Reading Groups

Queer and Coming of Age with Thomas Dooley

4 Sessions via Zoom Wednesdays, 6:00 pm EDT - 7:30 pm EDT March 24 to June 23, 2021

The ‘With Books’ option includes all titles required for this group at a 15% discount.

Meeting Dates:
3/24, 4/21, 5/26, 6/23

While reflecting on his childhood, the narrator in Edmund White’s classic novel, A Boy’s Own Story, describes the sound of crickets as “the heartbeat of loneliness, a beat that sang up and down the wires of my veins.” For many queer protagonists, growing up as an outsider is filled with acute desire in the midst of piercing loneliness. We will read into the pain, trace the longing, and find solace in the wisdom of the sensitive witness.

These coming-of-age stories will inspire and guide our conversations:

Session I: Lot by Bryan Washington
Session II: Gulf Dreams by Emma Perez
Session III: Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Session IV: Edinburgh by Alexander Chee

Led by

Thomas Dooley

Thomas Dooley

Thomas Dooley is a poet who has taught creative writing at New York University and the craft of fiction at Saint Peter’s University. He is the Artistic Director of Poetry Well, an organization that celebrates and promotes poetry as a vital part of our individual and collective wellness. As a practitioner of medical humanities in area hospitals, Thomas facilitates literature and writing workshops with clinical staff and offers narrative interventions at the bedsides of patients and caregivers. His debut collection, Trespass (Harper Perennial, 2014) was selected by the National Poetry Series.

About this series

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Whether you’re looking to catch up on great novels or you’re interested in exploring a new writer or literary period, our reading groups offer high-level literary discussion led by experts in the field.

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