Host Jason Blitman talks to Clare Leslie Hall (Broken Country) about the inspiration behind her book and how she straddled multiple genres. They talk about themes of nostalgia, the challenges of writing, and the emotional connections to her characters. Broken Country is the March 2025 pick for both Reese's Book Club and Barnes & Noble's Book Club. Clare Leslie Hall is a novelist and journalist who lives in the wilds of Dorset, England, with her family. She’s the author of Broken Country, Pictures of Him, and Days You Were Mine. BOOK CLUB! Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply. http://aardvarkbookclub.com WATCH! https://youtube.com/@GaysReading FOLLOW! Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman Bluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com

Host Jason Blitman talks to Charlotte McConaghy (Wild Dark Shore) about Charlotte's journey from writing fantasy epics to exploring real-world themes, environmentalism and human connection in her recent works, and the challenges and joys of depicting complex, authentic characters. Jason is then joined by Guest Gay Reader Bruce Vilanch who shares amusing anecdotes from his vast career in entertainment, including his experiences with celebrities and the most memorable—and infamous—projects he's worked on. Charlotte McConaghy is the author of the international bestseller MIGRATIONS, a TIME Magazine Best Book of the Year and the Amazon Best Fiction Book of the Year for 2020, which is being translated into over twenty-five languages and adapted for film, as well as the New York Times Bestseller ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES. Her forthcoming novel WILD DARK SHORE will be released March 4, 2025. She lives in Sydney, Australia. Bruce Vilanch is an actor (occasionally an actress), writer (occasionally a rewriter), and comedian (occasionally for money, often for causes). He has coauthored 25 Academy Award spectacles, winning two writing Emmys in the process, and has been nominated for seven more. In addition to the Oscars, he has cowritten many Tonys, Emmys, Grammys, People’s Choice, American Comedy Awards, TV Land Awards, SAG Awards, and a ton of other pageants, roasts, tributes, and various trumped-up reasons for people to strut a red carpet. He has coauthored dozens of variety television shows and actually put words in the mouth of Cher. He’s also a lyricist, scoring gold and platinum records for disco songs he wrote for Eartha Kitt and the Village People. And musical theatre geeks will remember him as the coauthor of the Broadway misfire called Platinum, which was revived off-Broadway for reasons that continue to mystify Bruce. BOOK CLUB! Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply. http://aardvarkbookclub.com WATCH! https://youtube.com/@GaysReading FOLLOW! Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman Bluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com

In this bonus episode of Gays Reading, host Jason Blitman is in conversation wiht author Sara Sligar (Vantage Point) recorded live at the Palm Springs Readers' Festival. Together they explore the unsettling world of deepfakes and their impact, the inspiration behind her novel, and the ethical implications of deepfake technology. Sara Sligar is an author and academic based in Los Angeles, where she teaches English and creative writing as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Southern California. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s in History from the University of Cambridge. Her writing has been published in McSweeney’s, Quartz, The Hairpin, and other outlets. Take Me Apart is her first novel. BOOK CLUB! Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply. http://aardvarkbookclub.com WATCH! https://youtube.com/@GaysReading FOLLOW! Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman Bluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com

Host Jason Blitman talks to Karissa Chen (Homeseeking) about musicals--particularly The Last Five Years' influence on her writing, dreams as well as idealism, the coincidence of reconnection, and the concept of seeking home. Jason is then joined by Guest Gay Reader Paul Lisicky (Song So Wild and Blue) about all things Joni Mitchell. Homeseeking is the January 2025 Good Morning America Book Club selection. Karissa Chen is a Fulbright fellow, Kundiman Fiction fellow, and a VONA/Voices fellow whose fiction and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Eater, The Cut, NBC News THINK!, Longreads, PEN America, Catapult, Gulf Coast, and Guernica, among others. She was awarded an artist fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts as well as multiple writing residencies including at Millay Arts, where she was a Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellow and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, among others. She was formerly a senior fiction editor at The Rumpus and currently serves as the editor-in-chief at Hyphen magazine. She received an MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College and splits her time between New Jersey and Taipei, Taiwan. Paul Lisicky is the author of seven books including Later: My Life at the Edge of the World (one of NPR's Best Books of 2020), as well as The Narrow Door (a New York Times Editors' Choice and a Finalist for the Randy Shilts Award), Unbuilt Projects, The Burning House, Famous Builder, and Lawnboy. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, Conjunctions, The Cut, Fence, The New York Times, Ploughshares, Tin House, and in many other magazines and anthologies. He has taught in the creative writing programs at Cornell University, New York University, Sarah Lawrence College, and elsewhere. He is currently a Professor of English in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Rutgers University-Camden, where he is Editor of StoryQuarterly. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. BOOK CLUB! Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply. http://aardvarkbookclub.com WATCH! https://youtube.com/@GaysReading FOLLOW! Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman Bluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com

