Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Remembering Michael Denneny

Though he's probably best known today for co-founding Christopher Street magazine, Michael Denneny--who died on April 12 at the age of 80--had a profound impact on LGBTQ literature during a highly productive career as an editor. In addition to editing dozens of iconic gay books, in 1987 he started Stonewall Inn Editions, an LGBT trade paperback imprint at St. Martin's Press that--in a first for a major publishing house--republished many of the books he had previously released in hardcover. 


Last month University of Chicago Press published his memoir, On Christopher Street: Life, Sex and Death after Stonewall, composed of essays, profiles and eulogies he had written, and interviews he had given. In his foreword, Denneny says: "And when the great disaster of AIDS overwhelmed us, I thought I saw a heroic era in gay and lesbian history and an absolutely shining moment in gay writing, something truly remembering." 


Here are obituaries from the New York TimesWashington Post and Gay City News, as well as a tribute that aired on NPR's "Fresh Air." 


1 comment:

philipclark1000@gmail.com said...

There is a video available of Michael Denneny's reading at Politics & Prose in D.C., just days before he passed away: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUsYJwj6A-Q