This Queer Book Saved My Life – Details, episodes & analysis

Exile is not a choice that anyone wants to make. It’s something we come to through necessity.

Today we meet seeley quest and we’re talking about the book that saved hir life: Exile and Pride by Eli Clare. And Eli joins us for the conversation!

Seeley Quest (sie/hir) is a trans disabled environmentalist, working in literary and body-based composition, curation and facilitation.

Eli Clare (he/they): white, disabled, and genderqueer, Eli lives near Lake Champlain in unceded Abenaki territory (also known as Vermont). He is the author of Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure and Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation. Their next book, a mixed genre volume titled Unfurl, will be released in July, 2025.

In Exile and Pride, Eli Clare’s revelatory writing about his experiences as a white disabled genderqueer activist/writer unspools the multiple histories from which our sense of self unfolds. Their essays weave together memoir, history, and political thinking to explore meanings and experiences of home.

Connect with Seeley and Eli
Seeley's website and newsletter: questletters.net

Eli's website: eliclare.com

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for  new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase Exile and Pride visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780822360315

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Support the show

This book isn’t about celebrity. It’s about queer heritage. And passing it on.

Today we meet Brent Love and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile.

Brent Love is the author of the memoir Leap which debuted in June 2024. He is also the host/producer of the podcasts Hope Works: A Surrogacy and You and Me and Everyone We Know. Brent currently resides in Hawaii with his family.

In Broken Horses, Brandi Carlile takes readers through the events of her life that shaped her very raw art--from her start at a local singing competition where she performed Elton John's "Honky Cat" in a bedazzled white polyester suit, to her first break opening for Dave Matthews Band, to many sleepless tours over fifteen years and six studio albums, all while raising two children with her wife, Catherine Shepherd.

Connect with Brent

website: heybrentlove.com
instagram: @heybrentlove
linkedin: @heybrentlove
podcast: Hope Works: A Surrogacy Podcast
podcast: You and Me and Everyone We Know

Our Bookshop

Visit our Bookshop for  new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase Broken Horses visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780593237267

To purchase Leap visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9798889260202

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Support the show

A deep dive into LGBTQ book bans with two of the nation's leading researchers.

Today, we are joined by Sabrina Baêta and Tasslyn Magnusson. They are leading researchers in the United States on LGBTQ book bans in our schools. They led efforts to research and write the new 2024 PEN America report Banned in the USA: Narrating the Crisis.

Here is part of the official description: "This report provides data, alongside a comprehensive narrative of the censorship crisis affecting public schools. It shows the nuance of the current moment and damage that occurs when stories—compassionate, reflective, educational, and entertaining—are restricted or removed on the basis of fear, intimidation, or bigotry."

Read the full report here: https://pen.org/report/narrating-the-crisis/

Check out our earlier coverage on Book Bans: thisqueerbook.com/book-bans/

Learn more about Sabrina and Tasslyn
Sabrina: sabrinabaeta.com
Tasslyn: tasslynmagnusson.com

Our Bookshop
Buy banned books! Visit our Bookshop for  new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Support the show

When I read his work, I feel like he is a close friend that I lost. That’s how much he resonates with me.

Today we meet Kim Hines and we’re talking about the book that saved her life: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin.

Kim Hines is a playwright, actor, director, and author. Her plays have been produced across the United States, including tours at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Kim has performed at many theaters including the Illusion Theater, Penumbra Theater, and the Guthrie Theatre. She was a founding member of Mixed Blood Theater. Kim has directed at theaters across the Twin Cities of Minnesota, and at Cornell University in New York, University of Northern Iowa, and Kansas University. Her YA novel Wingo Fly was published in 2020.

The Fire Next Time was a 1963 national bestseller. It galvanized the United States, giving passionate voice to the civil rights movement. Both a evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and an examination of racial injustice, this book is intensely personal and provocative. It is written as two "letters" on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Connect with Kim
facebook: facebook.com/kim.hines920/
website: simplykimhines.com

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for  new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase The Fire Next Time visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780679744726

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Support the show

Today, Once Upon a Crime Books presents 7 Minutes in Book Heaven, the podcast where we interview LGBTQ authors about the new books they have coming out for us to love and cuddle up with.

Once Upon a Crime Books is an independent bookstore specializing in mystery fiction. Located in Uptown Minneapolis, you can shop in their store Monday through Saturday 11am – 5:30pm. Or, visit their website! There, you can browse all of their books, from new releases to classic mysteries.

In this new episode, Once Upon a Crime Books introduces us to Jessie Chandler and her new novel: Shanghai Murder which is available to buy in paperback in-store, or on their website, and it is also available as a digital audio book.

Jessie Chandler is the author of seven novels, including the humorously suspenseful Shay O’Hanlon Caper Series. Her crime fiction has garnered a Lambda Literary finalist nod, three Golden Crown Literary Awards, three USA Book Awards, and an Independent Publisher Book Award.

Buy Shanghai Murder
Visit Once Upon a Crime Books in-person or buy Shanghai Murder online: https://onceuponacrimebooks.com/book/9781642475197

Buy the first book in the Shay O'Hanlon Caper series: https://onceuponacrimebooks.com/book/9781633048010

Connect with Jessie Chandler
Website: www.jessiechandler.com
Instagram: @jchandlerauthor
Facebook: facebook.com/shayohanloncaperseries/

Credits
Presented by: Once Upon a Crime Books
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Theme music: Summer Mood by lesfm

Support the show

Seriously though. When you're life is hyphenated, how do you put it altogether to live the life you want?

