When This Long Weekend Is Over, My Book Will Be Out!

My book, A PLACE OF OUR OWN: SIX SPACES THAT SHAPED QUEER WOMEN’S CULTURE, will be out in the U.S. on Tuesday, May 28, and nine days later in the U.K. When I sent out the most recent issue of this newsletter, finished copies of the handsome U.S. edition had already reached Edinburgh, and now I also have the extraordinarily attractive U.K. edition on hand! In an unusual reversal, the British version is bigger. (I may be exaggerating when I say that British apples are the size of American cherries, but only slightly!)

Since a couple of people have asked, there WILL be an audiobook version of A PLACE OF OUR OWN, narrated by me, but for various reasons too dull to go into (though I will just take a moment to restate for the record that Maggie Cooper is the world’s best literary agent), it will come out a wee bit later—around July 30.

A few takeaways from the experience of narrating the audiobook:

1. I have lost all my love for alliteration. About 5 percent of my sentences caused about 80 percent of my retakes, and the worst culprits were the little blighters stuffed with alliteration.
2. I’ve always known that I have a favorite, you might even say a go-to, sentence construction. I maintain that it works perfectly well when the reading happens “inside” your head but, well, let’s just say that I’m a good bit less fond of it after reading it out loud a few too many times. (I will not be sharing what it is—but, yes, em-dashes are involved.)
3. Like all fans of 30 Rock, I was familiar with the rural juror. Nevertheless, I chose to write an entire chapter about rural redoubts, which set me up for some tongue-twisters. I’d like to ask the June of 18 months ago: What was so wrong with the perfectly pronouncable word countryside? Even country communes would have been better!
4. Even though two of the APOOO-related podcast interviews that have come out thus far have featured the hosts (lovingly) imitating my pronunciation of the word book, I didn’t even try to change my (correct) pronunciation of that word. (It comes up way too frequently.) BUT I kind of wish I’d made more of an effort to standardize the way that I say cook, since I know many Americans hear it as kook. I haven’t received my requests for retakes yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me if I’m asked to have another go at that word!

Starting tomorrow, I’m off on a two-week trip to the East Coast. I’ll be doing some promotional events (see below), but I hope I’ll also get a chance to wander around New York and D.C., hang out with friends, and do a little stationery shopping. I will also try very hard to resist the siren song of banana-flavored Laffy Taffy. (There’s a reason my dentists appear in the book’s Acknowledgments.) Come see me!

RECOMMENDATIONS: Season 9 of Slow Burn, Gays Against Briggs, is so good! Host Christina Cauterucci’s story of the 1978 fight against a California anti-gay initiative is beautifully told, wonderfully emotional, and absolutely full of queer women’s voices. Highly recommended!

LISTEN TO ME: For Working, I spoke with Francesca Zambello, artistic director of the Washington National Opera, about how she came to add a new ending to Puccini’s Turandot, and on Working Overtime Isaac Butler set up a fascinating conversation with writer Justin Taylor about the very long gestation period of his novel Reboot, and how and why he stuck with it for so long.

I was also a guest on Working and Making Gay History, talking about my bOOOOOOOOk.

EVENTS: I’m glad to say that I have some book events on the calendar.

Monday, June 3: Washington, DC. Politics and Prose, Connecticut Avenue, 7 p.m., in conversation with Christina Cauterucci.

Wednesday, June 5: New York City. P&T Knitwear, Lower East Side, 7 p.m., in conversation with Amelia Possanza.

Friday, June 14: Edinburgh, Topping & Company, 7:30 p.m., with Alison Bechdel. (This event will now happen at the Ukrainian Community Centre a little bit down the road.)

Sunday, Aug. 4, 2:45 p.m., at Wilderness Festival, Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire, U.K. (Camping alert!)

Monday, Aug. 19: Minneapolis, Magers & Quinn, with Krista Burton, 7 p.m.

Wednesday, Aug. 21: Chicago, Women & Children First, 7 p.m.

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Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this newsletter and want to share it, or were forwarded this edition and want to subscribe, the link is https://buttondown.email/WhereAre. The archives are here. Info on ordering A PLACE OF OUR OWN can be found here. Reply to this email to share any thoughts or ideas.