Describe your latest book.
My latest book is
Ten Bridges I've Burnt. It was originally called “Oath of Athenian Youth,” but it got changed cause only
Anne Carson could get away with a book called “Oath of Athenian Youth” — and I'm just not Anne Carson (yet). It’s a memoir in verse but I'm playing with the idea that memoir is in fact — fiction.
What was your favorite book as a child?
Amelia Bedelia! My first anti-hero.
When did you know you were a writer?
When I hopped in a van with Sister Spit in 2012.
What does your writing workspace look like?
Like a tornado hit it. It's not ok.
Could you describe your writing process?
Please don’t make me do this.
Introduce one other author you think people should read, and suggest a good book with which to start.
Lucia Berlin's
A Manual for Cleaning Women. The book actually made me cry so much.
What section of a bookstore do you visit first?
I like books with pictures honestly.
What is your most memorable or formative experience in a bookstore or library?
I played a punk show at
City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco with my band. It RULED.
Besides your personal library, do you have any beloved collections?
MY VINYL LPS!!!!!! MY RECORD COLLECTION IS U N M A T C H E D!
What's the strangest or most interesting job you've ever had?
I mopped seamen at The Lusty Lady in San Francisco when I was a young broke poet.
Who would play you in the bio-pic adaptation of your life/career? Who would be on the soundtrack?
OMG. NILE HARRIS. I want the soundtrack to be all Lady Wray or Aaron Frazer.
What scares you the most as a writer?
I ain't scared of sh**. What EXHAUSTS me most is typing. Like, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…
Offer a favorite sentence or passage from another writer.
“Since the male ancients reproduced their naked boyfriends as representations of the gods, queer visual artists have been cheeky and gotten away with it, as long as they pleased those who control the empire’s coffers. How they please, why it pleases, and how it even gets in front of the kings is unknown to me." —
Sarah Schulman
Share a sentence of your own that you're particularly proud of.
“on a molecular level – my black is cracking”
Have you ever considered (or daydreamed about) writing outside of your current genre?
I'm writing a sci-fi book right now.
Is there a book that you absolutely hated? How come?
The Bible — TOO LONG!
Describe a recurring or particularly memorable dream or nightmare.
LIFE IN GENERAL.
Do you have any phobias?
I'm too lazy to fear things.
What do you do to relax that might surprise people?
INTERNET TROLLING!
Beyond other authors and books, where do you find your inspiration?
tbh talking on the phone with friends is easily one of my greatest joys in life.
What do you want to be reincarnated as?
“IVE SEEN ENOUGH — I WANT OBLIVION”
Top Five Books on Shuffle:
Amelia Bedelia – I read these books as a child and what it taught me is that as long as you’re a nanny or a maid and your heart is in the right place — people will forgive the fact that you are an insufferable f*** up.
Sylvia Plath – any of her books will do. I get really jealous of the gay boys who have Ariana and came of sexual awakening in the era of marriage equality. As a suicidal teenage gay boy, my white woman celebrity idol was a suicidal divorced white woman. But in the end, I'm pretty sure I joined the coven I was supposed to have joined.
Archie Comics – I don’t understand how they were so wholesome yet SO HORNY????
The Blackman's Guide to Understanding the Blackwoman – I remember this book being a HUGE topic of discussion in my household growing up and it even caused a fist fight. I think we should all read at least one woefully inept and out of date self-help book of yesteryear to remind us how far we have gotten OR just how messed up the world still is.
Madonna – The sex book. I just like the pictures.
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Brontez Purnell is the author of several books, most recently
100 Boyfriends, which won the Lambda Literary Award in Gay Fiction, was long-listed for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize, and was named an Editors’ Choice by
The New York Times Book Review. The recipient of a Whiting Award for Fiction and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Robert Rauschenberg Award, he was named one of the thirty-two Black Male Writers of Our Time by
T: The New York Times Style Magazine in 2018. Purnell is also the frontman for the band the Younger Lovers and a renowned performance artist and zine-maker. Born in Triana, Alabama, he lives in Oakland, California.