The Queer Love Podcast

I was excited to finally chat with Katrina Anne Willis about her memoir Hurricane Lessons : A Memoir of Betrayal and Becoming . It’s a gripping story of late-in-life queer awakening, institutional gaslighting, and the devastating cost of finally choosing personal truth. Katrina, thanks for joining me. Last year, we published an essay by Katrina titled “ I Was Gay, and He Was Understanding ,” which...

I spoke with with Claybourne Elder , a performer who many may know from his breakout role as John Adams on HBO’s The Gilded Age and his roles in Broadway revivals like Company. Most recently, he has channeled his journey from a Mormon upbringing in Utah to fatherhood in New York into his debut solo album, If The Stars Were Mine . You can stream it on the platforms and it’s now on vinyl from Center...

I met Lindsey Danis while in Baltimore during the annual AWP conference . She told me about her forthcoming book, (Out) on the Road , and I was excited to discuss the idea of “queer travel” and how that intersects with our search for love, opportunities for discovery and celebration. We published Lindsey’s essay “ Lost in Apalachicola ” last week, which is an excerpt from the book, and details a t...

It’s been nearly a year since we hosted our first QLP Book Club . Over that time I’ve been thrilled to talk to so many talented authors about their novels and how they intersected with various topics of queer love. But I have to admit, I was disappointed that I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to focus on female-bodied desire. So I was thrilled to have author Mac Crane as our latest selection. In A...

By now you probably know I’m a big fan of archives, histories, biographies and exploring the queer past that has remained obscured for far too long. During my latest Sunday chat, I invited Ben Egerman to join me to discuss his “ gay little history zines ” and other historical work. We talked about the sapphic love stories that more people should be aware, a transgender horse thief, the Black drag...

I’ve enjoyed Mark Addison Smith ’s daily drawing project for years (you can follow him via Instagram if you’re curious), and I was thrilled that he agreed to collaborate with me on Vol. 2 of The QLP Quarterly zine. Mark is a queer artist and educator who specializes in typographic storytelling. His work focuses on using illustrative text to create visual narratives through printed matter, artist’s...

With a title like Men I Hate , Lynette D’Amico’s gorgeously written memoir in essays, you know people are going to raise an eyebrow. So when I invited her to join me for a chat recently, we definitely discussed the provocative title—and all the expectations that come with it. As she explained, many people imagine it will be about right-wing enemies or other detestable people, but the reality is mu...

For those who may be too young to recall how weird the 1980s and ‘90s were to be gay, you’ll definitely want to read Roddy Bottum ’s debut memoir, The Royal We . In it, the musician details what it was like growing up in Los Angeles before moving to San Francisco and forming the band Faith No More. And, believe me, it’s a really gay book! He recently joined me on The Queer Love Podcast to talk a l...

Michael Lowenthal is the author of a story collection, Sex With Strangers , and four more novels. His writing has appeared in a slew of prestigious publications, including Tin House , Ploughshares , The New York Times Magazine , The Washington Post , Guernica and The Southern Review . Plus, he’s taught creative writing at Boston College and Hampshire College and, for more than 20 years, he was a f...

It was such a pleasure to read Steve Majors’ latest memoir in essays, Man Made: In Search of Dads, Daddies, Father Figures, and Fatherhood , and an even greater privilege to be able to discuss it with him. He explores the intersections of race, identity and family in his work. In his debut memoir, High Yella , he recounted his experience growing up as a white-passing, mixed-race child in an all-Bl...

I was thrilled to have Clarence A. Haynes join the QLP Book Club to discuss his solo debut The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery, which he describes as an urban fantasy and glam horror novel, and is now available in paperback. First, a bit of background: Clarence also co-wrote Omar Epps’s acclaimed young adult sci-fi/fantasy title Nubia: The Awakening and its sequel, The Reckoning . Additionally, he...

I’ve known Rachel Kramer Bussel for nearly 20 years. She wrote for me when I was editor of the alt-weekly New York Press (RIP), and I read an essay from my memoir-in-progress at her “In the Flesh” event back in 2007 about the first time I went to a nude beach while living in Spain. (Yes, it’s one of my top goals for the new year: to get that manuscript in shape and send it out to be published at l...