Today we meet Natalie Cruz and we’re talking about the book that saved her life: We Are All Armenian edited by Aram Mrjoian and featuring eighteen essayists.

Natalie lives in Philly, is the managing editor of the Queer Armenian Library, teaches Art History at Camden County College, and is a PhD candidate at Temple University.

We Are All Armenian brings together established and emerging Armenian authors to reflect on the complications of Armenian ethnic identity today. These personal essays elevate diasporic voices that have been historically silenced inside and outside of their communities, including queer, multiracial, and multiethnic writers. The eighteen contributors to this contemporary anthology explore issues of displacement, assimilation, inheritance, and broader definitions of home.

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for  new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase We Are All Armenian visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781477326794

Queer Armenian Library
Bookmark the Queer Armenian Library to view the art curation Natalie will provide: queerarmenianlibrary.com

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Permission to use a clip from Literary Lights provided by the International Armenian Literary Alliance
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Support the show

They say what matters most is love. But for a lot of us...that’s not what matters most.

Today we meet Jake Mier and we’re talking about the book that saved their life: Loveless by Alice Oseman.

Jake lives in the Twin Cities and works in restorative justice.

Loveless is the funny, honest, messy, completely relatable story of Georgia, who doesn't understand why she can't crush and kiss and make out like her friends do. She's surrounded by the narrative that dating + sex = love. It's not until she gets to college that she discovers the A range of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum -- coming to understand herself as asexual/aromantic. Disrupting the narrative that she's been told since birth isn't easy -- there are many mistakes along the way to inviting people into a newly found articulation of an always-known part of your identity.

Jake's Ace/Aro Book Recommendations
Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann
The City of Spires (series) by Claudie Arseneualt
Elatsoe and A Snake Falls To Earth by Darcy Little Badger

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for  new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase Loveless visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781338751932

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Support the show

That moment when you meet kindred queer spirits in podcasting.

Today we have a special cross-pollination episode with the Queer Spirit podcast.  The Queer Spirit podcast has conversations with embodied artists, practitioners and activists who care for, enliven and empower our 2SLGBTQ+ communities to thrive + flourish. Their hosts are Nick Venegoni, MA (he>they) and TanyaMarck Oviedo (they/them).

Nick is a holistic psychotherapist based on unceded Ohlone territory (San Francisco, CA), where he supports queer folks to heal from trauma and anxiety, to create more joyful lives and fulfilling relationships. Nick’s primary spiritual practices these days include Earth based wisdom, Buddhist Psychology, Mindfulness meditation, and sound healing.

TanyaMarck is an intuitive + trauma informed practitioner, guide, mentor, educator, witch, and medicine person who identifies as a queer, non-binary, native indigenous being of color, and person in recovery. Their healing arts practice (Vamonos) and home are based out of Tongva + Kizh and Chumash lands (Long Beach, CA).

Connect with Queer Spirit
website: queerhealingjourneys.com/podcast
instagram: @holisticqueerhealing
facebook: facebook.com/queerhealingjourneys

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for  new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Support the show

All the love in our queer families.

Today we meet Archie Arnold and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: Love Lives Here: A Story of Thriving in a Transgender Family by Rowan Jetté Knox.

Archie is a grant writer working at a community college in Minnesota. His career in grants and fundraising spans twenty years.

Rowan Jetté Knox is an author, speaker and human rights advocate. His work in LGBTQ2S+ inclusion and mental health awareness has sparked change worldwide. was humbled to be inducted into the 2021 Order of Ottawa for his advocacy of transgender, gender-creative, and non-binary youth.

Love Lives Here: A Story of Thriving in a Transgender Family is an inspirational story of accepting and embracing two trans people in a family--a family who shows what's possible when you "lead with love.". Told with remarkable candor and humor, and full of insight into the challenges faced by trans people, Love Lives Here is a beautiful story of transition, frustration, support, acceptance, and, of course, love.

Content warning: This episode contains brief mentions of interpersonal violence and suicide.

Connect with Rowan
website: rowanjetteknox.com
instagram: @maven_of_mayhem
facebook: facebook.com/mavenofmayhem
bluesky: @mavenofmayhem.bsky.social

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for  new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase Becoming A Man: Half A Life Story visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780735235175

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Support the show

As gay kids we have to get through so much that we end up not remembering a lot of our childhoods.

Today we meet K Jason Bryan and we’re talking about the book that saved his life: Becoming A Man: Half A Life Story by Paul Monette.

Jason is a Sr Client Consultant for corporate insurance, and used to chair his company’s LGBT & Allies ERG. He is a former member of the Governors Board at the Human Rights Campaign. He also served as the Membership Director at Quorum, Minnesota's LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce.

Becoming A Man: Half A Life Story won the National Book Award and the LAMBDA Literary Award. Paul Monette was haunted, and finally saved, by a dream, "The thing I'd never even seen: two men in love and laughing." This searingly honest, witty, and humane merging of memoir and manifesto has become the definitive coming out story--and a classic of the coming-of-age genre.

Hear more Romanovsky and Phillips!
website: romanovskyandphillips.com
Featured song in this episode: "When Heterosexism Strikes" from their album Be Political, Not Polite (1991)

Connect with Jason
Facebook: facebook.com/kjason.bryan

Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for  new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

To purchase Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story visit: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780060595647

Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook

Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Permission to use a clip from "When Heterosexism Strikes" provided by Romanovsky and Phillips
Music and SFX credits: visit thiqueerbook.com/music

Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1

Support the show