“Queer Reader” is a book club at Epilogue that aims to provide an affirming and accessible space for LGBTQIA+ readers to come together to discuss queer literature. Each month, we’ll pick a queer book by a queer author to read and discuss together as a community. 

One of the goals of this book club is to create a community where LGBTQIA+ folks can gather to, yes, discuss books, but also to forge connections in a low-pressure, laid-back environment with other queer people in their area.

About your host: Gaby (she/her) is Epilogue’s events coordinator and resident lesbian bookseller. She reads a lot of queer romance novels, literary fiction about complicated families, memoirs, and portraits of a place. When she’s not working, she’s usually listening to The Killers, riding her bike, or cooking big meals.

Upcoming Meetings:

Tuesday, March 14th at 7pm, in person

For our March meeting, we’ll be reading Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. 

From one of the most brilliant and provocative literary figures of the past century comes a groundbreaking novel set among the bohemian bars and nightclubs of 1950s Paris, about love and the fear of love—”a book that belongs in the top rank of fiction” (The Atlantic).

In the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. 

David is a young American expatriate who has just proposed marriage to his girlfriend, Hella. While she is away on a trip, David meets a bartender named Giovanni to whom he is drawn in spite of himself. Soon the two are spending the night in Giovanni’s curtainless room, which he keeps dark to protect their privacy. But Hella’s return to Paris brings the affair to a crisis, one that rapidly spirals into tragedy.

David struggles for self-knowledge during one long, dark night—“the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life.” With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwin’s now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a deeply moving story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.

But wait…there’s MORE.

Epilogue is partnering with Playmakers Repertory Company during their run of They Do Not Know Harlem, an extraordinary, immersive performance by artist, dancer and storyteller Tristan André, who summons the spirit of James Baldwin in an excavation of a Black and queer life lived in a not always welcoming world. We’re lucky enough to be joined by Kathryn Hunter-Williams, the director of the show, as a special guest on book club night!

The promo code EPILOGUE will give readers $20 tickets to any performance of HARLEM. Put in the code prior to selecting seats to receive the discount. By purchasing a ticket you will also receive streaming access to the filmed production, which will be streaming the week of book club.

So go see the show March 1-12, read Giovanni’s Room, and then come to book club to discuss with the director of the show, Kathryn Hunter-Williams.