What this book showed me was how to balance pieces of myself that didn't fit together.

Today we meet Abdi Nazemian and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: Another Country by James Baldwin.

Abdi Nazemian spent his childhood in a series of exciting locations (Tehran, Paris, Toronto, New York), but could usually be found in his bedroom watching old movies and reading. His first novel, The Walk-In Closet, was awarded Best Debut at the Lambda Literary Awards. He has written three young adult novels: The Authentics, Like a Love Story, and The Chandler Legacies. As Head of Development for Water’s End Productions, Abdi has been an executive producer or associate producer on numerous films, including Call Me By Your Name, It Happened In L.A., The Price, The House of Tomorrow, and Little Woods.

Another Country, stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, depicts men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime. It was nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

James Baldwin was born in 1924 and educated in New York. The author of over twenty works of fiction and non-fiction, Baldwin received numerous accolades, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Ford Foundation Grant.

Connect with Abdi

website: abdinazemian.com
instagram: @abdaddy

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

Buy Another Country: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780679744719

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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, 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

Support the show

A new episode of This Queer Book Saved My Life drops on September 9th! In our off weeks we play episodes of The Gaily Show which John hosts. The Gaily Show is the only daily LGBTQ progressive news and talk radio show in the country airing in Minneapolis (AM950-KTNF) and Chicago (WCPT 820).

In this episode, Crime Ink: Iconic (An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Famous Queer Icons), is a new anthology of crime fiction and it comes out September 2nd. Its co-editor (John Copenhaver) and one of its contributing authors (Anne Laughlin) join us! Plus, Jim and John review the films Spark and Perfect Endings. Purchase your copy of Crime Ink here: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781612943251. Connect with John Copenhaver here: johncopenhaver.com. Connect with Anne here: annelaughlinwriter.com.

Watch on YouTube

We're in video too! You can watch this episode at youtube.com/@thegailyshow

Credits

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

Support the show

I was combating homophobia against one of the most powerful institutions in the world.

Today we meet Tim Jon Semmerling and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America by Eric Cervini.

Tim Jon Semmerling is an award-winning author, a respected mitigation expert, and an attorney in Illinois. His books and publications are held in over 900 libraries throughout the world and they are highly quoted in books, articles, and papers discussing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, politics, post-colonialism, discrimination, racism, and visual culture. His written work has informed and inspired museum displays at the Mark Twain Boyhood Museum. Christie's Auctions cites Semmerling’s scholarship to value political and propaganda art for sale. Tim Jon holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from Indiana University, an M.A. in Middle East Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and a J.D. from DePaul University’s College of Law.

In The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America, Eric Cervini tells the story of Frank Kameny, a rising astronomer working for the U.S. Defense Department. When President Eisenhower issues an Executive Order to fire all LGBTQ federal employees, the Pentagon investigates and then fires Kameny for his sexuality. But he fights back. He founds The Mattachine Society of Washington, the first organization to protest the systematic persecution of gay federal employees.

Eric Cervini is an award-winning historian of LGBTQ+ culture and politics. He received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Cambridge. He is also the creator and executive producer of The Book of Queer, which airs on Discovery+.

Connect with Tim Jon

website: themercuryendeavor.com
instagram: @timjonsemmerling

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

Buy The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781250798503

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, 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

Support the show

How do we live radiantly when the world seems bent on our erasure?

Today we meet Caro De Robertis and we’re talking about the queer book that saved their life: Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin, translated by Bonnie Huie.

Caro’s books best-selling books have Stonewall Book Awards and the Golden Poppy Octavia E. Butler Award; and, they have been finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award, Lambda Literary Award, and the Kirkus Prize. These books include The Palace of Eros, The President and the Frog, Cantoras, The Gods of Tango, and Perla. Caro was the first openly nonbinary person to received the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature. A professor at San Francisco State University, Caro is co-curating Conjuring Power: the Roots & Futures of Queer & Trans Movements, for San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. It will open Spring 2026. Their newest book is So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color.

Set in the post-martial-law era of late-1980s Taipei, Notes of a Crocodile is a coming-of-age story of queer misfits discovering love, friendship, and artistic affinity while hardly studying at Taiwan’s most prestigious university. Told through the eyes of an anonymous lesbian narrator nicknamed Lazi, this cult classic is a postmodern pastiche of diaries, vignettes, mash notes, aphorisms, exegesis, and satire by an incisive prose stylist and major countercultural figure.

Connect with Caro

website: caroderobertis.com
instagram: @caro_derobertis

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

Buy Notes of a Crocodile: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781681370767

Buy So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781643756875

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, 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

Support the show

Where are all the queer people in history?

Today we meet Ilana Masad and we’re talking about the queer book that saved her life: Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg. And Jordy joins us!

Ilana Masad is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and criticism. Their 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 forthcoming Beings.

Jordy Rosenberg is the author of the novels Confessions of the Fox and Night Night Fawn, as well as a scholarly monograph about 18th-century religious enthusiasts. Confessions was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, a Lambda Literary Award, among many other awards. Jordy is a professor in the Department of English and Associated MFA Faculty in the Program for Poets and Writers at The University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

In Confessions of the Fox, Jack Sheppard and Edgeworth Bess were the most notorious thieves, jailbreakers, and lovers of eighteenth-century London. Yet no one knows the true story. Their confessions have never been found. Until now. Reeling from heartbreak, a scholar named Dr. Voth discovers a long-lost manuscript—a gender-defying exposé of Jack and Bess’s adventures. But is it autobiography or a hoax? As Dr. Voth is drawn deeper into Jack and Bess’s tale of underworld resistance and gender transformation, it becomes clear that their fates are intertwined—and only a miracle will save them all.

