Host Jason Blitman talks to 2025 Kirkus and National Book Award longlisted author Angela Flournoy about her newest book, THE WILDERNESS. 

Highlights include:
🪣 Angela's bucket list   
🗓️ the 10 year journey of writing this book
🎃 The Candy Corn Community
🤫 secret family recipes 
🍽️ "group of 7" dinner party guests

Jason is then joined by Guest Gay Reader™️ Rickey Laurentiis, who was ALSO just longlisted for the National Book Award for her book, DEATH OF THE FIRST IDEA. Make sure to stick around to hear Rickey read one of her poems. 

Angela Flournoy is the author of The Turner House, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, an Indie Next pick, and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, and she has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Flournoy has taught at the University of Iowa, Princeton University, and UCLA. She lives in New York.

Rickey Laurentiis is the author of Boy with Thorn, which won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and the Levis Reading Prize. Laurentiis is the recipient of fellowships from the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics (CAAPP), the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Poetry Foundation, among others. Her poems have appeared in The New Republic, BOMB, and poets.org. A 2018 Whiting Award winner, she lives in New Orleans.

Support the show

BOOK CLUB!
Sign up for the Gays Reading Book Club HERE
November Book: I Am You by Victoria Redel

SUBSTACK!
https://gaysreading.substack.com/

MERCH!
http://gaysreading.printful.me

WATCH!
https://youtube.com/@gaysreading

FOLLOW!
Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman
Bluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitman

CONTACT!
[email protected]