Paul serves as the chair of Education and Outreach with SAG-AFTRA Twin Cities Local.

John Boswell's landmark book Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality is credited with launching the field of gay and lesbian studies. Winner of the National Book Award, this study of Christianity's history of homosexuality in the early West revealed the Church's radically different relationship to its gay members, including priests, bishops, and even saints. There is a documentary of Boswell and his work called Not A Tame Lion. You can watch it for free on Tubi: https://tubitv.com/movies/723518/not-a-tame-lion

Connect with Paul

website: iampaulcram.com
instagram: @iampaulcram
Men Who Read Book Club: paulcramactor.com/home-twin-cities-book-club-for-men

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 Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780226345222

Become an Associate Producer!

Credits

Quatrefoil Library

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Uncle Bobby's Wedding with Brendan Gillett and Sarah S. Brannen Jun 24, 2025

Show notes

The book that showed you what a positive queer future could be. And then literally came true.

Today we meet Brendan Gillett and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: Uncle Bobby's Wedding by Sarah S. Brannen. And Sarah joins us for the conversation!

Brendan is a high school English teacher in Brooklyn, New York. He works with English language learners to create poetry, picture books, cooking blogs, and literary analysis essays in every language they know. When he's not teaching, he's writing his own queer stories, poetry, and research essays about queer history. He lives with his illustrator husband and their cat, Pigeon.

Sarah S. Brannen is the illustrator of the Robert F. Sibert Honor book Summertime Sleepers and the author of Uncle Bobby's Wedding, named one of the 100 best children's books of the last 100 years by Booktrust. Sarah has written and illustrated A Perfect Day, Madame Martine, and Madame Martine Breaks the Rules. Miles Comes Home, a companion book to Uncle Bobby's Wedding, came out last November. And her forthcoming book Lolly on the Ice is now available to pre-order.

In Uncle Bobby's Wedding, when Uncle Bobby announces that he and "his friend" Jamie are getting married everyone is happy -- except Chloe. After a magical day with Uncle Bobby and his boyfriend, Jamie, Chloe realizes she's not losing an uncle, but gaining one.

Connect with Brendan and Sarah

instagram: @mrbrendangillett
website: brendangillett.com

website: sarahbrannen.com
instagram: @sarahsbrannen
bluesky: @sarahsbrannen.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

Buy Uncle Bobby's Wedding: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781499810080

Buy Miles Comes Home: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781499814736

Pre-order Lolly on the Ice: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780593711828

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The Priory of the Orange Tree with Arden Harris, Emily Autenrieth, and Samantha Shannon Jun 10, 2025

Show notes

This book sparked a five-year long career and life journey.

In a first for us, we have two guests today! They are Arden Harris and Emily Autenrieth. We’re talking about the queer book that saved their lives: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon and she joins us for the conversation!

Arden Harris is the buyer and lead bookseller for A Seat at the Table Books, an aspiring writer, and overall bookstore cryptid. They’re often found hiding in the shelves or crafting with their partner and four cats.

Emily Autenrieth is the founder and owner of A Seat at the Table Books. Emily saw a need in the community for a space where people of all ages and identities could be themselves and learn about others. With eir spouse Ryan's support, Emily opened a pop-up and online bookstore out of the family's home in January 2020. After getting a lease on a former float spa in April 2021, Emily and Ryan opened the brick-and-mortar store that November. They have been featured by ABC10 as business of the year for 2022!

Samantha Shannon is an award-winning and bestselling fantasy author. She studied English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. Her novel The Priory of the Orange Tree has sold over a million copies in English worldwide. At the age of 21, she published The Bone Season, the internationally bestselling first installment in a seven-book series of fantasy novels. The Dark Mirror, the fifth installment in the Bone Season series, just came out this past February.

Special Limited Series

This episode is part of a special limited series of episodes featuring only guests who are owners or staff at LGBTQ bookstores. Airing April-June 2025, these episodes will feature six bookstores across the United States and United Kingdom.

Today's bookstore A Seat at the Table Books is a family-owned bookstore in Elk Grove, CA, that fosters community through representation in our curated book selection, eco-friendly coffee, and mission-driven events. They strive to be a third space that is safe and affirming for all identities.

Connect with Arden, Emily, and Samantha

website: aseatatthetablebooks.org
bluesky: @seatbooks.bsky.social
instagram: @ASeatattheTableBooks
instagram: @bookstore.cryptid

website: samanthashannon.co.uk
instagram: @say_shannon

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Credits

Host/Founder: John Parker (learn more about my name change)
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

Support the show

Diving Into The Wreck with Kris Kleindienst May 27, 2025

Show notes

I was hungry for language. And stories. And how to tell our stories. That's what this book gave me. But let's not make a Bible out of it.

Today we meet Kris Kleindienst and we’re talking about the queer book that saved her life: Diving Into The Wreck by Adrienne Rich.

Kris is a 72-year old queer lesbian writer, bookseller, and activist. She owns Left Bank Books, a 56-year old progressive bookstore in St. Louis, Missouri. Kris edited a collection of activist essays titled This Is What Lesbian Looks Like: Dyke Activists Take on The 21st Century, published by Firebrand Press and winner of a Lambda Literary Award. She was a gold medal winning and 4-time participant in The Gay Games (also the co-founder of Team St. Louis). She has won multiple awards locally, regionally and nationally for my work with Left Bank Books. She is at work on a memoir about growing up in the 50s-60s with a Lesbian mother. Fun fact: She once got high with Armistead Maupin.

Diving into the Wreck: Poems 1971–1972 was Adrienne Rich's seventh book of poetry, an anthology of poems described as provocative and which co-won the 1974 National Book Award for Poetry with Allen Ginsberg's The Fall of America. Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) was an award-winning poet and essayist.

