Explore every episode of the podcast This Queer Book Saved My Life
Dive into the complete episode list for This Queer Book Saved My Life. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.
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The Gaily Show: Ilana Masad's Pride Month Book Recs
23 Jun 2026
00:23:42
Our next episode of This Queer Book Saved My Life drops June 30th! In our off weeks we air episodes from The Gaily Show. It's the only daily LGBTQ news and talk show in the US! John hosts it and it airs on AM950-KTNF (Minneapolis), WCPT 820 AM (Chicago), 92.7 FM WMDX (Madison, WI), plus weekly on NewsTalk WHMP (Amherst, MA) and Alternative Talk 1150AM KKNW (Seattle).
In this episode, it’s the third Friday of the month and every third Friday of the month John welcomes author and critic Ilana Masad for her reviews and recommendations!
Ilana Masad is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and criticism. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, NPR, The Atlantic, StoryQuartlerly, Catapult, Buzzfeed, Joyland, The Account, and many more. She is the author of the novel All My Mother’s Lovers and the Lambda Literary Award winning novel Beings.
Masad holds a PhD in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has taught a wide variety of creative writing and literature courses, and also provides editorial services to authors.
Host/Founder: John Parker (learn more about my name change) Executive Producer: Jim Pounds Production and Distribution Support: Brett Johnson, AM950 Marketing/Advertising Support: Chad Larson, Laura Hedlund, Jennifer Ogren, AM950 Accounting and Creative Support: Gordy Erickson
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
This book raised something that was running subterranean in my system back up to the surface again.
Today we meet J. Brooke and we’re talking about the queer book that saved their life: Transition: Becoming Who I Was Always Meant to Be by Chaz Bono.
J’s full-length poetry book, I Can Tell You The Version That Will Make You Take My Side won the Editor’s Choice Prize at Driftwood Press. It is now available everywhere you get your books. J has received two Pushcart nominations, a 2025 Best of The Net nomination, and there were a Finalist for the 2025 Iowa Review Nonfiction Prize. Their autobiographical essay “HYBRID” won Columbia Journal’s 2020 Special Issue Nonfiction Award. Their work appears in Electric Lit, The Rumpus, Harvard Review and elsewhere. J is the Prose Book Reviews Editor at The Rumpus, Poetry Editor at Trans Poetics Archive, former Nonfiction Editor at Stonecoast Review.
In Transition: Becoming Who I Was Always Meant to Be Chaz Bono shares his deeply moving and ultimately triumphant account of the physical and emotional process that brought him to a place of peace, and finally happiness. With a message to anyone who has ever felt that they couldn’t be who they really are, Transition is as inspirational as it is intimate.
Chaz Bono is an LGBTQ rights advocate, acclaimed author, and the only child of famed entertainers Sonny and Cher. He has written three books, including Transition, his groundbreaking account of a forty-year struggle to match his gender identity with his physical body and his transformation from female to male.
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: John Parker Executive Producer: Jim Pounds Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Troy Ford, Jonathan Fried, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, Sean Smith, and Karsten Vagner Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, Sofia Nerman, and Gary Nygaard. Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
The Prince of Los Cocuyos with Karsten Vagner and Richard Blanco
10 Feb 2026
00:51:12
This question has followed me around my whole life: where do I come from?
Today we meet Karsten Vagner and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: The Prince of Los Cocuyos by Richard Blanco. And Richard joins us for the conversation!
Karsten Vagner was born in Bogotá, Colombia and grew up outside of New York City. He has worked in tech startups for the past 20 years, and has been awarded for his leadership, including for being a notable LGBTQ executive in New York. He has worked on community building projects with the New York City Council, was one of the first organizers with Swing Left after the 2016 election, and has been a volunteer at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in New York City. Karsten lives with his husband and daughter in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he has held elected office and is an organizer of the town's annual Pride celebration.
Richard Blanco was the youngest and first Latinx, immigrant, and gay poet to serve as the fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet in US History as awarded by President Barrack Obama. Originally born in Madrid, to Cuban Exile parents, Richard was raised in Miami in a working-class family. His writing explores cultural identity, place, and belonging. He is the author of several poetry collections, including his most recent Homeland of My Body. He has written two memoirs, including The Prince of Los Cocuyos. He serves as Education Ambassador for The Academy of American Poets and is an Associate Professor at Florida International University. He has received numerous awards, including a Lambda Literary Award, and in 2023, President Biden awarded him the National Humanities Medal.
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: John Parker Executive Producer: Jim Pounds Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Troy Ford, Jonathan Fried, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, Sean Smith, and Karsten Vagner Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, Sofia Nerman, and Gary Nygaard. Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
7 Minutes in Book Heaven with A.J. Bermudez and Stories No One Hopes Are About Them
09 May 2023
00:08:32
Meet A.J. Bermudez and her darkly playful (and Lambda Literary Award nominated!) story collection: Stories No One Hopes Are About Them.
These short stories explore characters who are ni de aquí, ni de allá—neither from here nor there—straddling competing worlds, disrupting paradigms, and transitioning from objects of other people’s stories to active subjects and protagonists of their own.
