Episode #461
Fruit Fly Author Josh Silver: 'Can We Please Call It a Gay Story?'
Three of the most talked-about books right now share one thing: queer themes. Josh Silver, author of Fruit Fly, joins H. Alan Scott on Newsweek's Parting Shot podcast to talk about sharing the spotlight with Marlon James' The Disappears and Douglas Stuart's John of John. "These two authors are like my heroes," he says. Silver explains how Fruit Fly found its readers with no marketing budget, carried by online book communities to gay and straight audiences alike. He talks about making the jump from his YA novels HappyHead and Traumaland to his first adult novel, and about the road that took him from actor to nurse to author. He also takes on the MM label, the readers who arrived by way of Heated Rivalry and a publishing industry that he says believes in authentic voices, as long as they sell. "Can we please call it a gay story?" Subscribe to the For the Culture newsletter: https://for-the-culture.beehiiv.com Follow H. Alan Scott: https://linktr.ee/halanscott See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .
