In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with author Richard Bowes about his new autobiographical novel “Dust Devil on a Quiet Street” just released by Lethe Press. Born in Boston, Richard Bowes has lived in Manhattan for almost his entire adult life. “Dust Devil on a Quiet Street” takes you on an amazing ride. It’s like traveling in a time machine spanning over 50 years of gay life in New York City. Bowes shares everything from coming to terms with his sexuality to his struggle with overcoming years of substance abuse. David Pratt, Lambda Literary Award-winning author stated, “From the Bowery to Times Square, from The Saint to Saint Vincent’s, from Sleepy Hollow to Hoboken, Richard Bowes takes us on an eerie, bittersweet, wonderfully nostalgic tour of a slightly bygone (and very haunted!) New York, New York. It’s like hanging in West Village bar with a gay Joseph Mitchell or Jimmy Breslin. A delightful read for anyone ever captivated by Gotham, by art, by youth, or by the spirits that lurk within ever-shifting cityscapes.” We talked to Richard about his new book and his spin on our LGBT issues.
When asked what his personal commitment is to LGBT civil rights, Bowes stated, “You know it use to be easier and clearer. I mean if you just said ‘I am gay’ you were doing the work. Now it requires more thought, it requires more action and it requires a lot more donations. I remember in the early days of gay liberation knowing that I had to march in that parade. People took an enormous risk being in the parade because there would be pictures and their dear mother wherever she was would see these and realize. That would be their coming out. I always felt because of where I was and because of what I did, I worked in the library at New York University and nobody there cared if I was gay or straight. I think in fact with guys it was more or less assumed that you were gay. I had an easy life in those ways and I’ve tried to remember that and give something to those who are in my opinion on the frontlines.”
Richard Bowes has won two World Fantasy Awards, the International Horror Guild and Million Writers Award. By the end of 2013 he will have published six novels, four short story collections and seventy stories. This year Lethe Press republished his Lambda Award winning 1999 novel “Minions of the Moon”. His modern fairy tale collection “The Queen, the Cambion and Seven Others” appeared in March 2013 from Aqueduct Press. A collection of new and old stories, “If Angels Fight” will be published by Fairwood Press this October.
For More Info: rickbowes.com
When asked what his personal commitment is to LGBT civil rights, Bowes stated, “You know it use to be easier and clearer. I mean if you just said ‘I am gay’ you were doing the work. Now it requires more thought, it requires more action and it requires a lot more donations. I remember in the early days of gay liberation knowing that I had to march in that parade. People took an enormous risk being in the parade because there would be pictures and their dear mother wherever she was would see these and realize. That would be their coming out. I always felt because of where I was and because of what I did, I worked in the library at New York University and nobody there cared if I was gay or straight. I think in fact with guys it was more or less assumed that you were gay. I had an easy life in those ways and I’ve tried to remember that and give something to those who are in my opinion on the frontlines.”
Richard Bowes has won two World Fantasy Awards, the International Horror Guild and Million Writers Award. By the end of 2013 he will have published six novels, four short story collections and seventy stories. This year Lethe Press republished his Lambda Award winning 1999 novel “Minions of the Moon”. His modern fairy tale collection “The Queen, the Cambion and Seven Others” appeared in March 2013 from Aqueduct Press. A collection of new and old stories, “If Angels Fight” will be published by Fairwood Press this October.
For More Info: rickbowes.com
Very interesting interview with Richard. Intrigued now to read about Greenwich Village decades ago from his perspective. Thanks.
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