Big things happen in this collection. But it’s also a collection of small intimacies: misremembered names, chipped teeth, and private rituals; unexpected alliances and barely touched knees beneath uniform skirts; minutiae of the natural world; incidents that quietly, achingly, and delightfully transgress the familiar.
Check out this Lambda Literary award (Lammy) finalist: We shout out Gods of Want by K-Ming Chang in the show. Here's where you can buy it: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780593241585
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
We're back live in May 2023!
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
To be queer, young, and surfing on the beach. Where's your queer true north?
Our guests today are attorney David Rephan and Lambda Literary Award finalist Jay Quinn!
David shares with us how Jay's novel Metes and Bounds saved his life and how David continues to return to the novel as a queer true north. This was Jay's first novel and he went on to write four more as well as a memoir.
Metes and Bounds follows 18-year surfer, Matt, as he leaves home after his high school graduation to work for his uncle, a land surveyor. It’s about Matt's story of claiming his place as a surfer and as a gay man in the small and large world of construction sites, fishing piers, and surf breaks.
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Joseph Plaster and Kids on the Street
25 Apr 2023
00:14:05
Meet Joseph Plaster and his new book Kids on the Street: Queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco's Tenderloin. It's 7 Minutes in Book Heaven! Where we meet queer authors and talk with them about the new books they have coming out for us to love and cuddle up with.
What's Kids on the Street about? Joseph explores the informal support networks that enabled abandoned and runaway queer youth to survive in tenderloin districts across the United States. He shows how they collectively and creatively managed the social trauma they experienced, in part by building relationships with johns, bartenders, hotel managers, bouncers, and other vice district denizens. By highlighting a politics where the marginal position of street kids is the basis for a moral economy of reciprocity, Plaster excavates a history of queer life that has been overshadowed by major narratives of gay progress and pride.
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Seriously, though. How DO we thread together all of our queer identities?
Our guest is writer, educator, and theater maker Allison Vincent and we talk about the queer book that saved her life: the novella Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood.
Goodbye to Berlin is a Queer classic. Our hero moves to Berlin where he meets the incomparable Sally Bowles. They become roommates as he explores Berlin and his sexuality. The novella was adapted into the award-winning theatrical production and film Cabaret.
For Allison, it not only saved her in writing her college thesis, but it also provided visibility to her as a Queer woman to see herself represented in history. We dive into all the queer meanings of the novella's most famous line: "I am a camera with a shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking" and threading together all of our different identities.
Buy Goodbye to Berlin Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase Goodbye to Berlin and all the books we discuss on our podcasts.
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
7 Minutes in Book Heaven with McKenzie Wark and Raving
11 Apr 2023
00:08:59
Meet McKenzie Wark and her new book Raving. It's 7 Minutes in Book Heaven! Where we meet queer authors and talk with them about the new books they have coming out for us to love and cuddle up with.
What's Raving about?McKenzie takes us into the undisclosed locations of New York's thriving underground queer and trans rave scene. Techno, first and always a Black music, invites fresh sonic and temporal possibilities for this era of diminishing futures. Raving to techno is an art and a technique at which queer and trans bodies might be particularly adept but which is for anyone who lets the beat seduce them. Extending the rave's sensations, situations, fog, lasers, drugs, and pounding sound systems onto the page, Wark invokes a trans practice of raving as a timely aesthetic for dancing in the ruins of this collapsing capital.
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
This episode is the recording of our live event at Lush Lounge and Theater. And we welcome back William Burleson! You remember him from Season One, when we discussed how his book Bi America was life-giving for our guest Neil Aasve. Now, William talks with me about the book that saved his life: The Bisexual Option by Fritz Klein, MD. He shares with us, "I have to say, coming out as Bi, at first to myself, and then later to other people, there is really an uphill climb to find community. It's better today. We have Google. But nonetheless, it's still difficult. So when I went into a bookstore and I found the book The Bisexual Option, that was revolutionary."
And....William went on to meet Fritz who wrote the forward to Bill's own book!
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Gerardo Sámano Córdova and Monstrilio
28 Mar 2023
00:10:10
Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with. Today, we meet Gerardo Sámano Córdova and his new novel Monstrilio.
What it's about?Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago’s lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family’s decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses—though curbed by his biological and chosen family’s communal care—threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Sponsors
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
When you go up that mountain you don't know what you'll find.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode, we meet Gerard Cabrera (he/him) and I talk with him about The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. Gerard tells me that, "The Magic Mountain is about educating yourself and trying to make decisions for how you want to live your own life. Do you want to follow a path of seeking freedom or do you want to follow a path of just maintaining a status quo so that you can survive? With AIDS raging, I think that was a very salient sort of internal debate for me."
Gerard is the author of the new novel Homo Novus and I talk with him all about it. What is the plot? It's Holy Week 1987. And Fr. Linus Fitzgerald, a Catholic priest, is confined to his hospital bed by an AIDS diagnosis, while being comforted by the seminarian he sexually abused as an adolescent.
