Release Event for “The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered”

In two weeks, I’ll be reading at the release event for the amazing new anthology, “The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered,” edited by Tom Cardamone, which includes my essay about Michael Grumley’s “Life Drawing.”

I’m so excited to hold this book in my hands and know that it’s out there in the world. When Tom told me about the concept for the book, I immediately thought “Life Drawing!” Few books are as precious to me as this one, with its gentleness and its matter-of-factness and its quality of unstrained rapture. It’s a tragedy that such a lovely book is out of print, considering how many forests are pulped every single day to make paper to print bullshit books. But, as I said in my article:

“a book is more durable than a man—just ask any scholar of Soviet history. In this age of eBay and Amazon, an out-of-print book does not vanish into the sea of oblivion so easily.”

It was my dear friend Steve Greco who had turned me on to Michael Grumley and Robert Ferro, and it’s an honor to be reviewing Michael’s book in the same anthology as Steve’s review of Robert’s!

Rabih Alameddine *  The Perv: Stories * Michael Graves
Allen Barnett * The Body and Its Dangers * Christopher Bram
Neil Bartlett * Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall * Philip Clark
George Baxt * A Queer Kind of Death * Larry Duplechan
Bruce Benderson *  User * Rob Stephenson
Christopher Coe *  Such Times * Jameson Currier
Daniel Curzon * Something You Do in the Dark * Jesse Monteagudo
Melvin Dixon * Vanishing Rooms * Ian Rafael Titus
John Donovan * I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip * Martin Wilson
Robert Ferro * The Blue Star * Stephen Greco
John Gilgun *  Music I Never Dreamed Of * Wayne Courtois
Agustin Gomez-Arcos * The Carnivorous Lamb * Richard Reitsma
Michael Grumley * Life Drawing * Sam J. Miller
Lynn Hall * Sticks and Stones * Sean Meriwether
Richard Hall * Couplings * Jonathan Harper
J.S. Marcus * The Captain’s Fire * Aaron Hamburger
James McCourt * Time Remaining * Tim Young
Mark Merlis * American Studies * Rick Whitaker
Charles Nelson * The Boy Who Picked the Bullets Up * Jim Marks
Kyle Onstott & Lance Horner * Child of the Sun * Michael Bronski
Roger Peyrefitte * The Exile of Capri * Gregory Woods
Paul Reed * Longing * Bill Brent
Paul Rogers * Saul’s Book * Paul Russell
Patrick Roscoe * Birthmarks * Andy Quan
Douglas Sadownick * Sacred Lips of the Bronx * Tom Cardamone
Glenway Wescott * The Apple of the Eye * Jerry Rosco
George Whitmore * Nebraska * Victor Bumbalo
Donald Windham * Two People * Philip Gambone
Come Again: A History of the Reprinting of Gay Novels * Philip Clark