The 2024 BookMen DC reading list

I thank everyone who nominated books and voted for them. Here are the results.  

Note that the list includes books on our 2023 list that have not yet been scheduled (marked with an asterisk), as well as a current anthology that will carry over into next year. It does not include our quarterly non-LGBTQ selections.

FICTION

Better Angel by Forman Brown (writing as Richard Meeker)*

Blackbird by Larry Duplechan

City of Night by John Rechy*

Fadeout (A Dave Brandstetter Novel) by Joseph Hansen*

Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient Epic, translated from the Akkadian and with essays by Sophus Helle*

My Search for Warren Harding by Robert Plunket

Quatrefoil: A Modern Novel  by James Barr

Queer by William S. Burroughs*

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown*

The Buddha of Suburbia  by Hanif Kureishi

The Left Hand of Darkness  by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Words That Remain by Stenio Gardel, translated by Bruno Dantas Lovato

Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell

NON-FICTION

In Cold Blood  by Truman Capote

The Celluloid Closet  by Vito Russo

BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR

Oscar Wilde: A Life by Matthew Sturgis*

The Naked Civil Servant by Quentin Crisp

ANTHOLOGIES

A Letter to Harvey Milk: Short Stories by Lesléa Newman

Far Out: Recent Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Paul Guran*

Invisible History: The Collected Poems of Walta Borawski, edited by Philip Clark and Michael Bronski

Sanctuary: Short Fiction from Queer Asia, edited by Libay Linsangan Cantor and Yi-Sheng Ng

Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington by James Kerchick

The Chronicles of Clovis  by Saki

The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America by Eric Cervini

A Parable Panel Discussion

Silas Stephens kindly let me know about a free online panel discussion of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower, which we discussed last month as our fifth-Wednesday, non-LGBTQ selection, on Tuesday, Oct. 3, from 8-9:30 p.m. Next month marks the 30th anniversary of the visionary novel's publication, and to celebrate, the publisher (Four Walls Eight Windows) will convene an interactive panel discussion moderated by Isis Asare, a queer Afrofuturist. I plan to attend!

Bisexual Representation in Literature

The current edition of "News Is Out" (an excellent source of LGBTQ news from around the nation that I subscribe to and heartily recommend) offers a useful compilation of "20 books that celebrate diverse bi + experiences." Although I've read other books by a couple of the authors (most prominently, Carey McQuiston of Red, White and Royal Blue fame), all these titles, and most of the writers, were new(s) to me. But I intend to keep them in mind for our 2025 reading list. (I'm almost ready to unveil the 2024 list; stay tuned!)

Midnight Cowboy at AFI

As you know, we are scheduled to discuss James Leo Herlihy's novel, Midnight Cowboy, on Wed., Nov. 1. (An unintentionally subversive scheduling choice for All Saints Day on my part? :-) Lee Levine kindly shared the news that the American Film Institute in Silver Spring is showing the film version from Sept. 9-14.  And as a bonus, at 4:15 p.m. on the opening day of that run, AFI is screening a documentary about the making of that movie--"Desperate Souls and the Making of 'Midnight Cowboy'"--complete with a Q&A with Glenn Frankel, the author of the book on which the documentary is based.  BREAKING NEWS: The Washington Post just published a review of "Desperate Souls" which will run in Friday's Weekend section.

More LGBTQ poetry to get to know, Part II

Here are more selections from the American Academy of Poetry's Poem-a-Day newsletters featuring poems with LGTBQ themes (but not always by LGBTQ poets). Enjoy!

Sappho                                                        by Sara Teasdale

Sappho for Everybody                                by Maxe Crandall

Drought Essay                                            by Isabel Neal

Walls                                                           by C.P. Cavafy

The Weather-Cock Points South                by Amy Lowell

Holly Says Sobriety Is Paying Attention    by Susan Landers

Malice                                                         by S. Brook Corfman

The New Remorse                                        by Oscar Wilde

[It was deep April, and the morn]                by Michael Field

from "A Season in Hell" [Delirium I]           by Arthur Rimbaud

More LGBTQ poetry to get to know, Part I

Once again, it's time for another compilation of LGBTQ-themed poems (not all by LGBTQ poets, I should note) which the American Academy of Poetry's Poem-a-Day newsletters has featured, so I'm playing catchup on that, in this and the next two postings. These poems were disseminated this past summer. Enjoy!

 The Star Dial                                                 by Willa Cather

Oak Skin                                                         by Kris Ringman

Snow Globe of Denver                                    by The Cyborg Jilliam Weise

Awakafina Clarifies that She's Appreciating,  by Simone Person

Not Appropriating (in Black American sentences)

Oregon State Hospital                                    by Roberto Cabrera

Ship/Plum                                                        by Maija Haavisto

Forest Starships                                                by Petra Kuppers

Standing Dead                                                   by Andrea Abi-Karam

Garden Variety with Lesbians                            by Serena Chopra

Black Earth                                                        by Marianne Moore

Places                                                                by Willyce Kim