Welcome to our Summer of Book Love series! Every Tuesday this summer we will feature new episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven which has your next summer read! Today we meet Kelly Balch and their novel Aphrodite's Sister . This novel series follows Petra Ambrosi, who is a Goddess with empathic abilities, though she is emotionless herself. Throughout the novel, and its subsequent sequel, she is sent down to earth, falls in love with a mortal woman, wrestles to understand her diminishing gifts, bre...
Jul 18, 2023•8 min
Welcome to our Summer of Book Love series with our newest episode of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven! Every Tuesday we feature your next summer read. Meet C.H. Williams and his new book One of a Thousand Names . This fantasy novel follows Rose, who is on a mission to avenge her father's death. As she sacrifices her friends, she must make a decision about whether avenging her father is worth the increasingly steep price. With gods and shadows and betrayal after betrayal, Rose will have to decide whether...
Jul 11, 2023•9 min
The book where your self-proclaimed fag hag decides to kidnap you. Today we meet Clark Carlton and Robert Rodi! Our guest is novelist, playwright, and producer Clark Carlton. You may know him from his sci-fi/fantasy novel Prophets of the Ghost Ants which launched his Antasy series. Our featured author is Robert Rodi who has published seven novels, and he also writes comic books, nonfiction, as well as a spoken-word performer and jazz singer. We’re talking about the book that saved Clark's life: ...
Jun 27, 2023•41 min•Season 3Ep. 17
Queer kids have to grow up so fast to protect ourselves. Our guest todays are Nick Bussett and A. Rey Pamatmat! Nick is the co-host of Gay Talk 2.0 and the Director of Development at the Shubert Theatre. Rey is an award winning playwright and writer. He is a GLAAD and Lambda nominee and the co-Director of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. We’re talking about the play that saved Nick's life: Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them by A. Rey Pamatmat. Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them is about three kids - Ken...
Jun 20, 2023•44 min•Season 3Ep. 16
All of the queer futures that we can build for ourselves. Our guest today is the CEO and founder of editaudio, Steph Colbourn. editaudio is a podcast production company with a mission to hire more women, nb and trans people in media. Founded in 2014, Steph put together an amazing queer team of producers and staff to make the audio industry more representative of what the word actually looks like. And it looks queer! Steph (they/she) shares with us the book that saved her life: The Waves by Virgi...
Jun 13, 2023•42 min•Season 3Ep. 15
Meet A.J. Irving and her new book The Wishing Flower ! An LGBTQ-inclusive story about understanding your peers, your feelings, and yourself, The Wishing Flower is a love letter to longing, belonging, and longing to belong. With stunning illustrations by Kip Alizadeh, The Wishing Flower will inspire readers to honor their wishes and show the world their truest selves. A.J. Irving grew up in Boise, Idaho, writing stories and daydreaming about becoming an author. Now, she writes picture books and p...
Jun 06, 2023•10 min•Season 3Ep. 14
Drag. Vodka. 90s subculture. And knowing you're gonna be ok. Our guest today is Nathan Eckstein (he/they) who is a writer, playwright, and graduate student at the University of Minnesota pursuing a Masters degrees in Architecture. They are also a candidate for another masters degree in Science Research Practices. Nathan shares with us how the memoir I Am Not Myself These Days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell saved his life. What’s extra special about this episode is that it was recorded live in front of a...
May 30, 2023•52 min•Season 3Ep. 13
Meet four-time HQ MIX Trophy winner for best Webcomic, Mário César and his new book Blessed Cure . Like Alison Bechdel's Fun Home , César's Blessed Cure uses comics to explore queer life. In this book, our hero, Acacio do Nascimento, knew he was a different boy from others. He would rather be playing with dolls than playing soccer. The hula hoop interested him more than cowboy pistols. Scared by the possibility of their son being a homosexual, Acacio's parents begin conversion therapy, starting ...
May 23, 2023•8 min•Season 3Ep. 12
I read it as a teenager. Then starred in it with Olympia Dukakis. Our guest today is writer, actor, and teacher Jonathan Fried. Jonathan shares with us how the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams saved his life. What’s extra special about this for Jonathan is that not only did this play have life-saving features for him as a teenager, he went on to star in it in a production with Olympia Dukakis! The Glass Menagerie follows the lives of the dysfunctional Wingfield family, son Tom, mot...
