"Leading Men" is headed for the silver screen

Almost exactly a year ago, we discussed Christopher Castellani's Leading Men, a novel about Tennessee Williams and his longtime lover, Frank Merlo. My thanks to the intrepid Octavio Roca for alerting me to an article in Variety that reports Matthew Lopez (whose smash play, The Inheritance, we discussed back in July) has been tapped to write the screenplay for a Searchlight Pictures film based on the novel. 

Remembering Jan Morris

As many of you know, last week (Nov. 13-19) was Transgender Awareness Week. So it is perhaps fitting that Jan Morris, one of the most famous transgender figures in history, died on Nov. 20 at the age of 94. Matt Schudel's Washington Post obituary describes her beautifully: "Jan Morris reported on wars and revolutions around the globe, published dozens of elegant books exploring far-flung places and times, and was regarded as perhaps the greatest travel writer of her time. Yet the most remarkable journey of her life was across a private border, when she cast off her earlier identity as James Morris and became Jan Morris."

We have not read any of her many books (yet), but her 1974 memoir Conundrum (reissued in 2006 with a new introduction by the author) sounds intriguing. Here, from the New York Times, are an obituary and a tribute. Here is The Economist's obituary. And here is a tribute by a fellow travel writer in the Dec. 13 Washington Post.

This year's Man Booker Prize-winning novel

Back in January, we discussed Anna Burns' novel Milkman, which won the 2018 Man Booker Prize, during one of our "fifth Wednesday" sessions featuring non-LGBTQ books. (It actually does have gay characters, I should note, but we didn't realize that when we selected it.) A tip of the hat to our friend Robert Muir for reporting that this year's Man Booker Prize-winner (just announced), Shuggie Bain, is a largely autobiographical novel by Douglas Stuart, a gay Scotsman. (Here are writeups about the awards ceremony from Vanity Fair, the New York Times and Washington Post.) I just ordered my copy, but it certainly sounds likes a plausible contender for our next reading list.

Bryan Washington: An author to watch

Until I read the glowing tribute to Memorial, his just-published novel,  I must confess that I had never heard of Bryan Washington. (Here are the reviews from the Washington Post and New York Times.) But the 35-year-old gay African-American writer was already getting plenty of buzz before that for Lot, a short story collection that Barack Obama named one of his favorite books in 2019. Lot also earned Washington a 5 Under 35 honor from the National Book Foundation and won several other awards. I've just ordered both books, and if they live up to the praise, I expect to nominate at least one of them for our next reading list. If any of you have read either, let me know what you think.

Meet a "Homo Historian"

My thanks to Octavio Roca for alerting me to this LGBTQ Nation profile of Eric Cervini, an award-winning historian of LGBTQ+ politics and culture who recently published The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America. Cervini is also the creator of "Magic Closet," a series of one-minute videos on Instagram exploring gay history, which are among the material available on his YouTube channel. 

Professor Pete strikes again

So far, we've discussed memoirs by Pete Buttigieg (Shortest Way Home) and, earlier this week, his husband Chasten (I Have Something to Tell You). To break the tie, Pete has just published Trust: America's Best Chance, which debuted at #11 on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction list. In case you were wondering what the former mayor is up to these days, he's teaching a course on trust in politics to 19 undergraduates at the University of Notre Dame--masked and standing behind plexiglass, of course. For more details on his new book and thoughts on the election, here's a transcript of Buttigieg's Oct. 9 Washington Post Live conversation with Robert Costa.

Meet Max Jacob

I must confess that even after 20 years as a proud BookMen member, there are still many lacunae in my literary knowledge. One of them is the subject of a new, critically acclaimed biography, Max Jacob: A Life in Art and Letters, by Rosanna Warren. Though highly accomplished, the French poet (1876-1944) had three strikes against him his whole life: he was from the provinces, Jewish (though he converted to Catholicism) and gay. Here are reviews of Warren's book from the Washington Post and New York Times. I obviously haven't read it yet, but it sure sounds like a good candidate for our next reading list.