Buy the books we discuss on this episode! Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase Gerard's novel Homo Novus and Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain.
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 LGBT 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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
7 Minutes in Book Heaven with B.G. Wolfe and April Renegade
14 Mar 2023
00:09:20
Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.
Today, we meet B.G. Wolfe and and her new novel April Renegade. B.G. aims to write diverse characters and storylines, with emphasis on those in the LGBTQ+ community and those who struggle with their mental health like she does.
April Renegade is a coming-of-age punk rock and roll romance. According to Ash Lancing's fans, he has it all. He is the lead singer for a popular punk rock band, he's got a literal model for a girlfriend, a beautiful loft in NYC, and through the past ten years, he's had his best friend, Drew Dawson by his side through it all. But Ash doesn't really have it all. Because the one thing he desires, he can only have in the shadows and behind closed doors, and the exhaustive secrecy is no one's fault but his own.
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Simon vs. The Homosapiens Agenda with Jacob Aloi and Becky Albertalli
07 Mar 2023
00:51:17
Reclaiming our coming out stories.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode, we meet Jacob Aloi (he/him) and I talk with him about Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. This YA novel follows 16-year old Simon Spier as he navigates coming out as well as meeting his first love. The book really tackles coming out stories and owning them. It was also adapted into the rom-com Love, Simon which was the first LGBT rom-com by a major film studio.
Plus, Becky (she/her) joins us to discuss writing Simon and the challenges she had writing the novel as she navigated her own coming out journey.
Ticket Giveaway! Email us at thisqueerbook@gmail.com to be entered into our contest to give 2 free tickets to the Guthrie Theater's production of Born With Teeth. The tickets are for March 10th. Email us by March 8th and we'll announce the winners on March 9th! Buy tickets at guthrietheater.org
Buy The Books We Discussed On This Episode! Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase Becky's novels Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda and Imogen, Obviously.
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
In some ways, the characters in this book were my first lovers.
Today we meet Michael Horvich and we're talking about the queer book that saved his life: Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin.
Michael is a retired Elementary School Educator and University Instructor. In addition he’s many things, here’s just a partial list: Poet, Collector, Museum Curator Emeritis, Book Binder, Supernumerary, Flea Circus Ringmaster, and Dementia/Alzheimer’s Advocate. He has published two volumes poetry, which in part portray his journey navigating his life partner's Alzheimer’s. His advocacy work has led to presentations at numerous organizations including at the Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Business, 33rd Annual Alzheimer’s Disease International Convention, and the Chicago LGBTQ Center on Halsted. He also gave the opening key note at the 2019 Mayo Clinic / Minnesota-North Dakota Alzheimer's Association Conference. Michael was featured in ALAN TELLER’s “STILL AT IT!"ART SHOW.
James Baldwin was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, appeared in 1953 to excellent reviews, and his essay collections Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time were bestsellers that made him an influential figure in the growing civil rights movement. Baldwin spent much of his life in France, where he moved to escape the racism and homophobia of the United States. He died in France in 1987, a year after being made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor.
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: John Parker Executive Producer: Jim Pounds Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Troy Ford, Jonathan Fried, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, Sean Smith, and Karsten Vagner Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, Sofia Nerman, and Gary Nygaard. Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Michele Kirichanskaya and Ace Notes
28 Feb 2023
00:08:47
Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this short podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.
Today, we meet Michele Kirichanskaya and their new book Ace Notes: Tips and Tricks on Existing in an Allo World. Michele is a freelance journalist, primarily writing book reviews, interviews, pop-culture think pieces, and more.
Michele's book Ace Notes covers everything from coming out, explaining asexuality and understanding different types of attraction, to marriage, relationships, sex, consent, gatekeeping, religion, ace culture and more. This is the ultimate arsenal for whatever the allo world throws at you.
Pre-order Ace Notes! To pre-order visit our Bookshop page! or at https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781839975226 You can also find the books we chat about on this episode: The Invisible Orientation (Julie Decker) and Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex (Angela Chen).
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Joshua Gonzales and Keep Sweet: My Homemade Recipe for a Fulfilling Gay Life
21 Feb 2023
00:09:47
Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this short podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.
Today, we meet Joshua Gonzales and his new book Keep Sweet: My Homemade Recipe for a Fulfilling Gay Life. He is an LGBTQ+ Latino actor and writer living in NYC. He is also the host of the podcast Keep Sweet: The Positive World podcast.
Joshua's book Keep Sweet tells the story of his life as a Mexican-American kid, raised in the small town of Huntsville, Texas, and believing in his innate fabulousness. This is no Misery Memoir. Through tough lessons learned, Joshua shows that, with your own foresight and self-determination, you can skirt the path of potential misery, while keeping your humor and optimism intact. And may we all help the next generation of queer youth grow into the out, proud, empathetic, kind, and powerful adults they were born to be.
Connect with Joshua! Twitter and Instagram and Tiktok: @joshwadam
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Loren A. Olson, MD and No More Neckties: A Memoir in Essays
31 Jan 2023
00:10:45
Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this short podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.