May 16, 2023•30 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Meet A.J. Bermudez and her darkly playful (and Lambda Literary Award nominated!) story collection: Stories No One Hopes Are About Them . These short stories explore characters who are ni de aquí, ni de allá—neither from here nor there—straddling competing worlds, disrupting paradigms, and transitioning from objects of other people’s stories to active subjects and protagonists of their own. Big things happen in this collection. But it’s also a collection of small intimacies: misremembered names, ...
May 09, 2023•8 min•Season 3Ep. 10
To be queer, young, and surfing on the beach. Where's your queer true north? Our guests today are attorney David Rephan and Lambda Literary Award finalist Jay Quinn! David shares with us how Jay's novel Metes and Bounds saved his life and how David continues to return to the novel as a queer true north. This was Jay's first novel and he went on to write four more as well as a memoir. Metes and Bounds follows 18-year surfer, Matt, as he leaves home after his high school graduation to work for his...
May 02, 2023•35 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Meet Joseph Plaster and his new book Kids on the Street: Queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco's Tenderloin . It's 7 Minutes in Book Heaven! Where we meet queer authors and talk with them about the new books they have coming out for us to love and cuddle up with. What's Kids on the Street about? Joseph explores the informal support networks that enabled abandoned and runaway queer youth to survive in tenderloin districts across the United States. He shows how they collectively and creative...
Apr 25, 2023•13 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Seriously, though. How DO we thread together all of our queer identities? Our guest is writer, educator, and theater maker Allison Vincent and we talk about the queer book that saved her life: the novella Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. Goodbye to Berlin is a Queer classic. Our hero moves to Berlin where he meets the incomparable Sally Bowles. They become roommates as he explores Berlin and his sexuality. The novella was adapted into the award-winning theatrical production and film C...
Apr 18, 2023•45 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Meet McKenzie Wark and her new book Raving . It's 7 Minutes in Book Heaven! Where we meet queer authors and talk with them about the new books they have coming out for us to love and cuddle up with. What's Raving about? McKenzie takes us into the undisclosed locations of New York's thriving underground queer and trans rave scene. Techno, first and always a Black music, invites fresh sonic and temporal possibilities for this era of diminishing futures. Raving to techno is an art and a technique a...
Apr 11, 2023•8 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Going from unseen to seen. This episode is the recording of our live event at Lush Lounge and Theater. And we welcome back William Burleson! You remember him from Season One, when we discussed how his book Bi America was life-giving for our guest Neil Aasve. Now, William talks with me about the book that saved his life: The Bisexual Option by Fritz Klein, MD. He shares with us, "I have to say, coming out as Bi, at first to myself, and then later to other people, there is really an uphill climb t...
Apr 04, 2023•38 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with. Today, we meet Gerardo Sámano Córdova and his new novel Monstrilio. What it's about? Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago’s lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an...
Mar 28, 2023•9 min•Season 3Ep. 4
When you go up that mountain you don't know what you'll find. Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode, we meet Gerard Cabrera (he/him) and I talk with him about The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. Gerard tells me that, " The Magic Mountain is about educating yourself and trying to make decisions for how you want to live your own life. Do you want to follow a path of seeking freedom or do you want to follow a path of just maintaining a status quo so that you can survive? With AIDS raging, I t...
Mar 21, 2023•48 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with. Today, we meet B.G. Wolfe and and her new novel April Renegade. B.G. aims to write diverse characters and storylines, with emphasis on those in the LGBTQ+ community and those who struggle with their mental health like she does. April Reneg...
Mar 14, 2023•9 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Reclaiming our coming out stories. Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode, we meet Jacob Aloi (he/him) and I talk with him about Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli . This YA novel follows 16-year old Simon Spier as he navigates coming out as well as meeting his first love. The book really tackles coming out stories and owning them. It was also adapted into the rom-com Love, Simon which was the first LGBT rom-com by a major film studio. Plus, Becky (she/her) joins us to d...
Mar 07, 2023•51 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this short podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with. Today, we meet Michele Kirichanskaya and their new book Ace Notes: Tips and Tricks on Existing in an Allo World. Michele is a freelance journalist, primarily writing book reviews, interviews, pop-culture think pieces, and more. Miche...
