Gays Reading | A Book Podcast for Everyone

In this bonus episode of What's the TEA? host Jason Blitman talks to Hannah Silva about the exploration of queer single parenting and AI in her book, My Child, The Algorithm as well as Tom Pyun about his debut novel, Something Close to Nothing. What's the TEA? gets the inside scoop on new books–authors are tasked with describing their books with 3 words using the letters T, E, and A.
Hannah Silva is a writer and performer working in sound poetry, radio and experimental non-fiction. An Artificially Intelligent Guide to Love (BBC Radio 4) starred Fiona Shaw and was the starting point for My Child, the Algorithm. Silva has authored seven other plays for BBC Radio 3 and 4, winning the Tinniswood Award and numerous placements in the BBC Audio Drama Awards. Her debut poetry collection Forms of Protest was Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes. Talk in a bit, a record of sound poetry and music was in the Wire’s Top 25 albums of 2018. She lives in London with her child.
Tom Pyun earned his MFA at Antioch University Los Angeles and has been awarded fellowships by the Vermont Studio Center, VONA, and Tin House. His creative fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Rumpus, Reed Magazine, Joyland, and Blue Mesa Review. His essay, “Mothers Always Know,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net 2015.

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Jason and Brett kick off PRIDE 2024 with some incredible queer authors! They talk to Carvell Wallace (Another Word for Love) about the key to your ability to fight for what's right, R.O. Kwon (Exhibit) about art and how taking a choreography workshop got her in the body of her characters, and Byron Lane (Big Gay Wedding) about why he thinks he'd thrive in prison.
Carvell Wallace grew up between Southwestern PA, Washington DC, and Los Angeles. He attended Tisch School for the Arts and worked as a stage actor before spending fifteen years in direct service youth non-profits. He has covered arts, entertainment, music, culture, race, sports, and parenting for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Slate, GQ, Pitchfork, MTV News and others. As a podcast host, he has been nominated for a Peabody and won a Kaleidoscope Award and was the Slate parenting advice columnist. He is the co-author of the New York Times best-selling basketball memoir The Sixth Man with Andre Iguodala. He lives in Oakland and has two adult children, a comfortable couch, and a lot of plants.

R. O. Kwon is the author of the nationally bestselling novel The Incendiaries, which was named a best book of the year by more than forty publications and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award. With Garth Greenwell, Kwon coedited the bestselling Kink, a New York Times Notable Book. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Yaddo, and MacDowell. Born in Seoul, Kwon has lived most of her life in the United States.

Byron Lane is the author of A Star Is Bored, hailed by the New York Times Book Review as “wildly funny and irreverent.” He’s a playwright, screenwriter, Emmy Award–winning journalist, and former assistant to actress Carrie Fisher. He’s originally from New Orleans and lives in Palm Springs, California, with his husband, author Steven Rowley, and their rescue dogs, Raindrop and Shirley.

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
BOOKS!
Check out the list of books discussed on each episode on our Bookshop page: https://bookshop.org/shop/gaysreading
MERCH!
Purchase your Gays Reading podcast merchandise HERE!
https://gaysreading.myspreadshop.com/
FOLLOW!
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CONTACT!
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In the season finale of Gays Reading, host Jason Blitman sits down with Ann Patchett to discuss the annotated edition of her acclaimed novel Bel Canto. They explore the power of memory, the key to learning and appreciating opera, and much more. Ann shares stories about meeting Jim Parsons at Our Town on Broadway, attending the only baseball game of her life, and what she would say to her younger self who wrote Bel Canto. Tune in for Ann’s holiday book recommendations and Jason’s most memorable reads of the year.

Ann Patchett is the author of novels, most recently the #1 New York Times bestselling Tom Lake, works of nonfiction, and children's books. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the PEN/Faulkner, the Women's Prize for Fiction in the UK, and the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her novel The Dutch House was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages, and Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. President Biden awarded her the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her contributions to American culture. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the owner of Parnassus Books.

• The list of books from the episode can be found HERE.
• Check out the Bel Canto Spotify Playlist

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
BOOKS!
Check out the list of books discussed on each episode on our Bookshop page: https://bookshop.org/shop/gaysreading
MERCH!
Purchase your Gays Reading podcast merchandise HERE!
https://gaysreading.myspreadshop.com/
FOLLOW!
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CONTACT!
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Host Jason Blitman is joined by trans icon and Supergirl star Nicole Maines talking about her new book It Gets Better... Except When It Gets Worse, Disney movies, and the transformative power of storytelling. Guest Gay Reader Sammy Rae shares her unique reading interests and shares more about the exciting release of her band Sammy Rae and the Friends’ first full-length album.

Nicole Maines is an award-winning actress, writer, and transgender rights activist. She was the anonymous plaintiff in the Maine Supreme Judicial Court case Doe v. Regional School Unit 26, in which she argued her school district could not deny her access to the female bathroom for being transgender and won, the first such ruling by a state court. That case and her family’s story was the focus of Amy Ellis Nutt’s bestseller Becoming Nicole. As an actress, Maines played Nia Nal/Dreamer on the CW’s hit series Supergirl and Lisa in Showtime’s Yellowjackets.

For as much as Sammy Rae & The Friends may be a band, this collective of dreamers and artists considers themselves a family first. That all-for-one and one-for-all camaraderie ignites their unforgettable and can’t-miss live shows, which serve as a catharsis for both the musicians and their fervent audience. Fronted by singer/songwriter Sammy Rae and honed through years of touring, the group is capable of flourishing in any spotlight thanks to its signature blend of palpable chemistry, deft virtuosity, and vocal fireworks.

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
BOOKS!
Check out the list of books discussed on each episode on our Bookshop page: https://bookshop.org/shop/gaysreading
MERCH!
Purchase your Gays Reading podcast merchandise HERE!
https://gaysreading.myspreadshop.com/
FOLLOW!
@gaysreading | @jasonblitman
CONTACT!
[email protected]

Jason and Brett talk to R. Eric Thomas (Congratulations, the Best is Over!) about Ann Patchett, The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, Parnassus Books owned by Ann Patchett, and some other things entirely unrelated to Ann Patchett such as the sequel to the best pickleball movie, what Charles Dickens might've talked about over brunch, and so much more. This episode also features special guest Hunter McLendon (aka shelfbyshelf on Instagram) who joins Jason and Brett to discuss some of his favorite essay collections.
R. Eric Thomas is the bestselling author of Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America, a Lambda Literary Award finalist; and the YA novel Kings of B’more, a Stonewall Honor book. Both books were also featured as Read with Jenna book club picks on Today. He is also a television writer (Apple TV+’s Dickinson, FX’s Better Things), a Lambda Literary Award–winning playwright, and the long-running host of the Moth in Philadelphia. For four years, Thomas was a senior staff writer at Elle online, where he wrote the popular “Eric Reads the News” column. @oureric

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
BOOKS!
Check out the list of books discussed on each episode on our Bookshop page: https://bookshop.org/shop/gaysreading
MERCH!
Purchase your Gays Reading podcast merchandise HERE!
https://gaysreading.myspreadshop.com/
FOLLOW!
@gaysreading | @jasonblitman
CONTACT!
[email protected]