LGBTQIA : A Pride Reading

After Asbury Park's annual Pride Parade head to Asbury Book Cooperative for a queer author panel! ABC is very excited to welcome Jackie Domenus, Darcy Jay Gagnon, Beth Boylan, Chris Campanioni, Jerry Portwood, Christopher Gonzalez, Lisa Hartsgrove, and Joseph Lezza! A stunning panel of eight incredible queer authors sharing their work and talking with the community on Sunday, June 7th at 4pm. ALL ARE WELCOME!

This is a free and open event but space is limited so be sure to RSVP! There will also be complimentary italian baked treats from Giuliano & Dorina.

A little bit about our guest authors:

Jackie Domenus (they/she) is a queer, gender nonconforming writer from South Jersey. Their first book, No Offense: A Memoir in Essays (ELJ Editions) is a Finalist for a Publishing Triangle Award and was named a notable small press book of 2025 by Literary Hub. A former Sundress Academy for the Arts resident and Tin House Workshop graduate, Jackie's work has appeared in HuffPost, Autostraddle, The Normal School, Foglifter Journal, and elsewhere. They are the host of the new Queer & Trans Nonfiction Podcast.

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Darcy Jay Gagnon is an essayist from Washington D.C. and the former Senior Nonfiction Editor for the Rumpus. You can find his work in Gulf Coast, Essay Daily, March Xness, and elsewhere. You can find him at @darcyjaygagnon.

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Originally from New York, Beth Boylan is a poet and educator who now resides in New Jersey. She holds an MA in Literature from Hunter College and is the author of the poetry chapbook, Third Rail, published by Kelsay Books in 2025. Beth has been nominated for both a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and her poetry appears in a variety of journals, including The McNeese Review, Rust + Moth, New York Quarterly, and Nixes Mate Review.

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Chris Campanioni was born in Manhattan and grew up in a very nineties New Jersey. His research connecting migration and media studies has been recognized with the Calder Prize for interdisciplinary work and two Mellon Foundation fellowships, and his writing has received the Pushcart Prize, International Latino Book Award, and Academy of American Poets College Prize. Books published last year include the novel VHS (CLASH Books), a creative nonfiction called north by north/west (West Virginia University Press), a monograph on works of art born in translation called Drift Net (Lever Press), and the poetry collection Windows 85 (Roof Books). He is a writer in residence at Pace University in New York City, where he teaches intermedial studies and creative writing.

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Jerry Portwood (he, him) has been working as a journalist for 25 years, getting his start in alt weeklies and community publications—most of which no longer exist. His short stories and essays have been published in various print and online journals (many of those also have vanished). He launched The Queer Love Project to create a platform where LGBTQ+ people could share stories and experiences. He’s been a top editor at Rolling Stone, Out magazine and New York Press and has been teaching essay writing and arts criticism at the New School for over 10 years. He has a novel, The Loneliest Boy in the World Saves Us All, and a memoir in essays, Put It in Your Mouth, that he’s working on publishing soon.

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Christopher Gonzalez (he/him) is the author of the story collection I’m Not Hungry but I Could Eat (Santa Fe Writers Project, 2021). He is a 2021 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Fiction and a 2025 recipient of VCCA’s Steven Petrow and Julie Petrow-Cohen LGBTQ+ Fellowship. His short stories appear in journals and anthologies like epiphany, Short Story Long, 7x7, Best Microfictions, and Best Small Fictions, among others. He currently works in book publishing, serves as a fiction editor for Barrelhouse magazine, and lurks most places online under the handle @livesinpages.

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Lisa Hartsgrove is Project Write Now's program coordinator as well as the program director for PWN Teen. She has an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College. Among others, she has been published in Friday Flash Fiction, Discretionary Love, and The Pitkin Review. You can read more about her at lisahartsgrove.com.

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Joseph Lezza is a Pushcart-nominated writer who was once described as a “mid twink” by the Matt Bomer Twitter army. His work has been featured in, among others, Slate, Longreads, & The Massachusetts Review. He is the author of the memoir I'm Never Fine: Scenes and Spasms on Loss (Vine Leaves Press), a finalist for the 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Award and his upcoming collection, When Can I Start? How to Lose a Job and Gain a Personality, is due out January 2027. www.josephlezza.com

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