James Baldwin:
Iconic Queer Writer Series
This session’s gay writing celebrity is James Baldwin. Although he has been dead now for nearly 35 years, his writings on the subject of race in America remain extremely timely and relevant to issues raised by the current Black Lives Matter movement.
Baldwin’s life as a gay black man provides much food for thought, though his essays were much more focused on black issues than gay issues.
Queer Writer: James Baldwin
JOURNALIST: When you were starting out as a writer, you were black, impoverished, and homosexual. You must have said to yourself, “Gee, how disadvantaged can I get?”
BALDWIN: No, I thought I had hit the jackpot. It was so outrageous, you had to find a way to use it.
(From Hilton Als, The Enemy Within, 1998)
For many years James Baldwin was my favorite writer. When I read his second novel Giovanni’s Room in 1960, my last year…
