The Writer’s Center presents a FREE virtual chat about the craft of nonfiction! We’re joined by Edgar Gomez to discuss his debut memoir, High-Risk Homosexual. Edgar will be in conversation with Ofelia Montelongo, author and Board Member at The Writer’s Center.
RSVP below to receive login information (our virtual events are held via Zoom). FREE and open to the public, all times Eastern.
We encourage you to order a copy of the book from your local, independent bookseller or online through Bookshop.org.
Edgar Gomez is a Florida-born writer with roots in Nicaragua and Puerto Rico. A graduate of University of California, Riverside’s MFA program, he is a recipient of the 2018 L. M. and Marcia McQuern Graduate Award in Non-Fiction Writing. His work has been published and anthologized widely in such outlets as Popsugar, Longreads, Narratively, The Rumpus, and Ploughshares. He lives in Queens, New York, where he is saving up for good lotion.
About the Book
Gomez’s witty memoir follows a touching and often hilarious spiralic path to embracing their gay, Latinx identity against a culture of machismo—from their uncle’s cockfighting ring in Nicaragua to cities across the U.S.—and the bath houses, night clubs, and drag queens who helped them redefine pride.
I’ve always found the definition of machismo to be ironic, considering that pride is a word almost unanimously associated with queer people, the enemy of machistas . . . In a world desperate to erase us, queer Latinx men must find ways to hold onto pride for survival, but excessive male pride is often what we are battling, both in ourselves and in others.
A debut memoir about coming of age as a gay, Latinx person, High-Risk Homosexual opens in the ultimate anti-gay space: Gomez’s uncle’s cockfighting ring in Nicaragua, where they were sent at thirteen years old to become a man. Readers follow Gomez through the queer spaces where he learned to love being gay and Latinx, including Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, a drag queen convention in Los Angeles, and the doctor’s office where they were diagnosed a “high-risk homosexual.”
With vulnerability, humor, and quick-witted insights into racial, sexual, familial, and professional power dynamics, Gomez shares a hard-won path to taking pride in the parts of themselves they were taught to keep hidden. Their story is a scintillating, beautiful reminder of the importance of leaving space for joy.
“A breath of fresh air . . . Gomez writes with a humor and clarity . . . Gomez’s voice is equal parts warmth and acid wit, like a good friend you’re slightly afraid of . . . An exciting debut from an author with a rare point of view. High-Risk Homosexual deals with some titanic questions. What is Latinidad? What is machismo? What does it mean to be a man, never mind a queer man? By its own admission, the book doesn’t have all the answers, but it makes a compelling case that they will come from the razor-sharp queers living in the margins.” —John Paul Brammer, The New York Times Book Review