DC: In the chapter “Backroom” you describe reciting W.S. Merwin’s “For a Coming Extinction” to two lovers. In the poem, Merwin says to the whale, “We who follow you invented forgiveness / And forgive nothing” (5-6). So given your upbringing and its challenges, where are you on forgiveness? AC: That’s a beautiful segue. It’s a… Continue reading Interview: Alex Cheves for Lambda Lit
“Spit and Glitter” in Crooked Fagazine No 9
During the performance–a choreographed extravaganza with colorful costumes, set pieces, props, and a background video, set to a remix to “Theme from Love Boat”–the cannon fired over the packed gallery, coating the crowd in the stuff. Some sought to avoid the cannon’s fire, but packs of us ran right into it. I found it marvelous,… Continue reading “Spit and Glitter” in Crooked Fagazine No 9
Memoir Excerpts in Emerge Antho 2021
Emerge is an anthology from Lambda Literary with contributions from the ’21 Emerging Fellows in nonfiction, fiction, YA, poetry, and playwrighting. The anthology was edited by Michael Chang. There are two excepts from my memoir-in-progress, My Colonizer: A Kept Boy and his Afterlife. In the living room, Andrés and I sat on matching chairs, gilt… Continue reading Memoir Excerpts in Emerge Antho 2021
Lambda Lit Fellows Reading at NYC’s LGBT Center
Lambda Literary 2021 Emerging Fellows–Poets, Fiction, and Nonfiction writers–gathered in person and virtually to read their works in progress at the LGBT Center. The event was funded by NYC City Arts Corps, a grant program which “supports artists who live and work in NYC, while giving New Yorkers opportunities to experience cultural programming across the… Continue reading Lambda Lit Fellows Reading at NYC’s LGBT Center
Chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Male Sex Work, Society, & Culture.
Originally planned as the follow-up to 2014’s Male Sex Work & Society from Harrington Park Press (left), this academic text book was eventually picked up by UK-based Routledge Press after Bill Cohen, Harrington Park’s founder, passed away. It was Bill Cohen who first approached me to contribute to this project, and encouraged me along the… Continue reading Chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Male Sex Work, Society, & Culture.
Queer Slam Podcast
I appear on episode 33 of the Queer Slam Podcast along with LA-based writer Molly Thornton, who read a touching poetic tribute to queer LA. A memorable line: “the half-naked sparkle princes would gallop out of the lot and around the corner towards us/’You’re almost there, keep going!’ we would tell them….” I read excepts… Continue reading Queer Slam Podcast
“Breaking into…” on the Whorticulturalist
The Whorticulturalist is a new-ish sex worker site with goals: “…reclaiming to redefine the term ‘whore’ as a woman who takes ownership of her sexuality, and can profit off of it as she chooses to, and ‘horticulture,’ the practice of cultivating and managing a living entity with the purpose of seeing it thrive.” As a… Continue reading “Breaking into…” on the Whorticulturalist
“Swarthy” in Via v. 31/32
This essay, about the colorism faced by my Sicilian grandfather in our Italian-American family and beyond, begins with a personal experience of othering and works back through buried family lore. It appears in the current of Via: Voices in Italian Americana from Bordighera Press. It’s been a journey for this deeply personal essay. In 2017,… Continue reading “Swarthy” in Via v. 31/32
10/10 Launch at SculptureCenter
(I really had to compete with the horns in the final moments…) For the launch event of Matt Keegan: 1996, contributors gathered at SculptureCenter in Long Island City in a distanced manner in their outdoor courtyard. The event also had a remote audience via Zoom.Thanks to Matt Keegan, New York Consolidated, Inventory Press, SculptureCenter, and… Continue reading 10/10 Launch at SculptureCenter
“Do what you love…” and other canards.
Catapult is a platform founded in 2015 by Elizabeth Koch, with the mission of publishing “stories that celebrate life…Stories that reveal all the layers—the sinews and hairy knuckles, the iron and meat of history and influence…stories that land us squarely, concretely, in someone else’s shoes.” My first essay for the platform was a chance to… Continue reading “Do what you love…” and other canards.