Gays Reading

By Jason BlitmanComedy Society & Culture Arts Books Comedy Interviews

Gays Reading episodes

June 05 Ann Patchett, Whistler
Host Jason Blitman welcomes Ann Patchett back to the podcast—last heard discussing her annotated Bel Canto in fall 2024—for a conversation about her newest novel, Whistler.

Conversation highlights include:
⏱️ Changes made to the book moments before it went to print
😔 The relationship between missing something and grief
🎭 Whether Ann might ever write for the stage

Ann Patchett is the author of novels, most recently the #1 New York Times bestselling Tom Lake, works of nonfiction, and children's books. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the PEN/Faulkner, the Women's Prize for Fiction in the UK, and the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her novel The Dutch House was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages, and Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. President Biden awarded her the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her contributions to American culture. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the owner of Parnassus Books.

Ann Patchett's New Yorker essay Glowworms
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53 min
June 02 Rasheed Newson, There is Only One Sin in Hollywood
Host Jason Blitman is joined by the most frequent Gays Reading guest, Rasheed Newson, to discuss his latest book, There's Only One Sin in Hollywood.

Conversation highlights include:
📖 Stories that don't get their due in the history books
🎥 Rumors in Hollywood and how they continue today
🪞How the understanding of ourselves change as we get older

Rasheed Newson is the author of the national bestseller My Government Means to Kill Me, which was selected as a Lambda Literary finalist for Gay Fiction and was named one of the “100 Notable Books of 2022” by The New York Times. He is also a television drama writer, producer, and showrunner. He codeveloped Bel-Air and worked on The Chi, Animal Kingdom, and Narcos, among other drama series. Newson is a 2025–26 American Library in Paris Visiting Fellow. He currently lives with his husband and their two children in Pasadena.

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56 min
June 01 Sonia Feldman, Girl's Girl
Host Jason Blitman talks to debut novelist Sonia Feldman about her book Girl's Girl, this month's The Nod™️ by Gays Reading with Aardvark Book Club.

Conversation highlights include:
👯‍♀️ What it means to be a good friend
💧 Why Sonia describes the book as "dewey"
🌎 The universality of specific stories and what it means to love

Sonia Feldman lives in Cleveland, Ohio. She won the PEN America PEN/Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, and her poetry and fiction have appeared in The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, and Waxwing. She also runs Sonia’s Poem of the Week, a popular email newsletter. Girl’s Girl is her first novel.
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48 min
May 29 What Are You Reading? feat. Steven Rowley
On this episode of What Are You Reading?, host Jason Blitman is joined by New York Times bestselling author Steven Rowley for a conversation about what he's been reading, what goes into writing a great blurb, and his latest novel, Take Me With You, an instant USA Today bestseller.

Steven Rowley is the New York Times bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus, a Washington Post Notable Book; The Editor, an NPR Best Book of the Year; The Guncle, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor and Goodreads Choice Awards finalist for Novel of the Year; The Celebrants, a Today Show Read with Jenna book club pick; The Guncle Abroad, a USA Today bestseller; and The Dogs of Venice. His fiction has been translated into twenty languages. He resides in Palm Springs, California.
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35 min
May 26 Rachel Howzell Hall, Mist and Malice
Host Jason Blitman finally sits down with author Rachel Howzell Hall now that he's survived a full year of agony waiting for the follow-up to her cliffhanger-ending crime novel, Fog and Fury. Today, they're celebrating the arrival of Mist and Malice, the long-awaited sequel. New to the series? No problem. This spoiler-free conversation is the perfect entry point into the world of Haven.

Conversation highlights:
🌽 Rachel's favorite foods at the county fair
🎵 The song from Hamilton as a character's theme song
👵 Which Golden Girl Rachel identifies with

Rachel Howzell Hall is the New York Times bestselling author of Fog and Fury, The Cruel Dawn, The Last One, What Never Happened, We Lie Here, These Toxic Things, And Now She’s Gone, They All Fall Down, and, with James Patterson, The Good Sister, which was included in Patterson’s collection The Family Lawyer. A two-time Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist as well as an Anthony, International Thriller Writers, and Lefty Award nominee, Rachel is also the author of Land of Shadows, Skies of Ash, Trail of Echoes, and City of Saviors in the Detective Elouise Norton series. A past member of the board of directors for Mystery Writers of America, she has been a featured writer on NPR’s acclaimed Crime in the City series and the National Endowment for the Arts weekly podcast. Rachel lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.
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53 min
May 22 What Are You Reading? feat. Ayelet Waldman
Host Jason Blitman talks to Ayelet Waldman about what she's been reading (spoiler alert: a lot of audiobooks while quilting!) and about her new book, A Perfect Hand. Come for the book recs, stay for the Heated Rivalry conversation.

Ayelet Waldman is the author of A Really Good Day, Love and Treasure, Red Hook Road, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Daughter’s Keeper, Bad Mother and the Mommy-Track Mystery series. She co-developed and was an Executive Producer on the Netflix series Unbelievable, which received a Peabody Award and Best Limited Series nominations at the Critics’ Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, and the Primetime Emmys in 2020. Waldman lives in Berkeley, California with her husband Michael Chabon.
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34 min
May 19 Paige Lewis, Canon
Host Jason Blitman is joined by debut novelist Paige Lewis to talk about their book, Canon.

Conversation highlights include:
⚠️ Perseverance in the face of danger
🐀 Animal fun facts
🦸 What makes a hero

Paige Lewis is the author of the poetry collection Space Struck and coeditor of Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction and Deliverance. Lewis teaches at the University of Iowa; Canon is their first novel.
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49 min
May 15 What Are You Reading? feat. Davin Malasarn
Host Jason Blitman talks to author Davin Malasarn about what he's been reading and the books that influenced his debut novel, The Outer Country.

Davin Malasarn was born and raised in Southern California. After completing his PhD in biology at the California Institute of Technology, he earned his MFA in creative writing from Bennington College and completed the Queens University of Charlotte Book Development Program. He was a PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, a Plympton Writing Downtown Fellow, and a Bennington Alumni Fellow. He co-founded The Granum Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to supporting writers, and hosts The Artist’s Statement podcast.
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29 min
May 12 Portia Elan, Homebound
Host Jason Blitman is joined by debut author Portia Elan to talk about her book, Homebound, named May 2026's Good Morning America Book Club selection.

Highlights from this spoiler-free conversation:
💾 evolution of technology
🏳️‍🌈 history of the queer community
👍 how people experience different truths

Portia Elan studied history at Stanford University and earned an MFA from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, before returning to California, where she has worked as a teacher and public librarian. A former Lambda Literary Fellow, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife and an abundance of cats. Homebound is her first novel.
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52 min
May 08 Elizabeth Strout, The Things We Never Say
Host Jason Blitman talks to Pulitzer Prize-winner Elizabeth Strout about her latest novel, The Things We Never Say.

Conversation highlights include:
🧠 Thoughts on free will
🧐 Things we find interesting
✨ What it means to become a grown-up

Elizabeth Strout is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lucy by the Sea; Oh William!, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Olive, Again; Anything Is Possible, winner of the Story Prize; My Name Is Lucy Barton; The Burgess Boys; Olive Kitteridge, winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Abide with Me; and Amy and Isabelle, winner of the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. She has also been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in London. She lives in Maine.
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55 min

About Gays Reading

From the publisher's feed

Best authors. Best banter. Host — and gay reader — Jason Blitman is joined each week by bestselling authors, VIP gay readers, cultural icons, and other special guests…