johnrgordon

[johnrgordon]

Mother Of Serpents by John R. Gordon

When I started writing my upcoming novel of the uncanny MOTHER OF SERPENTS I delved deep into Native American history and mythology; into what psychosis feels like for the person suffering from it, and researched all sorts of topographical and geological details in order to create a realistic portrayal of the interplay of race, sexuality, and mental illness under external - supernatural - pressure. The book is also, I think, a straight-up, old-fashioned page turner. MOTHER OF SERPENTS will be out in February and you can pre-order it here: https://tinyurl.com/2xa5fa3x

[johnrgordon]

Books I'm Proud To Have Published

Vikram Kolmannskog is a gifted queer Norwegian-Indian writer and therapist based in Oslo. We published his Lambda Award-shortlisted short story collection LORD OF THE SENSES, which fuses sexuality and sensuality with spirituality in a way that feels charged, poetic, contemporary and enriching. You can order this excellent book here: https://tinyurl.com/mr4x6f8a

[johnrgordon]

So proud to be the publisher of this novel. Roz Kaveney is a literary grande dame of the highest calibre: precise as a critic and penetrating as a poet and novelist. At a time when trans rights are in constant danger, Roz’s work reminds us to retain our humanity and sense of joy without fear or shame. TINY PIECES OF SKULL, which won a Lambda Literary Award, is available to order here: https://tinyurl.com/2s3czhms

[johnrgordon]

MOTHER OF SERPENTS 

This novel began life as a screenplay, which is a good way of establishing pace and punch, but I soon realised I could explore the themes much more deeply and interestingly in a novel, where I could really get inside my protagonist's head. 

The central premise is: what happens when you take an interracial gay family from diverse Brooklyn and drop them down in monocultural rural Maine? What happens when the house the family has decided to move into is filled with malevolent energy? And finally, what if the central character is coping with psychosis? How does his reality and sense of self get tested in this unsettling, indeed increasingly threatening setting? 

MOTHER OF SERPENTS is a blend of classic horror, indigenous folklore and psychological drama; a weird tale with a thrillingly chthonic denoument. 

You can pre-order MOTHER OF SERPENTS via the links below: 

UK: Amazon/ Waterstones

US: Amazon/ Barnes & Noble

[johnrgordon]

BOOKS I'M PROUD TO HAVE PUBLISHED 

SISTA! ANTHOLOGY 

FINALIST FOR THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FOR BEST LGBTQ ANTHOLOGY

This book was a labour of love and I'm proud that it exists in the world. I co-edited this text with the fantastic Ms. Phyll Opoku-Gyimah and my creative partner and compadre, Rikki Beadle-Blair, both of whom are cultural powerhouses who have consistently shown that Black British queer excellence is worthy of celebration.

Featuring some of the most dynamic Black British Sapphic writing, including pieces by Yrsa Daley-Ward, Andreena Leeanne and Chardine Taylor-Stone, SISTA! is powerful, moving and necessary.

You can order this fantastic book via the links below: 

UK: Waterstones / Amazon

US: Barnes & Noble / Amazon

[johnrgordon]

BOOKS I'M PROUD TO HAVE PUBLISHED

CHIKÉ FRANKIE EDOZIEN—LIVES OF GREAT MEN 

LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD WINNER 2018 - Best Gay Memoir 

PUBLISHING TRIANGLE AWARD nominated - RANDY SHILTZ AWARD FOR NON-FICTION 

From Victoria Island, Lagos to Brooklyn, U.S.A. to Accra, Ghana to Paris, France; from across the Diaspora to the heart of the African continent, in this memoir Nigerian journalist Chike Frankie Edozien offers a highly personal series of contemporary snapshots of same gender loving Africans, unsung Great Men living their lives, triumphing and finding joy in the face of great adversity.On his travels and sojourns Edozien explores the worsening legal climate for gay men and women on the Continent; the impact homophobic American evangelical pastors are having in many countries, and its toxic intersection with political populism; and experiences the pressures on those living under harshly oppressive laws that are themselves the legacy of colonial rule - pressures that sometimes lead to seeking asylum in the West. Yet he remains hopeful, and this memoir, which is pacy, romantic and funny by turns, is also a love-letter to Africa, above all to Nigeria and the megalopolis that is Lagos.

'An intense page turner of a memoir that is also laced with ache and longing, optimism and defiance in the face of injustice... this is a hopeful narrative, crammed with incident and telling details, and it’s a story that deserves to be savoured again and again. One of the most triumphant and joy-inducing books of the year.'

—DIRIYE OSMAN, The Huffington Post

'A humane, sobering, yet gorgeous memoir... Edozien has succeeded here in reclaiming his own narrative and that of the wider gay community from the muffling jaws of discrimination with a sense of humour, guts and elegance... Where so many memoirs are being published now that have little of real substance in their pages, this is one that is both substantial and called for.'

—DIANA EVANS, The Financial Times

'Frankie Edozien's The Lives of Great Men is an incredibly powerful portrayal of what it means to be a gay Nigerian man. But what makes this book so outstanding is its tender and insightful exploration of all the complicated, unspoken bonds in our most intimate relationships. In prose that is at once engaging and inquisitive, Edozien holds the human heart to light and finds the ways it manages to survive despite it all.' 

—MAAZA MENGISTE, author of Booker Prize-shortlisted The Shadow King 

'Frankie Edozien writes with an urgency that is compelling, with a vulnerable honesty that is disarming and impressive, and with elegance about his life and a subject so risky and yet necessary. This is not a memoir of coming out gay in Nigeria as much as it is a call to step into our humanity. A necessary and courageous book.'