Feb 28, 2023•8 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this short podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with. Today, we meet Joshua Gonzales and his new book Keep Sweet: My Homemade Recipe for a Fulfilling Gay Life . He is an LGBTQ+ Latino actor and writer living in NYC. He is also the host of the podcast Keep Sweet: The Positive World podca...
Feb 21, 2023•9 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this short podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with. Today, we meet Loren A. Olson, MD and his new book No More Neckties: A Memoir in Essays . Loren is the award-winning author of Finally Out: Letting Go of Living Straight and in this new memoir he flings open the doors on the hard stu...
Jan 31, 2023•10 min•Season 2Ep. 18
God cares about the most marginalized bodies. Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode we’re talking with the Reverend Shannon TL Kearns (he/him) about Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson. Rev. Kearns was raised fundamentalist Evangelical, however he went on to become the first openly Transgender man ordained to the Old Catholic Priesthood. Our wide-ranging conversation includes how Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit helped him reconcile his gender identity, sexuality, and faith...
Jan 24, 2023•44 min•Season 2Ep. 17
Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with. Today, we meet Tess Sharpe and her upcoming book 6 Times We Almost Kissed ( And One Time We Did ). What’s this new YA novel about? After years of bickering, Penny and Tate have called a truce: they’ll play nice. They have to. Their mothers...
Jan 17, 2023•9 min•Season 2Ep. 16
I didn't really understand, until I read this book, what was my meaning? What was I here for? Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode we’re talking with Nicole Olila (she/her) about the Lambda Literary Award winning novel Out of Time by Paula Martinac. Today’s conversation is one of those life imitates art imitates life moments as Nicole’s work as an archivist and owner of a vintage feminist and queer bookshop mirrors Out of Time ’s main character Susan who finds a scrapbook in a vintage st...
Jan 10, 2023•38 min•Season 2Ep. 15
The first time I saw a potential future for someone like me. Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode we’re talking with Henry Holden (he/they) about Peter Darling by S.A Chant. This novel is a sequel and really a re-telling of Peter Pan, in which Peter is trans, an adult now, and starts a relationship with Captain James Hook! For Henry, he told us, that reading Peter Darling was, "the first moment that I saw a potential future for someone like me. And I think it was the first time I was all...
Dec 27, 2022•57 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Welcome to our LGBT podcast 7 Minutes in Book Heaven – presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! In this short podcast, we spend 7 minutes in our virtual studio interviewing LGBTQ authors about their new and upcoming books for us to love and cuddle up with. Today, we meet Lindsey A. Freeman and her upcoming book is Running . What’s it about? Lindsey presents the feminist and queer handbook of running that she always wanted but could never find. For Freeman, running is full of joy, desir...
Dec 20, 2022•8 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Building a language to be able to talk with my parents. Welcome to our LGBT podcast! In this episode we’re talking with community organizer and activist LaSaia Wade (she/they) about Secret Society by Miasha. This novel starts as a story about two flashy women who hustle men for money, but then dives into the twists and turns of living and loving in the world as trans women of color. LaSaia tells us that Secret Society "was part of me building the language to translate transness to my parents." P...
Dec 13, 2022•48 min•Season 2Ep. 11
On today’s episode, we have a special crossover episode for you with one of my favorite podcasts The Sewers of Paris . The Sewers of Paris is a podcast about how queer people's lives are shaped by our favorite books, movies, music, and shows. So, how could we not have a crossover? The host is writer, podcaster, and video-maker Matt Baume. He’s been nominated for a GLAAD award for journalism and he created the YouTube pop culture series Culture Cruise and the LGBTQ news shows Weekly Debrief and M...
Dec 06, 2022•50 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Be who you are. And don't apologize. Welcome to our LGBT podcast and in this episode we’re talking with actor Troy Stanley (he/him) about Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. This novel kicked off a landmark series as well as numerous television adaptations. For Troy, he told us, "I think what Tales of the City said to me was be who you are don't apologize for who you are be who you want to be." See Troy live in these upcoming productions! MNM Theatre Company’s production of The 25th Annual Pu...
Nov 29, 2022•43 min•Season 2Ep. 9