Today, we meet Loren A. Olson, MD and his new book No More Neckties: A Memoir in Essays. Loren is the award-winning author of Finally Out: Letting Go of Living Straight and in this new memoir he flings open the doors on the hard stuff in this candid and inspiring new memoir. A practicing psychiatrist and a proud husband and grandfather, Dr. Olson writes about intensely personal events such as tragedy and loss; love and heartbreak; infidelity and betrayal; fear of aging; and never feeling good enough.
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit with Shannon TL Kearns
24 Jan 2023
00:44:45
God cares about the most marginalized bodies.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode we’re talking with the Reverend Shannon TL Kearns (he/him) about Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson. Rev. Kearns was raised fundamentalist Evangelical, however he went on to become the first openly Transgender man ordained to the Old Catholic Priesthood. Our wide-ranging conversation includes how Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit helped him reconcile his gender identity, sexuality, and faith tradition. We also talk queerest stories in the Bible and I ask Shannon if Christianity needs Queerness to survive into the future.
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
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian Executive Producer: Jim Pounds Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Supporters: Awen Briem, Stephen D., and Thomas Michna.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Tess Sharpe and 6 Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did)
17 Jan 2023
00:09:29
Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life!
In this podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.
Today, we meet Tess Sharpe and her upcoming book 6 Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did). What’s this new YA novel about? After years of bickering, Penny and Tate have called a truce: they’ll play nice. They have to. Their mothers (life-long best friends) need them to be perfect, drama-free daughters when Penny’s mother becomes a living liver donor to Tate’s mom. Forced to live together as the Moms recover, the girls’ truce is essential in keeping everything—their jobs, the house, the finances, the Moms’ healing—running smoothly. They’ve got to let this thing between them go. There’s one little hitch: Penny and Tate keep almost kissing.
Connect with Tess! Twitter: @sharpegirl Instagram: @forest_of_arden Website: https://www.tess-sharpe.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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, and Bill Shay
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
I didn't really understand, until I read this book, what was my meaning? What was I here for?
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode we’re talking with Nicole Olila (she/her) about the Lambda Literary Award winning novel Out of Time by Paula Martinac. Today’s conversation is one of those life imitates art imitates life moments as Nicole’s work as an archivist and owner of a vintage feminist and queer bookshop mirrors Out of Time’s main character Susan who finds a scrapbook in a vintage store that leads her on a ghostly journey into the past lives of the four Lesbians featured in the scrapbook.
Plus, Paula (she/her) joins us for the conversation and we talk about her training as a historian, how queer storytelling has changed, and the persistent question she asks in her work: how do queer people find each other?
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
Quatrefoil Library 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
Visit Nicole’s website lspotshop.com to learn more about her, and connect to her vintage bookshop on Etsy—The L Spot Bookshop—where she holds space for Sapphic, feminist and offbeat reads.
Nicole is always interested in connections and collaborations. If you want to chat about open access issues, vintage LGBTQIA materials, recommend a chocolate stout, or anything else, do not hesitate to reach out.
CREDITS: Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian Executive Producer: Jim Pounds Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruz, Bill Shay, and Paul Kaefer
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
The first time I saw a potential future for someone like me.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode we’re talking with Henry Holden (he/they) about Peter Darling by S.A Chant. This novel is a sequel and really a re-telling of Peter Pan, in which Peter is trans, an adult now, and starts a relationship with Captain James Hook! For Henry, he told us, that reading Peter Darling was, "the first moment that I saw a potential future for someone like me. And I think it was the first time I was allowed to let myself say, 'Yes, you're trans.'"
Plus, S.A. joins us for the conversation and we get into where the idea for this novel came from, as well as queering fairy tales and how Peter Pan can represent a possibility space for queerness and transness.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Lindsey A. Freeman and Running
20 Dec 2022
00:09:09
Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life!
In this short podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.
Today, we meet Lindsey A. Freeman and her upcoming book is Running. What’s it about? Lindsey presents the feminist and queer handbook of running that she always wanted but could never find. For Freeman, running is full of joy, desire, and indulgence in the pleasure and weirdness of having a body. It allows for a space of freedom—to move and be moved.
Follow Lindsey on social! Twitter: @lindseyafreeman Instagram: atomic_lindsey_freeman
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Building a language to be able to talk with my parents.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode we’re talking with community organizer and activist LaSaia Wade (she/they) about Secret Society by Miasha. This novel starts as a story about two flashy women who hustle men for money, but then dives into the twists and turns of living and loving in the world as trans women of color. LaSaia tells us that Secret Society "was part of me building the language to translate transness to my parents."
Plus! Miasha (she/her) joins us to talk discuss her inspiration for the novel, what she hoped for it, and how she turned it into a film franchise.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
On today’s episode, we have a special crossover episode for you with one of my favorite podcasts The Sewers of Paris. The Sewers of Paris is a podcast about how queer people's lives are shaped by our favorite books, movies, music, and shows. So, how could we not have a crossover?
