Penguin Book Of International Gay Writing

"A riotous party, " says David Leavitt of this anthology, in which seventeenth-century samurai mingle with twentieth-century Russian emigres and Chinese peasants. As in The Penguin Book of Gay Short Stories, writers both gay and straight explore the complicated questions surrounding love and sex between men, homosexual identity, relationships between gay men, their friends, and their families. From Plato to Boccaccio, Marguerite Yourcenar to Reinaldo Arenas, Yukio Mishima to Manuel Puig, these writings reveal an unexpected cultural and historical flexibility of attitudes toward homosexuality.

This collection of thirty-nine stories celebrates the diversity and unity of gay love and experience in the twentieth century.

The diversity - and unity - of gay love and experience in the 20th century is celebrated in this acclaimed anthology, which includes 21 stories from the first edition, together with 15 additional tales. The texts range from the tender unarticulated longings of D.H. Lawrence's A Poem for Friendship to the explicitly sexual.

The Penguin Book of Gay Australian Writingis the first anthology devoted solely to a retrospective overview of writing by gay men in this country. In his role as editor, novelist Graeme Aitken has collected together from classic and contemporary sources a selection of short stories, extracts from novels and memoir, essays, letters and poetry. While this landmark volume encompasses over seventy years of Australian writing, it particularly focuses on the past ten eventful years, a period of extraordinary growth and dynamism for gay writing. The book also includes a critical reflection by Michael Hurley, author ofA Guide to Gay and Lesbian Writing in Australia.

Today's most celebrated, prominent, and promising authors of gay fiction in English explore the literary influences and themes of their work in these revealing interviews with Richard Canning. Though the interviews touch upon a wide range of issues—including gay culture, AIDS, politics, art, and activism—what truly distinguishes them is the extent to which Canning encourages the authors to reflect on their writing practices, published work, literary forebears, and their writing peers—gay and straight. Edmund White talks about narrative style and the story behind the cover of A Boy's Own Story. Armistead Maupin discusses his method of writing and how his work has adapted to television. Dennis Cooper thinks about L.A., AIDS, Try, and pop music. Alan Hollinghurst considers structure and point of view in The Folding Star, and why The Swimming-Pool Library is exactly 366 pages long. David Leavitt muses on the identity of the gay reader—and the extent to which that readership defined a tradition. Andrew Holleran wonders how he might have made The Beauty of Men "more forlorn, romantic, lost" by writing in the first person.

WINNER of the Polari First Book Prize 2021 WINNER of the LAMBDA 2021 Literary Award for Best Gay Memoir/Biography A Dutiful Boy is Mohsin's personal journey from denial to acceptance: a revelatory memoir about the power of love, belonging, and living every part of your identity. Growing up in a devout Muslim household, it felt impossible for Mohsin to be gay. Unable to be open with his family, and with difficult conditions at school, he felt his opportunities closing around him. Despite the odds, Mohsin's perseverance led him to become the first person from his school to attend Oxford University, where new experiences and encounters helped him to discover who he truly wanted to be. Mohsin was confronted with the biggest decision he would ever make: to live the life that was expected of him or to live as his authentic self. A Guardian, GQ, and New Statesman Book of the Year 'Genuinely inspiring... Beautifully written, dignified and ultimately redemptive, this challenging story abounds with light and love' Attitude

Celebrated goldsmith and sculptor of the Italian Renaissance, Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71) fits the conventional image of a Renaissance man: a skillful virtuoso and courtier; an artist who worked in marble, bronze, and gold; and a writer and poet. Using the methodologies of New Historicism, social history, and gender and sexuality studies, this book places Cellini and his cultural production in the context of contemporary discourses about sexuality, law, magic, masculinity, and honor. In his life and literary oeuvre, the notorious artist, rogue, and sodomite aligned himself with the transgressive and oppositional voices of his day.