Phantoms & Freedoms: Queer Stories In Fiction

Donations from this event benefit Womenscrafts Provincetown in celebration of their 50th Anniversary.

Natalie Adler's debut novel, Waiting on a Friend, and Alejandro Varela's latest, Middle Spoon, portray queer New York in two very different eras. Adler's protagonist is a young lesbian living in the East Village at the height of the AIDS epidemic, while Varela's is a gay husband and father in contemporary Brooklyn who leads a secure middle-class life yet longs for sexual liberation. Both stories depict profound heartbreak, yet they are rich in humor and fearless in their depiction of how sexual politics infuses all of our relationships--even those we have with the ghosts of people we've lost far too soon. Their conversation will be moderated by Michelle Axelson, owner of Provincetown's iconic Womencrafts (now celebrating its fiftieth anniversary).

has an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College and a PhD in Comparative Literature from Brown University. She was a Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellow at the Center for Fiction and is an editor at Lux magazine. She is from New Jersey and lives in New York City. Waiting on a Friend is her debut novel.

is an author and editor-at-large of Apogee Journal, holds a master’s degree in public health, and is based in New York. Varela’s debut novel, The Town of Babylon, was a finalist for the National Book Award. His short story collection, The People Who Report More Stress, was one of Publishers Weekly’s best works of fiction in 2023, a finalist for the International Latino Book Awards, and longlisted for the Aspen Literary Prize, the Story Prize, and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award.

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Host or Publisher Twenty Summers