Dale Corvino found his confessional voice at the queer underground literary salon “Dean Johnson’s Reading for Filth,” recounting his youth as an object of longing. Under his worker name, he blogged advice for rentboy.com (shuttered by the Feds in 2015), appeared in/ on Dan Savage’s column/ podcast, contributed to several issues of Prose & Lore (the literary journal of the Red Umbrella Project) and the anthology Johns, Marks, Tricks and Chickenhawks.
In 2013, he self-produced the chapbook Dominick Reading for Filth. A collection of transcripts from the storied salon, it is illustrated by art from Alice O’Malley, Scott Hug, Carlo Quispe, Brett Lindell, Miguel Libarnes, and Paul Gellman, with cover art by Gio Black Peter. The same year, the first publication under his government name was a personal essay about his grandmother’s friendship with Marilyn Monroe—centered on a 25¢ photo of the star and his mother (as a young girl) which hung in his childhood home—for Salon. It was followed by an appreciation of Blondie for ImageOutWrite. He received the 2015 Christopher Hewitt Award for “Drowned River,” a short story about the bond between a trans woman and a gay man. The same year, the Rumpus published his essay on kink and the impact of technology on the ecosystem of desire, which enjoys ongoing popularity with the Grindr crowd. His short stories have appeared in the journals Jonathan and Chelsea Station, and the anthology Off the Rocks (#21). He’s blogged about the Rentboy Raid for Tits & Sass, participated in live storytelling for RISK! (podcast), and was a finalist in the 2017 Saints & Sinners Short Fiction contest.
In 2018, he won the Gertrude Press Fiction contest, judged by Whiting Award recipient Brontez Purnell. The resultant chapbook, Worker Names—a trio of short stories with sex worker protagonists—was published in 2019. Other publications include an essay on LGBTQ+ representation in pop music for Daily Xtra (Toronto), a reflection on one of New York City’s earliest AIDS diagnoses in A&U Magazine, and an Interview with writer Bruce Benderson for RFD on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
Recent publications include a feature reflecting on his visit to Santiago, Chile during the massive popular uprising and the legacy of queer writer Pedro Lemebel for the Gay & Lesbian Review, and a dissection of his work life and the art/finance divide for Catapult. His contributing essay “You’ve Got Male,” about growing constraints on adult online content, appears in the Matt Keegan project 1996, from New York Consolidated/Inventory Press (2020). “Swarthy,” a reflection on the colorism experienced by his Sicilian grandfather, appears in Via: Voices in Italian Americana from Bordighera Press. He contributed a chapter on sex worker representations in graphic novels to The Routledge Handbook of Male Sex Work (UK).
More recently, Dale was selected by Lambda Literary as an Emerging Fellow; the 2021 nonfiction cohort mentor was Saeed Jones. He also reviewed Sasha Geffen’s Glitter Up the Dark for the organization’s web site. Latest publications: “Spit and Glitter” in Issue 9 of Crooked Fagazine and a review of I Could Not Believe It: The 1979 Diaries of Sean DeLear also for Lambda Literary.
His debut collection of short stories, entitled BONDS AND BOUNDARIES, is due out in October 2023 from Rebel Satori Press.
Dale lives in Hell’s Kitchen with his super understanding husband.
insta: @dalecorvino