What the BUTT are you reading?

McKenzie Wark, Critical Rave Theorist
‘Creep Sex’ by Ray Toy, aka Ive Yos, follows the harum-scarum (mis)adventures of a raver with aliens and talking animals. It’s like reading Lewis Carroll on drugs, where Lewis Carroll is also on drugs.

AA Bronson, Conceptual Art Superstar
I’m reading ‘PINK MAXI’ from everyone’s favorite leather zine ‘PINK MINCE’ – I love this special issue because it is about ME. It includes an interview with me by Dan Rhatigan about my early days in hippy communes, and about my earliest visits to New York, when Ray Johnson took Jimmy de Sana and me on a personal tour of the infamous piers.

Photo by Mark Krayenhoff van de Leur (my husband).

Luis Venegas, Horny Publisher
Finally found a copy of this now rare ‘CLONE: The Life and Legacy of Al Parker Gay Superstar’ as I’d always wanted to know more about one of the hottest men in porn ever – or just THE hottest?

Second, I love biographies, they’re the most entertaining for the summer, so I couldn’t wait to read ‘DIAHANN!’ by the fabulous queen Diahann Carroll, the self-proclaimed “first black bitch on TV” because of her legendary role in ‘Dynasty’. (BTW, I always love a title with an exclamation mark!)

Finally, ‘MARLENE DIETRICH’S ABC’ is just different topics and quotes by Dietrich in alphabetical order… delightful! An example, from the S section: “Suave: I can get Along very well without the use of this word.”

Tomo Koizumi, Technicolor Dressmaker
My summer reading recommendation is Plato’s ‘The Symposium’. I went to watch a show called ‘Midnight Radio’ in Tokyo this month, about how John Cameron Mitchell and his friends made ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’. John mentioned many quotes from this book, and I started reading it – as queer creative, it is really inspiring to me!

Serhat Işık, Designer with a conscience
A MUST read I’m reading this summer is ‘Perfect Victims’ by Palestinian writer and poet Mohammed el-Kurd.

Jina Khayyer, Lettered lesbian
I’m reading Constance Debré’s ‘Name’, translated by Lauren Elkin. I like Debré’s hardcoreness, even more so in English. She brilliantly dismantles everything there is to dismantle: heritage, birthright, sexuality, motherhood, love. This is my second Debré – I enjoyed ‘Love me Tender’, and up next is ‘Playboy’.

Chico Felitti, Rugged Reporter
It’s a freezing winter here in São Paulo, but I’m keeping warm with Vera, a quirky and anxious kid who is just trying to survive every school break. It feels like home.

JV Marx, Gooner-in-Chief
‘Blood Meridian’ is bone-scrapingly gorgeous, sickeningly apocalyptic, and extremely cool. Feels like something Terrence Malick would have written if he ever shot someone in the back of the fucking head. Very relevant to the uh, feeling-like-we’re-drowning-in-violence-all-the-time vibes.