Gays Reading

Jason Blitman talks with Pulitzer Prize winer Andrew Sean Greer (Less) about his newest novel, Villa Coco. This conversation was recorded live in Los Angeles at the First Congressional Church sponsored by Book Soup. 

Conversation highlights include:

🇮🇹 How living in Italy inspired aspects of the book

👑 His experience with a real-life princess

🎶 Intel on the musical adaptation of Less

ANDREW SEAN GREER is the bestselling...

Host Jason Blitman is joined by debut novelist Haili Blassingame to hear about what she's been reading and learn about her book, They All Fall in Love at the End.

Haili Blassingame is a producer for the NPR program 1A. She has written for publications like The New Republic and The New York Times, in which she published the viral “My Choice Isn’t Marriage or Loneliness” for “Modern Lov...

Host Jason Blitman talks to author Matt Haig (The Midnight Library) about his latest novel, The Midnight Train. This conversation was recorded live at University of San Diego presented by Warwick's. 

Matt Haig was born in Sheffield, England. His novels include The Humans, How to Stop Time, and The Midnight Library, which has been a number one New York Times bestseller and sold more th...

Host Jason Blitman is joined by prolific author Melissa Albert to talk about her debut adult novel, The Children, named June 2026's Read with Jenna Book Club pick. 

Melissa Albert is the New York Times and indie bestselling author of The Bad Ones, Our Crooked Hearts, and the Hazel Wood series. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages and included in the New York Times l...

Host Jason Blitman welcomes Ann Patchett back to the podcast—last heard discussing her annotated Bel Canto in fall 2024—for a conversation about her newest novel, Whistler.

Conversation highlights include:

⏱️ Changes made to the book moments before it went to print

😔 The relationship between missing something and grief 

🎭 Whether Ann might ever write for the stage

Ann Patchet...

Host Jason Blitman is joined by the most frequent Gays Reading guest, Rasheed Newson, to discuss his latest book, There's Only One Sin in Hollywood.

Conversation highlights include:

📖 Stories that don't get their due in the history books

🎥 Rumors in Hollywood and how they continue today

🪞How the understanding of ourselves change as we get older

Rasheed Newson is the author of the national be...

Host Jason Blitman talks to debut novelist Sonia Feldman about her book Girl's Girl, this month's The Nod™️ by Gays Reading with Aardvark Book Club. 

Conversation highlights include:

👯‍♀️ What it means to be a good friend

💧 Why Sonia describes the book as "dewey" 

🌎 The universality of specific stories and what it means to love

Sonia Feldman lives in Cleveland, Ohio. She won the PEN Ame...

On this episode of What Are You Reading?, host Jason Blitman is joined by New York Times bestselling author Steven Rowley for a conversation about what he's been reading, what goes into writing a great blurb, and his latest novel, Take Me With You, an instant USA Today bestseller.

Steven Rowley is the New York Times bestselling author of Lily and the Octo...

Host Jason Blitman finally sits down with author Rachel Howzell Hall now that he's survived a full year of agony waiting for the follow-up to her cliffhanger-ending crime novel, Fog and Fury. Today, they're celebrating the arrival of Mist and Malice, the long-awaited sequel. New to the series? No problem. This spoiler-free conversation is the perfect entry point into the world of Haven.

Conversation highlights:

🌽 Rache...

Host Jason Blitman talks to Ayelet Waldman about what she's been reading (spoiler alert: a lot of audiobooks while quilting!) and about her new book, A Perfect Hand. Come for the book recs, stay for the Heated Rivalry conversation. 

Ayelet Waldman is the author of A Really Good Day, Love and Treasure, Red Hook Road, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Daughter’s Keeper, Bad...

Host Jason Blitman is joined by debut novelist Paige Lewis to talk about their book, Canon. 

Conversation highlights include:

⚠️ Perseverance in the face of danger

🐀 Animal fun facts

🦸 What makes a hero

Paige Lewis is the author of the poetry collection Space Struck and coeditor of Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction and Deliverance. Lewis teaches at the Univer...

Host Jason Blitman talks to author Davin Malasarn about what he's been reading and the books that influenced his debut novel, The Outer Country.

Davin Malasarn was born and raised in Southern California. After completing his PhD in biology at the California Institute of Technology, he earned his MFA in creative writing from Bennington College and completed the Queens University of Charlotte Book Dev...

Host Jason Blitman is joined by debut author Portia Elan to talk about her book, Homebound, named May 2026's Good Morning America Book Club selection.

Highlights from this spoiler-free conversation:

💾 evolution of technology

🏳️‍🌈 history of the queer community

👍 how people experience different truths 

Portia Elanstudied history at Stanford University and earned an MFA from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, ...

Host Jason Blitman talks to Pulitzer Prize-winner Elizabeth Strout about her latest novel, The Things We Never Say. 

Conversation highlights include:

🧠 Thoughts on free will

🧐 Things we find interesting

✨ What it means to become a grown-up

Elizabeth Strout is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lucy by the Sea; Oh William!, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Olive, Again...

In the 200th episode of Gays Reading, host Jason Blitman talks to Booker Prize-winning novelist, Douglas Stuart (Shuggie Bain, Young Mungo) about his latest book, John of John.

Conversation highlights include:

🎶 The Spice Girls

🧑‍🧑‍🧒 Filial duty in the queer community

⏳ What happens to gay people as we age?

Douglas Stuart is a Scottish-American author. His New York Times-bestselling debut novel Shuggie Bain&n...

In this episode of What Are You Reading? debut novelist Stephanie Sy-Quia shares what she's been reading and talks about her new book, A Private Man. 

Stephanie Sy-Quia was born in California in 1995 and is based in London. Her writing and criticism have been published in The Guardian, The White Review, The Boston Review, Granta, and elsewhere. Her debut poetry collection Am...

Host Jason Blitman talks to acclaimed author Xochitl Gonzalez (Olga Dies Dreaming) about her lates book, Last Night in Brooklyn.

Conversation highlights include:

🎉 Parties in the aughts 

🌃 The magic of New York

🏘️ Urban planning and future extrapolation 

Xochitl Gonzalez is a contributor to The Atlantic, where she was recognized as a 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist in Commentary. She is also the New...

In this episode of What Are You Reading?, Jason sits down with Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jayne Anne Phillips to discuss books she's been reading and her highly anticipated memoir-in-essays, Small Town Girls, which Oprah named her #1 most anticipated read of the year.

Jayne Anne Phillips is the author of Black Tickets, Machine Dreams, Fast Lanes, Shelter, MotherKind, Lark and Termite, Quiet...

Host Jason Blitman talks to debut novelist Abigail Savitch-Lew about Livonia Chow Mein.

Conversation highlights include:

🪧 Local activism

🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Family legacy

Abigail Savitch-Lew is a writer of fiction and nonfiction and an American of Jewish and Chinese (Ashkenazi and Toisanese) descent. She 🪧has a BA in literary arts from Brown University and an MFA in fiction from Rutgers University-Newark. She is the author of ...