The host is writer, podcaster, and video-maker Matt Baume. He’s been nominated for a GLAAD award for journalism and he created the YouTube pop culture series Culture Cruise and the LGBTQ news shows Weekly Debrief and Marriage News Watch. He is an author with a new book on the way called Hi Honey! I’m Homo!
Matt interviews me about the entertainment that changed my life (Phantom of the Opera!) and I interview Matt about the Queer book that saved his life: Harriet the Spy.
Subscribe to the Sewers of Paris on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sewers-of-paris/id983828051
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin with Lucas F. Schleusener and John D’Emilio
13 Jan 2026
00:39:55
How can we hold together idealism and authenticity even when the world is homophobic?
Today we meet Lucas F. Schleusener and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin by John D'Emilio.
Lucas is a writer, educator, and national security strategist shaping the future of equity across the national security enterprise. As Co-Founder and CEO of Out in National Security he leads a global community that advances LGBTQIA+ inclusion and drives policy change across defense and foreign policy. Luke is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and previously served as Chairman of the Board of No One Left Behind. His writing has appeared in Foreign Policy, Defense One, The Hill, and Law360.
John D’Emilio, PhD is professor emeritus of history and gender and women’s studies at University of Illinois at Chicago. A Guggenheim Fellow and a pioneer in the field of gay and lesbian studies, he is the author, coauthor, or editor of numerous books, including Sexual Communities and Intimate Matters, which was cited in Justice Anthony Kennedy’s opinion in Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 Supreme Court case overturning US anti-sodomy laws. John is the founding director of the Policy Institute of the National LGBTQ Task Force, he has also served as President of the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, a community-based library and historical archives in Chicago.
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: John Parker Executive Producer: Jim Pounds Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Troy Ford, Jonathan Fried, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, Sean Smith, and Karsten Vagner Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, Sofia Nerman, and Gary Nygaard. Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Welcome to our LGBT podcast and in this episode we’re talking with actor Troy Stanley (he/him) about Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. This novel kicked off a landmark series as well as numerous television adaptations. For Troy, he told us, "I think what Tales of the City said to me was be who you are don't apologize for who you are be who you want to be."
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Dr. Nyri Bakkalian and Confluence: A Person Shaped Story
22 Nov 2022
00:09:33
Welcome to the LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven - presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life!
In this short podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.
Today, we meet Dr. Nyri Bakkalian. Her new book is Confluence: A Person Shaped Story. What’s it about? It is a novel set in Japan's Northern Tohoku region in a cyberpunk world. It's about a trans-lesbian couple. An Armenian-American combat specialized cyborg and her Japanese cyberneticist spouse Isawa Kasu. Their intense loyalty to each other carries them through a fight against long odds and systemic injustice.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Welcome to our LGBT podcast and in our new episode we're talking with dr. finn schneider (they/them) about Bless Me, Ultima. It is a coming-of-age novel by Rudolfo Anaya. For finn it saved their life three (!) different times and we’ll talk all about them, especially as the novel created a space to explore their spirituality in a new and meaningful way. As finn told us, "It created some room metaphorically for me to breathe into this my own questions around spirituality."
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
And then listen to our podcast crossover event with the podcast DEI Is. Host Enrico Manalo and I interview Brian McComak the founder of Hummingbird Humanity. Much of Brian's work focuses on LGBTQ inclusivity at organizations throughout the world, but his work is very expansive as a consultant, speaker, author and facilitator. He has a new book coming out in 2023: Humanity in the Workplace, A Framework for Developing a Human Centered Culture.
We talk about books and human-centered workplaces!
Listen to the DEI Is podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts. Follow them at @diveritypbc on Instagram and DiVerity PBC on YouTube. You can also connect with them here: linktr.ee/diverity
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Welcome to our LGBT podcast This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this episode, we talk with lighting designer, radio host, and teacher Rachael Cady (she/her) about the book that saved her life: Whipping Girl by Julia Serano. It's a collection of personal essays that debunk many of the myths and misconceptions that people have about trans women, femininity, and gender.
Rachael shares with us that, "for the first time I saw someone who was like me. It was incredible. It was an epiphany for me. Finally, I was able to give myself permission to be myself."
And Julia (she/her) -- the slam poetry champion, spoken word artist, and musician, with a PhD in Biochemistry -- joins us for the conversation. She explains why she wrote Whipping Girl, "The book felt necessary for me to write because I wrote it as I was making sense of the first time in my life I was actually moving through the world as a woman, but then I was also facing the day-to-day sexism and sexualization that many women face."
Don't forget to join us on November 10 at Lush Lounge and Theater in NE Minneapolis for our 2nd ever live event! We're recording the new episode "From Unseen to Seen" with author and publisher William Burleson. It's free, but we recommend you RSVP: https://bit.ly/liveatlush
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Taleen Voskuni and Sorry, Bro
25 Oct 2022
00:09:18
Welcome to our new LGBT podcast short 7 Minutes in Book Heaven - a partner podcast to This Queer Book Saved My Life!
We spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with.
On our premiere episode, we meet Taleen Voskuni. Her new book is Sorry, Bro. What's it about? An Armenian-American woman rediscovers her roots and embraces who she really is in this vibrant and heartfelt queer rom-com.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
The Evening Crowd At Kirmser's with James Darville
18 Oct 2022
00:41:44
Being gay together is an act of resistance.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast This Queer Book Saved My Life! This episode is the recording of our first-ever live event at Lush Lounge and Theater. We talk with James Darville (he/him) about the LGBT book The Evening Crowd at Kirmser's by Ricardo J. Brown. This memoir invites us into Kirmser's, which was the first and only queer gay bar in St. Paul, MN in the 1940s. When the book came to James, he was in college in North Dakota and on his own coming out journey as a gay black man. He shares, "It was the right book for the right time for what I was experiencing in my life."
Buy the LGBT books on this LGBT podcast at our Bookshop page! (bookshop.org/thisqueerbook)
Join us on November 10th at Lush Lounge and Theater for our second-ever recording in front a live audience. We're calling the episode, "From Unseen to Seen." We'll be chatting with William Burleson, author and Founder of Flexible Press. The event is free, but we encourage RSVPs: https://bit.ly/liveatlush
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
It’s an LGBT podcast crossover event with the delightful Queer Lit podcast! We enter a unicorn union with guest host Lena Mattheis and discuss the Queer Armenian Library and the books that saved each of our lives. We laugh, we sigh… an unmissable double feature that will turn you gay on the spot.
Buy the LGBT books on this LGBT podcast at our Bookshop (bookshop.org/thisqueerbook)!
Join us on November 10th at Lush Lounge and Theater for our live recording event with William Burleson, author and Founder of Flexible Press. The event is free, but we encourage RSVPs: https://bit.ly/liveatlush
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Breaking The Surface with Joe Perazzo and Greg Louganis
04 Oct 2022
00:50:14
To be happy on my own terms.
Welcome to the Season 2 premiere of our LGBT podcast This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this episode, we talk with Joe Perazzo (he/him) about the LGBT memoir Breaking the Surface by Greg Louganis (he/him), with special guest: 4-time gold medalist Greg Louganis! Breaking the Surface is Greg's memoir and it shares his journey not only in becoming the greatest diver of all time, but also as a gay man living with HIV. For Joe, the memoir played a crucial role in his life. First, when he was about 12-years old and dealing with gay slurs. Then at 16-years old as he came out. And then again in his early 20s as he began his career as a nurse and in HIV research. As Joe shares with us, "It's liberating to read it and then you want to live the same experience. You want to stop giving people so much power over you and become happy on your terms."
Buy the LGBT books on this LGBT podcast at our Bookshop (bookshop.org/thisqueerbook)!
Learn more about Greg and his writing at greglouganis.com. Follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok: @greglouganis
Join us on November 10th at Lush Lounge and Theater for our live recording event with William Burleson, author and Founder of Flexible Press. The event is free, but we encourage RSVPs: https://bit.ly/liveatlush
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Dreadnought with Michael Barakiva and April Daniels
23 Aug 2022
00:35:34
Telling stories that are unabashed and unapologetic.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode, I talk with Michael Barakiva and April Daniels!
Writer and Director Michael Barakiva (he/him) shares the LGBT book that saved his life: Dreadnought by April Daniels. Dreadnought is a groundbreaking YA novel about a trans teen superhero. Michael tells us, “The honesty of her anger and the challenges that she faces helped me come to terms in really profound ways about my own coming out process.”
Then, Michael and April Daniels (she/her) talk about the politics of comics, writing queer superheroes, and what writing and publishing has meant to April as a trans author. She shares, “Writing was an escape for me. It was a way for me to take control of my life in a world that frequently strips me of control.”
Stay tuned to April’s writing and when the next novel in her trilogy will arrive at aprildaniels.com
Buy the books we discuss on this episode! Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase Dreadnought and One Man Guy.
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
One of the world's oldest surviving novels was a queer book?!
Today we meet Neil Laird and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: The Satyricon by Petronius.
Neil is a multiple Emmy-nominated Executive Producer who has worked extensively on both the network and production side of non-fiction TV since 1997. He's developed, overseen, and produced over 1,000 hours of non-fiction programs and specials in nearly every genre, with a particular passion, expertise, and contacts in history, archaeology, and international exploration. He write a series of satirical adventure novels: Prime Time Travelers, Prime Time Pompeii, and, the forthcoming Prime Time Troy. They're all about a time-traveling TV crew uncovering forgotten LGBTQ voices from the past.
Petronius (20 C.E. - 66 C.E.) served as a Governor in the Roman Empire and ultimately as Consul, the most powerful position in the Empire. When he left public service, Emperor Nero named him the Arbiter Elegantiae, or master of elegance. A prominent writer, Petronius is considered the likely author of The Satyricon.
