Brontez Purnell at "Queer Is Black"

Brontez Purnell has been publishing, performing and curating in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 10 years. He is the author of the cult zine Fag School, frontman for his band The Young Lovers and co-founder and choreographer of the Brontez Purnell Dance Company. Formerly a dancer with Gravy Train!!!, a Queer electro indie band that gained national prominence in the mid-2000's, Purnell just published his first novella Johnny Would You Love Me (If My Dick Were Bigger) with Rudos and Rubes and will publish a second novel, Since I Laid My Body Down..., with the Sister Spit imprint of City Lights Books. He has currently been awarded the Creative Work Fund to begin work on a documentary about the life of the late Black experimental Bay Area choreographer Ed Mock. 

Brontez will read from Johnny Would You Love Me If... at Perfectly Queer on Mon., Feb. 8, 7pm at Books Inc. Castro. For more info, go to facebook.com/events/216649808674293/. For more on Johnny Would You Love Me If..., see last gasp.com/d/42243/

Ajuan Mance at Perfectly Queer

Ajuan Mance is a visual artist and English professor (Mills College). In both their scholarly writing and their comics and zines, Ajuan explores issues of race, gender and the literature, lives and locations in which they intersect. They are the author of three scholarly books and several comic books and zines. Their website is www.8-rock.com.

Mance will present stories from their comic book Gender Studies at "Queer Is Black," the February Perfectly Queer reading.  Join us Monday, February 8th, 7 p.m. at Books Inc. Castro, 2275 Market Street, between Noe and Sanchez streets in San Francisco. It's free--plus there will be wine, desserts and door prizes!  Mance is donating a print from her "1001 Black Men" series as one of the door prizes. Her comic books and more prints will be available for purchase.  www.facebook.com/events/216649808674293/

    

February Perfectly Queer is "Queer Is Black"

Monday, Feb. 8, 7pm at Books Inc. Castro, three authors star at "Queer Is Black," Perfectly Queer #2.  Ajuan Mance will read from their comic book series Gender Studies, Brontez Purnell presents his new novella Johnny Would You Love Me If... and Arisa White reads from her recent poetry collection Hurrah's Nest.  Books will be available for sale and signing.  The event is free.  Wine and dessert served--and there will be door prizes! (which will be awarded promptly at 7pm)  For more information and to rsvp go to https://www.facebook.com/perfectlyqueerreadings/events.

Reading by Lori Ostlund at Perfectly Queer--January 2016

Here is an excerpt from "After the Parade" by Lori Ostlund at our inaugural event, "New Year, New Books"

[The full clip was too large for this site and only a portion of it is shown. To see the full clip, go to our Facebook page entry: https://www.facebook.com/perfectlyqueerreadings/]

Reading by Andrew Demcak at Perfectly Queer--January 2016

Here is an excerpt from "A Little Bit Langston" by Andrew Demcak at our inaugural event, "New Year, New Books"

Readings by Natasha Dennerstein at Perfectly Queer--January 2016

Here are three poems from the collection "Anatomize" by Natasha Dennerstein at our inaugural event, "New Year, New Books"

Lori Ostlund

And one more author for January: Lori Ostlund!

Her first book, a story collection entitled "The Bigness of the World," won the 2008 Flannery O’Connor Award, the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award, the California Book Award for First Fiction and was a Lambda finalist. Stories from it appeared in the Best American Short Stories and the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories. Scribner will reissue the collection in early 2016. Lori has received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award and a fellowship to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Most recently, her work has appeared in ZYZZYVA, The Southern Review, and the Kenyon Review. She is a teacher and lives in San Francisco with her wife and two cats. 

Lori's newest work, "After the Parade," tells the story of 41-year-old Aaron Englund, who leaves his partner of 20 years and moves to San Francisco, where he spends his days walking around the city and teaching ESL at a shoddy language school in the Richmond and his nights listening to his landlords argue above him. In learning to live alone for the first time, he realizes that he must confront the secrets of his childhood in small-town Minnesota. The book deals with several themes, including bullying, loneliness, and the need to connect with others.

"After the Parade" has already garnered many accolades and has been chosen as one of the Great Reads of 2015 by the NPR Book Concierge. Hurray!