Special Limited Series

Today's guest owns Left Bank Books. Opened in 1969 by a group of graduate students at Washington University who wanted to create a place where one could find all kinds of literature, Left Bank Books is the oldest and largest independently-owned full-line bookstore in St. Louis, Missouri. Open seven days a week, Left Bank Books offers a full-line of new and used books, gifts, cards, toys and services. Learn more and get shopping: left-bank.com

Connect with Kris

website: left-bank.com
facebook: facebook.com/kleindienst

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The Murderbot Diaries with Esmé and Martha Wells May 13, 2025

Show notes

What would it feel like for other people to love me if they were to truly see me and truly know me as I am right now?

Today we meet Esmé and we’re talking about the queer book that saved their life: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. And Martha joins us for the conversation!

Esmé has been slinging radical books at Firestorm since 2019. They wear multiple hats including communications, event facilitation, and offsite sales. When she doesn't have her nose in a gay book, Esmé sings in a doom metal band and snuggles with the shop dog, an ancient dachshund named Julius Caesar Salad, as much as caninely possible.

Martha Wells has written many novels, including the bestselling and award-winning Murderbot Diaries series, which was adapted into an Apple Original TV series debuting May 16, 2025. She also authored Witch King, City of Bones, The Wizard Hunters, Wheel of the Infinite, and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer, as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, and nonfiction.

In All Systems Red, the first book in The Murderbot Diaries, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests on a distant planet, shadowed by their Company-supplied SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module. Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

Special Limited Series

Today's guest is a bookseller at Firestorm Books, a collectively-owned radical bookstore and not-for-profit event space in Asheville, North Carolina. Since 2008 Firestorm Books has supported grassroots movements in Southern Appalachia while developing a workplace on the basis of cooperation, empowerment and equity.

Connect with Esmé and Martha

website: firestorm.coop
instagram: @angelicadoom

website: marthawells.com
bluesky: @marthawells.com
instagram: @marthawellswriter

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Something That May Shock and Discredit You with Christina Neuwirth and Daniel M. Lavery Apr 29, 2025

Show notes

What would it happen if I allowed my thoughts about my gender become known to me?

Today we meet Dr. Christina Neuwirth and we’re talking about the queer book that saved their life: Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel M. Lavery. And Daniel joins us for the conversation!

Dr. Christina Neuwirth is a writer, researcher and bookseller based in Edinburgh. Their 2018 novella Amphibian was shortlisted for Scotland’s National Book Awards. Their writing has been published in Gutter Magazine and The Skinny. At Lighthouse Bookshop, Christina runs the Bread & Roses Prize for Radical Publishing.

Daniel M. Lavery is the “Dear Prudence” advice columnist at Slate, the cofounder of The Toast, and the New York Times bestselling author of Texts From Jane Eyre and The Merry Spinster. In 2024, he published his debut novel Women's Hotel.

From a thoughtful analysis of the beauty of William Shatner to a sinister reimagining of HGTV’s House Hunters, and featuring figures as varied as Anne of Green Gables, Columbo, and the cast of Mean Girls, Something That May Shock and Discredit You is a hilarious and emotionally exhilarating compendium that combines personal history with cultural history to make you see yourself and those around you entirely anew.

Special Limited Series

Today's guest is a bookseller at Lighthouse Bookshop, a queer-owned and woman-led independent community bookshop. It is an unapologetically activist, intersectional, feminist, antiracist, lgbtq+ community space. In 2020 it was nominated Scotland’s Best Independent Bookshop.

Connect with Christina and Daniel

website: christinaneuwirth.com

website: danielmlavery.com
instagram: @daniel_m_lavery

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Dare Truth or Promise with Stephanie Beardslee and Paula Boock Apr 15, 2025

Show notes

I was 8,000 miles from home asking is it ok to be gay? That's when I wandered into a shop found this book.

Today we meet Stephanie Beardslee and we’re talking about the queer book that saved her life: Dare Truth or Promise by Paula Boock. And Paula joins us for the conversation!

Stephanie Beardslee is the owner of Wolf & Wyld’s Queer Bookstore, an online and pop-up bookstore based in Manitou Springs, Colorado. She is a Front Range (of Colorado) native that is really hacked off that the Pikes Peak Region doesn’t have a queer bookstore and is busy making the change she wants to see in the world. Her alter-ego slings books in the nearby Libraryland and has the pleasure of serving the county’s patrons via the bookmobile.

Paula Boock (she/her) is an award-winning New Zealand scriptwriter, producer and author. Her screen credits include story lining and writing on the The Strip, the internationally acclaimed drama series The Insiders Guide to Happiness and its 7-part prequel The Insiders Guide to Love. She won the 2003 AFTA Best Drama Script (with Kathryn Burnett) for The Strip. She has written five young adult novels and was a publisher and founding partner of Longacre Press.

In Dare Truth or Promise, self-assured Louie is gearing up for another successful year in high school. In the meantime Willa, who was kicked out of her last school, wants to be left alone. But each girl unexpectedly finds that plans mean nothing when it comes to love. Louie discovers acceptance, faith, and identity are not what they had seemed. And Willa finds herself suddenly willing to take another chance.

Special Limited Series

Today's guest owns Wolf and Wyld's Queer Bookstore an independent online & pop-up bookstore based in Manitou Springs, Colorado. Wolf and Wyld's specializes in LGBTQ+ books. You can shop online at: wolfandwyld.com

Buy Paula's book at Wolf and Wyld's Queer Bookstore

Use this link: https://wolfandwyld.com/products/dare-truth-or-promise

Connect with Stephanie and Paula

website: wolfandwyld.com
bluesky: @wolfandwyldbooks.com

website: lippypictures.com/paula-boock

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Credits

Quatrefoil Library

If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

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