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: John Parker Executive Producer: Jim Pounds Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Troy Ford, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, Sofia Nerman, and Gary Nygaard. Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson 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
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
In this episode, we talk with award-winning children’s author David LaRochelle (he/him) about the LGBT book Conundrum by Jan Morris. David shares with us, "So, on the one hand this book taught me a lot, but the bigger impact that this book had on me was the feeling that just because I don't experience something doesn't mean that it's not true.”
We have a fascinating conversation with David about knowing our true selves, expanding our empathy, as well as LGBTQ children’s literature.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode, I talk with Lara Lillibridge and Alison Bechdel!
Writer and teacher Lara Lillibridge (she/zher) shares the LGBT book that saved her life: Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel. Lara tells us, "There's two things about Fun Home that were huge for me. The first was just representation. I had never seen anything at all like my family in a book."
We are SO proud to welcome Alison Bechdel (she/her) to the podcast! We have a fascinating conversation about writing Fun Home, part of her coming out story, and reflecting on writing about our families. She told us her take that we shouldn't wait to write about people until after they are deceased. However, she said, "There is something monstrous when you turn people in your life into characters. There's no way around that. It’s an aggressive act no matter how loving or well written it is."
Buy the books we discuss on this episode! Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase Fun Home and Only Mama.
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In today's episode I talk with Neil Aasve and William Burleson!
Fundraiser and philanthropist Neil Aasve (he/him) shares the LGBT book that saved his life: Bi America: Myths Truths and Struggles of an Invisible Community by William Burleson. Neil recalls the first time he read Bi America, "I remember my heart pounding. I just remember saying the words out loud: I’m bisexual!"
William joins us to talk about how he saw writing Bi America as an opportunity to preserve history.
Shop Flexible Press book and view their submissions page: flexiblepub.com
Buy the books we discuss on this episode! Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase Bi America and the other books we discussed.
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
E-Lending Library Quatrefoil Library 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
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
She's Not There with Ellie Krug and Jennifer Finney Boylan
26 Jul 2022
00:38:41
This was exactly what I needed to pivot towards my gender transition.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode we talk with ellie krug and Jennifer Finney Boylan!
Idealist, legal advocate, and author ellie krug (she/her) shares how the LGBT book She's Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan saved her life. ellie told us, "I will say that the book caused me to pivot. It did. There’s no question about it. But it also helped me believe that maybe I can write a book."
Then we discuss writing She's Not There with Jennifer Finney Boylan (she/her) nearly 20 years after it was first published. Jenny shared, "Looking at it now, I think there’s a little bit of the aroma of apology to the book. There’s a certain sense in She’s Not There of trying to justify myself." Our conversation with ellie and Jenny range from cathartic writing vs. good storytelling, navigating loss while living authentically, and how trans narratives have changed over the past two decades.
Buy the books we discuss on this episode! Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase She's Not There, Mad Honey, and Getting to Ellen: A Memoir about Love, Honesty, and Gender Change.
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
There is strength in knowing about the struggles and triumphs.
In this episode, we talk with Zaylore Stout (he/him) about the book Don't Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson. Zaylore told us, "I was digging through the archives of the library, trying to see if there was anybody like me...and it’s like you have to piece these things together, on your own." Our discussion spring boards into Zaylore’s legal career, his coming out journey, and writing his own LGBT book: Our Gay History in 50 States which is an LGBTQI plus history book that highlights significant people places and queer facts on a state-by- state basis.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
I'm part of a community that has always existed and will always exist.
In this episode, we talk with Paul Kaefer (he/him) about the LGBT book Quatrefoil: A Modern Novel by James Barr. We discuss how Quatrefoil: A Modern Novel helped Paul learn that he has the power to decide when and how to share his LGBTQ story. We also learn about Paul's plan to read a book from every country in the world!
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
In this episode, we talk with Suyane Oliveira (she/they) about the LGBT book Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg. Suyane told us, "Books don't really make me cry and this book made me cry so many times. It just pulled something out of me. I've never cried so much while reading a book." We discuss how Stone Butch Blues opened up a whole new world for Suyane and how it inspired the work she does at the New Haven Pride Center.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
In this episode, we talk with Gary Nygaard (he/him) about the LGBT book Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. This novel is a classic of LGBTQ literature. For Gary, he read it as a cautionary tale of how destructive it can be to pretend to be straight and how damaging it can be for yourself not to live an authentic life. We discuss how Giovanni's Room shaped and reaffirmed the life decisions he was making, particularly as he attended seminary.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
In The Dream House with Nancy Agabian and Carmen Maria Machado
21 Jun 2022
00:45:06
Queer people need warning stories too.
Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode, we talk with Nancy Agabian and Carmen Maria Machado!
Writer and literary organizer Nancy Agabian (she/her) shares the LGBT book that saved her life: In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado. It is a memoir about an abusive queer relationship Carmen had with an ex-girlfriend. Then we meet Carmen (she/her) to discuss the writing of her memoir and how it was like passing a kidney stone - something she needed to do to move on to get to the writing she wanted to do.
Buy the books we discuss on this episode! Visit thisqueerbook.com/bookshop to purchase In the Dream House and Nancy's novel The Fear of Large and Small Nations.
