Bookstack posted my meditation on Felice Picano’s Fire Island memoir, A HOUSE ON THE OCEAN, A HOUSE ON THE BAY (Ocean/Bay). This important work has been reissued by The Library of Homosexual Congress, an Imprint of Rebel Satori Press, for Pride Month. Picano also captures the texture of queer communication. He has a genius for… Continue reading On Picano’s Fire Island memoir
Category: Italian-American
Panel w Columbia Queer Alliance
The blizzard postponed this event, but we eventually convened for some lively discussions. Sadly, recent events 🍉 have resulted in heavy security measure to access the Columbia campus, once a more inviting and porous part of the city fabric. My memoir AFTERLIFE OF A KEPT BOY touches on two diasporas: the southern Italian of the… Continue reading Panel w Columbia Queer Alliance
QLP Live Substack
(It’s 2026, but I’m catching up on 2025 stuff after experiencing the hallucinatory magic of the Réveillon in Rio de Janiero 🇧🇷) Back in September, I had a great talk with Jerry Portwood of the Queer Love Project Substack Live. We discussed the launch of AFTERLIFE OF A KEPT BOY, staying creative and engaged under… Continue reading QLP Live Substack
Queer Discourse Podcast
I had a really enjoyable convo with Lou Barrett of Purple Palm Press, who hosts the Queer Discourse podcast. QD also has stellar episodes with authors Torrey Peters and Jason Yamas, check them out too. Lou & I discussed some major themes of AFTERLIFE OF A KEPT BOY: agency, solitude, the Italian-American condition–and got into… Continue reading Queer Discourse Podcast
The Twink Death of it all
Only days after its publication, the first review of AFTERLIFE OF A KEPT BOY is out. More than feeling seen I’m feeling clocked! Writing in the Whitney Review of New Writing Issue 005, Journey Streams gets into the twink death narrative of it all. Full transcript of the review: When a twink dies, what else… Continue reading The Twink Death of it all
Memoir pub date!
Bruce Benderson suggested inverting the original title to AFTERLIFE OF A KEPT BOY and the amazing folks at C&R Press agreed. He also suggested the 2-part structure, the (solar) kept boy period and the (lunar) afterlife. After some delays we made it to the pub date! The Press is honestly courageous publishing a queer, sex-work… Continue reading Memoir pub date!
KEPT BOY IN THE AFTERLIFE snatches the 2023 C&R Press Nonfiction Prize 🏆
Have to get used to saying this: My second book will be released by C&R Press in the summer of ’24. KEPT BOY IN THE AFTERLIFE is in two sections. The first chronicles my time as the kept boy of a British society decorator in 80s New York City; the second tracks how I took… Continue reading KEPT BOY IN THE AFTERLIFE snatches the 2023 C&R Press Nonfiction Prize 🏆
“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
“Miss Bensonhurst” in Ovunque Siamo
Ovunque Siamo is a journal of new Italian-American writing. The title–translation Wherever We Are–is apt for our assimilated and diffuse ethnic body. “Miss Bensonhurst” is a fictional account of my grandmother’s friendship with Marilyn Monroe. The story was first presented in nonfiction form in 2013 in Salon. She and the girls are enveloped in the warm… Continue reading “Miss Bensonhurst” in Ovunque Siamo
Marilyn Monroe, Baby Sitter
This account of my family’s relationship with Marilyn Monroe appeared in Salon in September of 2013. It was edited by Sarah Hepola. This central family icon, the 25¢ photo booth picture, marks a confluence of currents in mid-century American life: the rise of automation; the golden age of the Hollywood studio system; and the advent… Continue reading Marilyn Monroe, Baby Sitter