When a queer book elevates our own expectations of ourselves and moves us to honor ourselves by saying: we deserve something more.

Today we meet Blair Fell and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: The Persian Boy by Mary Renault.

Blair Fell’s television work includes Queer as Folk, and the Emmy Award–winning California Connected. He’s written dozens of plays including the award-winning plays Naked Will and the downtown cult miniseries Burning Habits. He’s a two-time winner of the prestigious Doris Lippman Prize in Creative Writing from the City College of New York. His first novel The Sign For Home was long-listed by the Center For Fiction’s First Book Award. His upcoming novel Disco Witches of Fire Island comes out May 6, 2025.

Mary Renault was a British lesbian writer famed for her historically precise novels of the ancient world, including The Last of the Wine (1956), Fire From Heaven (1969), and The Persian Boy (1972). US publishers initially refused to publish her novel The Charioteer due to its positive portrayal of homosexuality and its happy ending. It was eventually published in 1959 and was a bestseller.

The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander’s life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but found freedom with Alexander after the Macedon army conquered his homeland. Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots. After Alexander’s mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior better than anyone.

Connect with Blair

website: blairfell.com
bluesky: @blairfell.bsky.social
instagram: @blair.fell

Our Bookshop

Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook

Buy your own copy of The Persian Boy: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780394751016

Pre-order Disco Witches of Fire Island (arrives May 6, 2025): https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9798892420341

Buy The Sign For Home: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781982175962

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Credits

Host/Founder: John Parker
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
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