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!
Category: nonfiction
Saints + Sinners ’25
This year’s queer lit fest in New Orleans took some unexpected turns. I participated in a lively panel discussion about genre (fiction vs. nonfiction) which was deftly moderated by Doc McLemore and featured my press-mate Brian Alessandro, Bobby Fieseler (whose new book American Scare investigates Florida Red-Scare era politics and draws a through-line to today’s),… Continue reading Saints + Sinners ’25
Reading from AoaKB at Pub Tri
For OUTspoken, the Publishing Triangle‘s monthly reading series at the BGSQD, I field-tested an excerpt from Chapter 1 of AFTERLIFE OF A KEPT BOY (Available for pre-order from C&R Press, the new release date is May 16th, 2025) Thanks for Rob Byrnes for landing all those blurbs! Link to Youtube recording. I go on at… Continue reading Reading from AoaKB at Pub Tri
TWEAKERWORLD Review in The Whitney Review
I found this memoir remarkable for Yamas’ ability to write through his drug use and not around it. Leaning to impairment, he invites the reader to examine their own. TWEAKERWORLD won the 2024 Lambda Literary Gay Memoir/Bio Award. My review appears in Issue 4 of THE WHITNEY REVIEW, now printed by Asterism. Yamas spent a… Continue reading TWEAKERWORLD Review in The Whitney Review
WE THE PARASITES review @ G&LR
After reading dozens of queer nonfiction titles in the process of judging three (!) awards last year, A.V. Marraccini’s WE THE PARASITES was one of two that really stayed with me. It’s a slim volume with an outsized impact, lyrical, probing, fraught with emotions and erotic longing. From the review, which went live on the… Continue reading WE THE PARASITES review @ G&LR
Memoir Land Questionnaire
On her popular substack, Sari Botton has honed this questionnaire beautifully, engaging authors on both craft and content. The below answer points to two authors in the sex work lane who have guided the writing of AFTERLIFE OF A KEPT BOY: I was once given an assignment to write a chapter for an academic textbook… Continue reading Memoir Land Questionnaire
“Analog Codes for Digital Cruising” in Fruitslice
The digital age represents a radical shift in communication, and I wonder sometimes if I’m only imaging traces of the analog codes in fugitive glimpses through the blur. Are they reconstituting? When I hit Sniffies, past and present collapse. My moves may be pixelated but they’re not random, ok Gurrrl? I seek to carry over… Continue reading “Analog Codes for Digital Cruising” in Fruitslice
Flying car gay bars: Queer Utopia episode
The episode of Sniffies Cruising Confessions Queer Utopia features all of the season’s interviewees reflecting on the notion of Queer Utopia as outlined by late writer José Esteban Muñoz (Cruising Utopia, 2009, NYU Press). One heavily circulated quote from Muñoz describes queerness as felt as “the warm illumination of a horizon imbued with potentiality.” Another… Continue reading Flying car gay bars: Queer Utopia episode
Appearing on Sniffies Podcast
I appear on episode 8 of Sniffies‘ podcast “Cruising Confessions.” Sniffies is a GPS-enabled gay hookup website. Launched in 2018, the website was developed by Seattle-based architect Blake Gallagher, who was driven by his interest in analog cruising patterns in urban spaces. The podcast episode is entitled “Talk Dirty to Me” and with co-hosts Chris… Continue reading Appearing on Sniffies Podcast
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 🏆