Host Jason Blitman talks to Nancy Johnson (People of Means) about race, class, and civil rights, offering a multi-layered perspective on life issues both timeless and timely. They touch on intriguing parent-child relationships, the omnipresent "they," and more. Jason is then joined by Guest Gay Reader, musical artist McKenna Michels, who shares her unique blend of storytelling through song, music video, and graphic novel. A native of Chicago’s South Side, Nancy Johnson worked for more than a decade as an Emmy-nominated, award-winning television journalist at CBS and ABC affiliates nationwide. A graduate of Northwestern University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she lives in downtown Chicago and manages brand communications for a large nonprofit. Her first book, The Kindest Lie, was a Book of the Month Club selection and a Target Book Club pick. Hailing from the vibrant city of Austin, where creativity lives on every corner, McKenna Michels is a singer-songwriter whose melodies and lyrics resonate deep within the soul. Her heart-driven songs give voice not only to the traumas she endured, but to countless nameless survivors who have faced similar challenges in their own lives. https://www.mckennamichelsmusic.com/ Miranda July story as mentioned in the Valentine's Day episode: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/09/18/something-that-needs-nothing BOOK CLUB! Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply. http://aardvarkbookclub.com WATCH! https://youtube.com/@GaysReading FOLLOW! Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman Bluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com

In this special Valentine's Day episode, host Jason Blitman talks to February's Read with Jenna author, Jessica Soffer (This is a Love Story). From New York City's Central Park to the evocative smell of street food, Jason and Jessica explore the romantic and the realist perspectives on love. They share some personal loves, book and story recommendations, and even a few favorite food-related love stories. This episode is for both the hopeless romantics and steadfast realists. Jessica Soffer is the author of This Is a Love Story and Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots. She grew up in New York City, attended Connecticut College, and earned her MFA at Hunter College. Her work has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, Real Simple, Saveur, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, and on NPR’s Selected Shorts. She teaches creative writing to small groups and in the corporate space and lives in Sag Harbor, New York, with her family. BOOK CLUB! Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply. http://aardvarkbookclub.com WATCH! https://youtube.com/@GaysReading FOLLOW! Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman Bluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com

Host Jason Blitman talks to Jennifer Finney Boylan (Cleavage) about gender identity, homemade pizza, music, and much more. Jennifer even plays an impromptu song on the piano! Then Jason is joined by Julian Winters (I Think They Like You) about his debut adult novel and their mutual love for rom-coms. Jennifer Finney Boylan is the author of nineteen books, including Mad Honey, coauthored with Jodi Picoult. Her memoir, She’s Not There, was the first bestselling work by a transgender American. Since 2014, she has been the inaugural Anna Quindlen Writer in Residence at Barnard College of Columbia University; she is also on the faculty of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference of Middlebury College and the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. She is the President of PEN America, and from 2011 to 2018 she was a member of the Board of Directors of GLAAD, including four years as national cochair. In 2022-23 she was a Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She graduated from Wesleyan University and Johns Hopkins, and she holds doctorates honoris causa from Sarah Lawrence College, the New School, and Wesleyan University. For many years she was a contributing opinion writer for the opinion section of the New York Times. Her work has also appeared in the New Yorker, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Literary Hub, Down East, and many other publications. She lives in Maine and New York with her wife, Deirdre. They have two children: a daughter, Zai, and a son, Sean. Julian Winters is the author of the award-winning Young Adult novels Running With Lions, Right Where I Left You, How to Be Remy Cameron, The Summer of Everything, and As You Walk On By, as well as the upcoming Prince of the Palisades and his Adult romance debut, I Think They Love You. A self-proclaimed comic book geek, Julian currently lives outside of Atlanta where he can be found swooning over rom-coms or watching the only two sports he can follow—volleyball and soccer. BOOK CLUB! Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply. http://aardvarkbookclub.com WATCH! https://youtube.com/@GaysReading FOLLOW! Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman Bluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com

Host Jason Blitman talks to Ira Madison III (Pure Innocent Fun) about everything from reading Entertainment Weekly in the cafe at Barnes & Noble to elements of nostalgia like their mutual love of the pink Power Ranger, the importance of Limewire, and the best Sondheim musicals. Jason is then joined by Guest Gay Reader Todd Almond (Slow Train Coming) about what he's reading (a lot!) and Todd shares more about his book, which chronicles his experience opening a Broadway show just days before Covid. Ira Madison III is the host of Crooked Media’s pop culture podcast Keep It. His television writing credits include Uncoupled, Q-Force, Nikki Fre$h, and So Help Me Todd. He has written for GQ, New York Magazine, Interview, MTV News, and Cosmopolitan, among other publications. Nylon named him one of the “most reliably hilarious and incisive cultural critics writing now.” He has appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Watch What Happens Live, The Wendy Williams Show, and the second season of the Netflix drama You. Ira Madison III lives in New York City. Todd Almond is an acclaimed performer, songwriter, and playwright. His recent performance on Broadway in Girl from the North Country was called “stunning” by The Washington Post and “roof-raising, uplifting, and invigorating” by Hollywood Reporter. His musical The Odyssey, for which he wrote the book, music and lyrics, was hailed as “brash, funny and heart-stirring” by The New York Times. His theater piece Kansas City Choir Boy was called “awesome, slyly punk rock” by Rolling Stone. His original musical I’m Almost There played at the Edinburgh Fringe festival and New York’s Minetta Lane Theater in 2024. BOOK CLUB! Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply. http://aardvarkbookclub.com WATCH! https://youtube.com/@GaysReading FOLLOW! Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman Bluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman CONTACT! hello@gaysreading.com