Every True Pleasure: LGBTQ Tales of North Carolina

by Wilton Barnhardt (editor)

Some of North Carolina's finest fiction and nonfiction writers come together in Every True Pleasure, including David Sedaris, Kelly Link, Allan Gurganus, Randall Kenan, and more. Within the volume—featuring writers who identify as gay, trans, bisexual, and straight—are stories and essays that view the full spectrum of contemporary life though an LGBTQ lens. These writers, all native or connected to North Carolina, show the multifaceted challenges and joys of LGBTQ life, including young love and gay panic, the minefield of religion, military service, having children with a surrogate, family rejection, finding one's true gender, finding sex, and finding love. One of the only anthologies of its kind, Every True Pleasure speaks with insight and compassion about living LGBTQ in North Carolina and beyond.Contributors include Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, Brian Blanchfield, Belle Boggs, Emily Chavez, Garrard Conley, John Pierre Craig, Diane Daniel, Allan Gurganus, Minrose Gwin, Aaron Gwyn, Wayne Johns, Randall Kenan, Kelly Link, Zelda Lockhart, Toni Newman, Michael Parker, Penelope Robbins, David Sedaris, Eric Tran, and Alyssa Wong.

Genres: LGBT

329 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 7, 2019

About the author

Wilton Barnhardt (born 1960) is a former reporter for Sports Illustrated and is the author of Emma Who Saved My Life (1989), Gospel (1993), Show World (1999), and the New York Times bestseller Lookaway, Lookaway (2013). Barnhardt took his B.A. at Michigan State University, and was a graduate student at Brasenose College, University of Oxford, where he read for an M.Phil. in English.

He currently teaches fiction-writing to undergraduate and graduate students at the North Carolina State University in Raleigh, in the Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing.

Source:Wikipedia

Reviews

[Ashton · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5, some hits, some misses, but overall I'm glad this book exists. the tone of each peace varies a lot, which can be a bit of a roller coaster, but there are some really wonderful essays/stories in here, including people I didn't even know were from NC.

[John Clegg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hopping around through all the different stories takes you into the different lives and perspectives of LGBTQ+ life in North Carolina. Some are historic, some are contemporary, all are relatable - particularly if you have a connection with the place. Its a fantastic starter for ten on NC queer fiction, and gives you avenues and authors to consider for further reading.

[Michelle Vaughn · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were a handful of pieces in this collection that I kept thinking about days after reading--some that stung, some that soothed, some that did a little of both at once. My only qualm, and this is a very personal one, was that not all of these were distinctly [steeped-in] North Carolinian.