Connect with Ilana and Jordy

website: ilanamasad.com
instagram: @ilanaslightlyignorant
bluesky: @ilanaslightly
newsletter: buttondown.com/imasadcritic

website: jordy-rosenberg.com
instagram: @jordyrosenberg

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

Buy Confessions of the Fox: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780399592287

Pre-order Beings: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781639737000

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, 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

Support the show

Is there any theology in the religion that I grew up in that is meaningful? Or is it just hate with a halo?

Today we meet Paul Cram and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality by John Boswell.

Described as “Honest, a little quirky,” Paul is a Twin Cities-based character actor, book lover, and multimedia designer. For over 15 years, he has been performing in films and onstage. He’s shared the screen with Woody Harrelson, Cillian Murphy, and Susan Sarandon. He stars in the upcoming film Anniversary, directed by Jim Cole. For the short film To Myself he was nominated for Best Actor at Z-Fest. A voracious reader, Paul launched the monthly “Men-Who-Read” nonfiction book club in 2019 which now has over 85 book lovers. Paul serves as the chair of Education and Outreach with SAG-AFTRA Twin Cities Local.

John Boswell's landmark book Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality is credited with launching the field of gay and lesbian studies. Winner of the National Book Award, this study of Christianity's history of homosexuality in the early West revealed the Church's radically different relationship to its gay members, including priests, bishops, and even saints. There is a documentary of Boswell and his work called Not A Tame Lion. You can watch it for free on Tubi: https://tubitv.com/movies/723518/not-a-tame-lion

Connect with Paul

website: iampaulcram.com
instagram: @iampaulcram
Men Who Read Book Club: paulcramactor.com/home-twin-cities-book-club-for-men

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

Buy Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780226345222

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, 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

Support the show

The book that showed you what a positive queer future could be. And then literally came true.

Today we meet Brendan Gillett and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: Uncle Bobby's Wedding by Sarah S. Brannen. And Sarah joins us for the conversation!

Brendan is a high school English teacher in Brooklyn, New York. He works with English language learners to create poetry, picture books, cooking blogs, and literary analysis essays in every language they know. When he's not teaching, he's writing his own queer stories, poetry, and research essays about queer history. He lives with his illustrator husband and their cat, Pigeon.

Sarah S. Brannen is the illustrator of the Robert F. Sibert Honor book Summertime Sleepers and the author of Uncle Bobby's Wedding, named one of the 100 best children's books of the last 100 years by Booktrust. Sarah has written and illustrated A Perfect Day, Madame Martine, and Madame Martine Breaks the Rules. Miles Comes Home, a companion book to Uncle Bobby's Wedding, came out last November. And her forthcoming book Lolly on the Ice is now available to pre-order.

In Uncle Bobby's Wedding, when Uncle Bobby announces that he and "his friend" Jamie are getting married everyone is happy -- except Chloe. After a magical day with Uncle Bobby and his boyfriend, Jamie, Chloe realizes she's not losing an uncle, but gaining one.

Connect with Brendan and Sarah

instagram: @mrbrendangillett
website: brendangillett.com

website: sarahbrannen.com
instagram: @sarahsbrannen
bluesky: @sarahsbrannen.bsky.social

Our Bookshop

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

Buy Uncle Bobby's Wedding: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781499810080

Buy Miles Comes Home: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781499814736

Pre-order Lolly on the Ice: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780593711828

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, 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

Support the show

This book sparked a five-year long career and life journey.

In a first for us, we have two guests today! They are Arden Harris and Emily Autenrieth. We’re talking about the queer book that saved their lives: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon and she joins us for the conversation!

Arden Harris is the buyer and lead bookseller for A Seat at the Table Books, an aspiring writer, and overall bookstore cryptid. They’re often found hiding in the shelves or crafting with their partner and four cats.

Emily Autenrieth is the founder and owner of A Seat at the Table Books. Emily saw a need in the community for a space where people of all ages and identities could be themselves and learn about others. With eir spouse Ryan's support, Emily opened a pop-up and online bookstore out of the family's home in January 2020. After getting a lease on a former float spa in April 2021, Emily and Ryan opened the brick-and-mortar store that November. They have been featured by ABC10 as business of the year for 2022!

Samantha Shannon is an award-winning and bestselling fantasy author. She studied English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. Her novel The Priory of the Orange Tree has sold over a million copies in English worldwide. At the age of 21, she published The Bone Season, the internationally bestselling first installment in a seven-book series of fantasy novels. The Dark Mirror, the fifth installment in the Bone Season series, just came out this past February.

Special Limited Series

This episode is part of a special limited series of episodes featuring only guests who are owners or staff at LGBTQ bookstores. Airing April-June 2025, these episodes will feature six bookstores across the United States and United Kingdom.

Today's bookstore A Seat at the Table Books is a family-owned bookstore in Elk Grove, CA, that fosters community through representation in our curated book selection, eco-friendly coffee, and mission-driven events. They strive to be a third space that is safe and affirming for all identities.

Connect with Arden, Emily, and Samantha

website: aseatatthetablebooks.org
bluesky: @seatbooks.bsky.social
instagram: @ASeatattheTableBooks
instagram: @bookstore.cryptid

website: samanthashannon.co.uk
instagram: @say_shannon

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 (learn more about my name change)
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson

Support the show