I’ve done a lot of reading this year. My Goodreads challenge was to read 65 books, which if I’m being completely transparent, mainly consisted of a LOT of listening. As I recently shared via Notes, I used to question what “counts" as reading and what “counts" as writing. Yep, I used to be a snob about both. But my thoughts on the subject of both activities has evolved significantly over the years…...

It’s that wonderful time of year: When our relationships—whether new or time-tested—can get complicated. So what better time to ask an actual expert about what it means to date in these complicated times? Luckily, I had the opportunity to invite Moe Ari Brown, Hinge’s first Love & Connection Expert, to join me to answer a lot of my burning questions. To kick things off, we focused on Hinge’s new G...

Alejandro Varela’s debut novel, The Town of Babylon , was published in 2022, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. His second book, a collection of short stories titled The People Who Report More Stress , came out in 2023. I invited Alejandro to join me for the final QLP Book Club of the year to discuss his third book, Middle Spoon —which was released in September—and details a gay man’s...

Last December we had the pleasure of publishing this excerpt from Alex Alberto’s book, Entwined , focused on their relationship with their metamour, a term for a partner’s other partners. As Alex explained: “I often describe my book as an unexpected love story with metamours. While my initial interest in non-monogamy was about the freedom of developing sexual and romantic intimacy with multiple pe...

While I was researching for a story about the popularity of “ lavender marriages ,” I discovered Kelly Foster Lundquist’s debut memoir Beard , and I was instantly intrigued. We don’t hear the term as much these days, but growing up, it was a common trope that referred to the opposite-sex partner of a closeted gay person. Think Brian Batt’s character Sal on Mad Men and that scene where his wife Kit...

A few years ago, I was discussing the publishing process with Brian Schaefer. An excellent arts writer and journalist who has covered a breadth of other topics, he’s a regular contributor to the New York Times and many other publications (such as this piece about how dance has been a vital response to AIDS ). At the time, however, he was struggling to get representation with an agent so he could g...

Mike Albo is a writer, performer and “submerging artist,” as he jokingly explains in his new audiobook, Hologram Boyfriends , out on Tuesday, October 28. This is the just the latest smart, funny and provocative creation he’s shared with the world. His novels include Hornito , the cult classic The Underminer : The Best Friend Who Casually Destroys Your Life (watch this video about yoga if you’ve ne...

I was thrilled to have Damon Cardasis join me for a conversation on Friday, October 17. It just so happened to be the same day that Mr. Scorsese , the five-part documentary series directed by Rebecca Miller, that he produced began streaming on Apple TV. So, yeah, he’s a busy guy! In particular, I wanted to discuss the musical adaptation of his movie Saturday Church , which is currently running Off...

For the QLP Book Club, we only focus on fiction, since we already publish quite a bit of memoir and personal essays at The Queer Love Project . In particular, I’m always eager to talk to writers who have investigated various forms of love, and Cinema Love definitely fits the bill. So I was excited to talk to the author Andy Jiaming Tang about his debut novel released in May 2024. A bit about Andy:...

Last month I traveled to Los Angeles for my friend Michael Narkunski ’s wedding (a post about that experience and my thoughts on gay nuptials is still on the horizon, I promise!), and I had the pleasure of spending Saturday morning before the big event up at the Getty Center so I could catch the Queer Lens: A History of Photography exhibit before it closed. Although I’ve seen plenty of LGBTQ+ exhi...

After reading Oliver Radclyffe’s recent post on his Substack, titled “I don’t want to leave ,” I knew we had to find some time to chat about the topic. We’d been trying to figure out a way to collaborate for some time now, especially after reading Oliver’s first book, Adult Human Male , and his recent memoir, Frighten the Horses ( now available in paperback ). So we finally made it happen this Sun...

After reading Lester Fabian Brathwaite ’s recent post about the gay cheerleader Les in the Bring It On movie—which debuted 25 years ago this month—I knew we had to hop on a Substack LIVE and kiki about more gay s**t. We started off discussing the new “story” published by New Yor k magazine’s The Cut titled, “ We’ve Reached Peak Gay Sluttiness ,” and how Les was enjoying his own “slutty” summer. We...

In the latest episode of the Queer Love Podcast , trans pioneer and gender outlaw Kate Bornstein speaks with host Jerry Portwood about the reissue of her book, Hello, Cruel World: 101+ Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws . The second edition now includes 20 additional alternatives and Kate’s urgent new essay, “Hello, Cruel Gender.” At the top of the pod, Kate addresses the...