BGSQD
BGSQD
Join us for an evening of readings and conversation with Franklin Abbott and Vinny Cusenza
Franklin Abbott will celebrate his poetic memoir My Ordinary Life
My Ordinary Life is as therapeutic as it is poetic with an affirmation of trauma that begins to allow it to surface and be healed.
Interwoven are stories of friends who were lost, the pain and fear of isolation, the confusion of the world opening and closing again. Abbott interweaves his own aging, the deaths of both of his parents and the growing awareness and appreciation of the simple gifts of everyday life.
Vincent Cusenza celebrates the publication of his historical/thriller/romance debut novel Blood and Soil.
The only things that closeted Columbia undergrad Tony has in common with Jake, a mixed-race mountaineer with bad love luck, are his bone-bred biases and a raw attraction that defies his notions of happiness.
They meet in August 1960 in the Highlands, a hidden outpost of Appalachia on Manhattan’s doorstep, where summer colonists from the city, struggling locals, and an insular mountain tribe uneasily coexist. Eddie, a troubled rebel, has just lost his girl to Jake’s brother, and chafes under the thumb of his white-nationalist uncle, Sheriff Schmidt, who is locked in a racially charged reelection battle.
Three mysterious murders and the sheriff’s cover-up of the crimes upend Tony and Jake’s lives and roil their clannish world. The two men find themselves pitted against Schmidt in a high stakes search for the truth, and must confront their mutual distrust and the Highland’s Nazi past to save their bond and their very lives.
To reserve a copy of My Ordinary Life (RFD Press, April 23, 2025, paperback, $19.95) and/or Blood and Soil (Pen and Pencil Press, July 1, 2025, paperback, $18.95) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve My Ordinary Life and/or Blood and Soil for September 13 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
You can also purchase both books (click on titles below) on our online shop at bookshop.com/shop/bgsqd:
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Even better: sign up to make a monthly tax-deductible donation to the Bureau!
Thank you for committing to sustaining this vital project!
Vinny Cusenza co-wrote his first novel, The Adventures of Pen and Pencil, in fourth grade with his best friend Steve Drayzen. Besides novels, he writes personal and travel essays, memoir, and epistolary meditations on his place in the world. He has won awards for his photography, founded a small New England inn, sang with Liza Minnelli onstage in Central Park, and herded rhinos. Vinny lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn with husband Steve and Neko, their transsexual cat.
Franklin Abbott is the editor of three anthologies on men and masculinity, a CD of original songs and poetry and 3 collections of poetry including his latest, My Ordinary Life, from RFD Press. He is an original radical faerie, a long-time community activist and founded the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival. Abbott worked for over 40 years as a psychotherapist in private practice with special interest in spirituality, medical trauma, relationships and group dynamics. A native Southerner he lives in Atlanta’s Decatur community.