A personal, vivid snapshot of drag culture in 1950s New York, showing readers how modern drag culture was born through first-hand letters, photographs and lively research from incredible historians.

With an introduction from RuPaul's Drag Race winner Sasha Velour

Their greatest act of resistance was simply existing

In the 1950s, as now, queer people were attracted to the Big Apple because they were able to find work as drag performers and female impersonators in a small number of Lower East Side clubs.

Decades before Stonewall, they occupied the margins of society, determined to live as they pleased, despite of the attentions of the police. Sometimes reduced to stealing to get their costumes, these girls were unstoppable, fearless and fabulous.
 
When a cache of their letters were discovered, these individuals were given a voice where they had traditionally been silenced. The letters they wrote bear witness to a time when gay community was hard to find.
 
Blending social, political and cultural history with memoir, this book is an unforgettable and deeply moving encounter with a generation of incredible survivors and a necessary account of how modern drag culture was born.

A note on our narrator: Tony Casey - The Established, Shanda Leer - takes inspiration from queer icons like Oscar Wilde, Lily Savage, and Carol Burnett, and has developed his career and artistry thanks to the paths laid out by queer people and performers as those captured in these powerful letters.

P.S. Burn This Letter Please by Craig Olsen, read by Tony Casey (Audiobook extract)

Gorgeously Me! Written and read by Jonathan Van Ness

OR ORIG 002704 Queer West - Episode 1 Audio Excerpt 2

OR ORIG 002704 Queer West - Episode 1 Audio Excerpt 1

In 1951, a mysterious old woman confronts Pilar Aguirre in the small border town of La Cienega, Texas. The old woman is sure Pilar stole her husband and, in a heated outburst, lays a curse on Pilar and her family.

More than forty years later, Lulu Muñoz is dodging chaos at every turn: her troubled father’s moods, his rules, her secret life as singer in a punk band, but most of all her upcoming quinceañera. When her beloved grandmother passes away, Lulu finds herself drawn to the glamorous stranger who crashed the funeral and who lives alone and shunned on the edge of town.

Their unexpected kinship picks at the secrets of Lulu’s family’s past. As the quinceañera looms—and we move between these two strong, irascible female voices—one woman must make peace with the past, and one girl pushes to embrace her future.

Rich with cinematic details—from dusty rodeos to the excitement of a Selena concert and the comfort of conjunto ballads played at family gatherings—this memorable debut is a love letter to the Tejano culture and community that sustain both of these women as they discover what family means.

"Malas" by Marcela Fuentes; Read by Christine Avila and Victoria Villarreal

Hachette Audio UK is the audiobook imprint of the Little, Brown Book Group. We publish a diverse list with fantastic authors such as J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, Mark Billingham, Iain Banks, John Steinbeck, Walter Isaacson and Malcolm Gladwell. Follow us on SoundCloud for pre-publication clips, audio extras and more.  

P.S. Burn This Letter Please by Craig Olsen, read by Tony Casey (Audiobook extract)

Little, Brown Audio

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