If you are a regular reader of this website, you will know by now that not only are we passionate about queer history, but we are also determined that it should be told and recorded by members of our own community.  And Hugh Ryan is: he’s an award-winning queer writer, curator, and historian living in NY, whom we first met back in 2019 when his book WHEN BROOKLYN WAS QUEER, had just won the 2019 New York City Book Award, (see HERE).  Then he followed this in 2023 with  THE WOMEN’S HOUSE OF DETENTION: A QUEER HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN PRISON  for which he won the Stonewall Book Award from the American Library Association. 

Now he’s back on our radar again with his latest book My Bad: A Personal History of the Queer 90s and Beyond. He told Queerguru: The 90s were the last moment in American history before cell phones and the Internet connected us at all times. The last moment before there were effective treatments for AIDS. Before the “War on Terror” terrorized us all. Before the gay bars began to close (and the bookstores, travel agencies, rehabs…). It was the era of the slacker, the clove cigarette, and freedom rings. It was – for better and worse – the time that made me who I am. My Bad is my way of reckoning with it all.

He also added:  I’d love it if you bought the book (use the code MYBAD20 on the Hachette website and get 20% off!), but more than that, my biggest request: please ask your library to stock it. Libraries are where I first encountered queer books when I desperately needed them, and if I have one hope for this book, it’s that it provides that same solace to others.

Ryan is disarmingly charming, so IF  you are in NY  we would encourage you to go to his Book Launch at The Strand on May 28th, where he’ll be chatting with Sabrina Imbler.  Be sure to say Hi to him from us.

.