For those living near the Seattle area, I’ll be reading from and discussing my new book Imagining Gay Paradise at Seattle University on Thursday evening, April 12. The focus will be on the age-old notion of a “search for home” — that plot line of struggle and human creative endeavor we all  know so well from stories like the Odyssey.  My previous book, Gay Seattle, treated the same theme — but, of course, imagining a home in the soggy Pacific Northwest is considerably different from imagining one in tropical paradises. I’ll be comparing and contrasting the approaches used in the two geographic areas. And, we’ll be talking about writing and what techniques come into play in book-length narrative journalism.

During LGBTQ Pride Month in Seattle, Elliott Bay Bookstore will be hosting a reading at 2 p.m. Saturday June 23.  Other discussions in Bangkok, Singapore, Bali, and Amsterdam are currently being organized. I’ll post those as they are scheduled.

At the Seattle University reading, a colleague who teaches courses in LGBTQ rhetoric, Dr. Sam Boerboom, will also be on hand to discuss his insights about how sexually marginalized groups have to re-imagine their homelands since they are often shut out of those imagined by others.

The event starts at 7 p.m. at SU’s Commons on the 5th floor of the Casey Building and runs until 9 p.m. It’s being co-sponsored by the university’s Communication Department, International Student Center, and Asian Studies program and has been organized by Dr. Mara Adelman — who, as everyone at Seattle U knows, always does a fabulous job of making sure there are great snacks to go along with the conversation! The event is open to the public.