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, Natalie Cruz, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olila, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Awen Briem, Stephen D., Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
7 Minutes in Book Heaven with Anne Laughlin and Clean Kill
02 Dec 2025
00:12:51
We have a new episode of This Queer Book Saved My Life on December 16th! 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 Anne Laughlin and her new novel: Clean Kill which is available to buy in in-store or on their website.
Anne Laughlin has written seven books for Bold Strokes Books, all stand alone crime novels of the classic mystery, police procedural, and psychological thrill variety. She is the winner of four Goldie Awards from the Golden Crown Literary Society and has been short listed three times for a Lammy Award from the Lambda Literary Foundation. Currently a board member of Mystery Writers of America/Midwest and MWA's Queer Advisory Board, Anne believes in giving back to the crime writing community. Anne lives in Chicago with her wife, Linda Braasch, and their two cats.
Presented by: Once Upon a Crime Books Host/Founder: John Parker Executive Producer: Jim Pounds Theme music: Summer Mood by lesfm
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Can you have a happy ending in a gay relationship?
Today we meet Bobbie Smith and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: Coming Out by Wallace Hamilton.
Bobbie has been a community activist for 35 years. He helped found the Gay and Lesbian community council in Salt Lake City, Utah of which he was a member. He also founded the Sacred Fairies. Bobbie started the Stonewall Community Center in Salt Lake City, where he served as its first Librarian and donated over 1,000 books to that library. He has been a leader in the local leather community here in Minnesota since 2000. He is a props designer for various community theaters in the Twin Cities, primarily with Theatre in the Round.
Wallace Hamilton was a novelist and playwright. His four novels include Coming Out and Christopher and Gay. He wrote fourteen plays and co-wrote the screenplay for Streetchild. He graduated from Harvard and was a World War II conscientious objector.
Content Warning: This episode contains a description of a suicide attempt.
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
Coming Out is not available on Bookshop.org, but you can find copies at AbeBooks or Thriftbooks.
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: John Parker Executive Producer: Jim Pounds Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Troy Ford, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, Sofia Nerman, and Gary Nygaard. Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Am I in love with a woman or am I a woman who's in love with women?
Today we meet Lauren Sanders and we’re talking about the queer book that saved her life: Nightwood by Djuna Barnes.
Lauren Sanders (she/they) is the author of the novel Kamikaze Lust, which won a 2000 Lambda Literary Award and was reissued this fall in a 25th anniversary edition. Her other novels include With or Without You (a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award) and The Book of Love and Hate. Short fiction, reviews, rants, etc. have appeared in various publications. By day they run editorial and digital strategy for a national foundation working in education and the arts. Lauren lives in the nation of Brooklyn with her partner and staffie mix, Maverick.
Djuna Barnes (1892-1982) was born in Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY, and worked as a journalist in New York before leaving the country to spend many years in Paris and London. She returned to New York in 1941, and lived in Greenwich Village until her death.
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 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: John Parker Executive Producer: Jim Pounds Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Troy Ford, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, Sofia Nerman, and Gary Nygaard. Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
A lot of us get to our 30s and we don't know what the next step is. Sometimes you make a big pivot.
Today we meet Aj Writer and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston.
Aj Writer is a nonbinary writer and general dumpster fire of a human being (editor's note: Aj's words!). After a decade in journalism and conversations with top creatives in their field, Aj opened FWDIO Studios, a creative content company, that focuses on making media that is representative of the diversity in LGBT and BIPOC populations. Aj's second book, Strip Me Down, came out in paperback this month and the company is busy working on its first pilot animation. They want to expand to comics and audiobooks next. "If we want to tell our stories, we have to do it ourselves."
Casey McQuiston is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of romantic comedies, including One Last Stop, I Kissed Shara Wheeler, and Red, White & Royal Blue, whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Bon Appetit. Born and raised in southern Louisiana, Casey now lives in New York City with a poodle mix named Pepper.
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 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: John Parker Executive Producer: Jim Pounds Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Troy Ford, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, Sofia Nerman, and Gary Nygaard. Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
This book flipped on a lot of switches in my head.
Today we meet Joel Freedman and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: Good Times/Bad Times by James Kirkwood.
Joel Freedman taught English at a college-prep high school in South L.A., where for most of his tenure, he was the only out gay instructor. He’s a retired writing instructor at L.A. Southwest College and a produced playwright. He published “Echoes of Silence: Empathy and Making Connections through Writing Process” in English Journal, which is a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English. As a member of his union, he contributed to the union’s paper United Teacher. He co-chaired the UCLA-WP’s LGBTQ Study Group and has three as-of-yet unpublished novels: 10 Months to Vermont, All Beneath the Sky, and Love Song. He has been married for 40 years to author-comic-producer Mike Player.
James Kirkwood was a Tony Award-winning author, actor, and playwright. During his career, he won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
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 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: John Parker Executive Producer: Jim Pounds Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Troy Ford, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, Sofia Nerman, and Gary Nygaard. Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!