Synopses & Reviews
For two years, Philip Gambone traveled the length and breadth of the United States, talking candidly with LGBTQ people about their lives. In addition to interviews from David Sedaris, George Takei, Barney Frank, and Tammy Baldwin,
Travels in a Gay Nation brings us lesser-known voices—a retired Naval officer, a transgender scholar and “drag king,” a Princeton philosopher, two opera sopranos who happen to be lovers, an indie rock musician, the founder of a gay frat house, and a pair of Vermont garden designers.
In this age when contemporary gay America is still coming under attack, Gambone captures the humanity of each individual. For some, their identity as a sexual minority is crucial to their life’s work; for others, it has been less so, perhaps even irrelevant. But, whether splashy or quiet, center-stage or behind the scenes, Gambone’s subjects have managed—despite facing ignorance, fear, hatred, intolerance, injustice, violence, ridicule, or just plain indifference—to construct passionate, inspiring lives.
Finalist, Foreword Magazine’s Anthology of the Year
Outstanding Book in the High School Category, selected by the American Association of School Libraries
Best Book in Special Interest Category, selected by the Public Library Association
Review
“This collection of interviews with gay activists and artists is like going to dinner with people you’d love to know but don’t, and Phil Gambone is the perfect stand-in for the reader: impressively prepared, sympathetic, and smart.”—Andrew Holleran, author of Grief: A Novel
Review
“This collection of rainbow-hued recollections is a must-read for anyone curious about other people's coming out experiences and the complex struggles that brought them to where they are today.”—Bay Area Reporter
Review
"Gambone is a smart interviewer with a laid-back, engaging style, and he knows how to bring out the most interesting qualities of his subjects. He clearly admires them all and makes us admire them, too. . . . An eclectic front-to-back reading experience."—Library Journal
Review
“A thread of activism and universal accounts of coming out run through all the entries, but what really sparkles is the individuality of the interviewees.”—Pride Source
Review
“Whether famous or relatively unknown, the portraits Gambone unveils in Travels in a Gay Nation move, surprise, quite often inspire, and are always deeply human.”—The Boston Spirit
Review
“By asking good questions and really listening, Philip Gambone opens an illuminating window into the minds, hearts, and guts of a fabulous array of extraordinary Americans. At this critical time in America’s decades-long movement toward LGBTQ equality, you really shouldn’t miss this view.”—Will Fellows, author of Farm Boys: Lives of Gay Men from the Rural Midwest
Review
“Gambone traveled the country for two years to bring the stories of gay artists, activists, and everyday queer folk to light through interviews that are candid, honest, and down-to-earth; his thoughtfully crafted questions, deep and respectful listening, and masterful storytelling skills highlight what gay America has in common with straight America, and what it is that makes the LGBTQ community decidedly different. . . . Travels in a Gay Nation: Portraits of LGBTQ Americans is an engaging, moving, entertaining, and informative introduction to and affirmation of LGBTQ citizens who, in spite of the injustice, fear, inequality, and intolerance that they face on a daily basis, manage to create lives filled with passion, color, creativity, and service.”—ForeWord
Review
“Reading Philip Gambone’s new book of profiles, Travels in a Gay Nation: Portraits of LGBTQ Americans, is like watching a really good, really gay Barbara Walters Most Fascinating People special. Gambone delivers his subjects’ backstories, where they are now, a sense of what makes them tick, and sometimes, just like Walters, he gets tears. . . . Though Gambone’s writing is vivid, compassionate, and concise, what really comes across in Travels is how easy he is to talk to. ”—Advocate
Review
andquot;A powerful living archive of the great stakes and pleasures of contemporary queer poetry. Reading these pages often feels like a lucky and enriching eavesdropping.andquot;andmdash;Michael Snediker, author of Queer Optimism
Review
andquot;Our Deep Gossip isn't just smart. It isn't just a color-rich collection of interviews with eight amazing gay poets. And it isn't just a compelling record of their personalities, processes, and engagement with desire. It's a landmark in which Hennessy never misses the mark.andquot;andmdash;Jim Elledge, editor of Who's Yer Daddy
Review
andldquo;Hennessy gives the poets generous space to speak, and in this space the book succeeds.andrdquo;andmdash;
Publishers WeeklyReview
andldquo;Hennessy successfully presents readers with a snapshot of modern gay poetry while placing individual poets within the wider American literary landscape.andrdquo;andmdash;Library Journal
Review
andldquo;Passionate about the beauty of poetry, Hennessy presents eight master craftsmen at the top of their game. . . . His book will delight readers interested in how a poetandrsquo;s mind works, and the many places a literary artist draws inspiration from.andrdquo;andmdash;
Bay Area ReporterSynopsis
From Walt Whitman forward, a century and a half of radical experimentation and bold speech by gay and lesbian poets has deeply influenced the American poetic voice. In Our Deep Gossip, Christopher Hennessy interviews eight gay men who are celebrated American poets and writers: Edward Field, John Ashbery, Richard Howard, Aaron Shurin, Dennis Cooper, Cyrus Cassells, Wayne Koestenbaum, and Kazim Ali. The interviews showcase the complex ways art and life intertwine, as the poets speak about their early lives, the friends and communities that shaped their work, the histories of gay writers before them, how sex and desire connect with artistic production, what coming out means to a writer, and much more.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; While the conversations here cover almost every conceivable topic of interest to readers of poetry and poets themselves, the book is an especially important, poignant, far-reaching, and enduring document of what it means to be a gay artist in twentieth- and early twenty-first-century America.
About the Author
Christopher Hennessy is the author of Outside the Lines: Talking with Contemporary Gay Poets and a collection of poems, Love-In-Idleness, which was a finalist for the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. He is the associate editor for The Gay and Lesbian Review-Worldwide and lives in Boston, Massachusetts.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Dorothy Allison
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Tammy Baldwin
Christopher Barnhill
Alison Bechdel
Mandy Carter
Jennifer Chrisler
Beth Clayton and Patricia Racette
Kate Clinton
Judy Dlugacz
Arthur Dong
Mark Doty
Zoe Dunning
Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd
Lillian Faderman
Barney Frank
Malik Gillani and Jamil Khoury
Hillary Goodridge
Judith (Jack) Halberstam
Kim Crawford Harvie
Scott Heim and Michael Lowenthal
Jennifer Higdon
Frank Kameny
Randall Kenan
Sharon Kleinbaum
Andrew Lam
Joan Larkin
Stephin Merritt
Greg Millett
P. J. Raval
Gene Robinson
Richard Rodriguez
David Sedaris
Carl Siciliano
Dean Spade
George Takei
Rachel Tiven
Urvashi Vaid
Modesto "Tico" Valle
Russell van Kraayenburg