—CHRIS ABANI, author of Pen Hemingway Award-winning Graceland 

You can purchase Lives of Great Men via the links below:

UK: https://tinyurl.com/mtskyhdv

US: https://tinyurl.com/mrxmuftj

[johnrgordon]

JOHN R. GORDON—Faggamuffin

Outed and driven from his homeland by a murderous mob, gay Jamaican Cutty Munroe arrives in London penniless and desperate. At first he is relieved to be given shelter by Buju Staples, a petty crook on the White City Estate, and his girlfriend Cynthia, but Cynthia soon wants to be rid of this 'wasteman' crashing on her man's sofa. Cutty, however, has nowhere else to go. Traumatised and lonely, Cutty falls in love with Buju, and starts to believe that Buju might share his feelings. One night while out on the rob Cutty makes a move on his spar. And then his troubles really begin...

'An engaging and enjoyable read.'

—QX Magazine

JOHN R. GORDON'S 'Faggamuffin' is available to purchase here: 

UK: https://tinyurl.com/mw9cjk86

US: https://tinyurl.com/4ypraxff

[johnrgordon]

My objective as an artist is to not only humanize groups who have been dismissed and othered by the larger society, but to present each of my characters and their circumstances as unique individuals with the level of nuance and complexity I believe they deserve. In that sense, my work, as best as I can do it, is my activism, to paraphrase the late, great Toni Morrison in these troubled times. 

CURIOUS is a short film I wrote, which is co-produced and stars the magnificent Urbain Hayo, the dazzling Dior Clarke, and is brilliantly directed by my genius compadre, Rikki Beadle-Blair. 

It's funny, it's sexy, it's joyous and a representation of queer Black British fire and flavour. It's NSF, but do check it out via the link below. I hope you enjoy it: 

[johnrgordon]

From the author of the award-winning 2018 queer antebellum epic Drapetomania, which was called ‘a masterpiece’ by Patrik-Ian Polk and ‘a dazzling work of imagination’ by Michael Eric Dyson, from ‘an author working at the height of his powers’ (Financial Times) and ‘a master novelist’ (Huffington Post), comes a new novel of race, madness and the uncanny in contemporary America.

**PUBLICATION DATE: February 3, 2025

ISBN: 978-1-7397739-3-9

 RRP: $15.99/£13.99 p/back

AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER VIA THE FOLLOWING LINKS:

UK: Amazon/ Waterstones

US: Amazon/ Barnes & Noble

MOTHER OF SERPENTS

Brooklyn-based poet DuVone Mapley-Stevenson is already struggling with fragile mental health when his white husband Jack gets a promotion that means they must relocate to all-white Kwawidokawa County, upstate Maine. At first it seems this could be a fresh start for the financially-stretched family, even if the house Jack has found them is suspiciously cheap...

Determined to make the most of the move for the sake of their young son, stay-at-home dad Vone is at once destabilized by the racial, cultural and geographic isolation. When strange sights and sounds start to press in on him, he initially doesn't dare share with Jack what he at first assumes must be recurring delusive thinking. And then he starts to fear that the increasingly threatening phenomena are real.

This sets off a series of terrifying events that collapse the borderlines between sanity and reality, myth and science, and escalate into a life-and-death battle between the monsters who roam the mind and those that slither across the boundaries between their worlds and our own...

Fusing a convincing portrait of psychosis and its aftermath with occult and indigenous lore, the legacy of witch trials, gothic Americana and the lived experiences of a multicultural queer family in a world of racial and social discord, award-winning John R. Gordon's new novel of unease will set your pulse racing and have you looking over your shoulder for things glanced in mirrors.

PRAISE FOR GORDON'S OTHER WORK

Drapetomania is “a masterpiece” (Patrik-Ian Polk); “a dazzling work of imagination” (Michael Eric Dyson) and “a riveting, masterful work” (Alexis De Veaux)

Hark is “audaciously provocative, spooky and sexy all at once” (Craig Laurance Gidney)

Skin Deep is “thought-provoking and funny, subtly erotic and in-your-face nasty by turns, often deeply touching and at times, surprisingly wise.” (Larry Duplechan).

[johnrgordon]

It took ten difficult years of writing and research to complete my novel, DRAPETOMANIA. To say that the process was life changing would be an understatement. I'm forever grateful to every reader who has taken the time to get into this text. Here's a lovely endorsement from cultural powerhouse, Michael Eric Dyson: 

'Virtually nothing has been written about the black gay experience under slavery. This is a stunning work of imagination... Gordon captures the difficult feelings between individual humans within the dehumanizing context that was the horror of slavery – the nuances of emotion that formed the tightrope of external obedience and internal defiance.'

You can purchase the book via the links below should you wish to do so. Thank you once again for your support.

US: https://tinyurl.com/mw48we98

UK: https://tinyurl.com/5n6eef6f

[johnrgordon]

Vikram Kolmannskog is a Norwegian-Indian writer, poet and therapist. What a privilege it was to publish his Lambda-shortlisted collection of erotic queer stories. An absolute treat. Do order here if you can: https://tinyurl.com/4sz3wmp7

[johnrgordon]

The wonderful Roz Kaveney won a Lambda Award for her novel, TINY PIECES OF SKULL. At a time when trans rights are being systematically eroded, I’m delighted that Roz’s work exists in the world, & proud to be her publisher. Do order here if you can: https://tinyurl.com/4tj7ufa7

[johnrgordon]

I’m extremely proud to have published Andreena Leeanne’s Polari Prize-nominated collection of poetry. ​By centering her experience as a Black British lesbian artist and survivor, she’s adding her voice to an urgent chorus of voices. Order from here: https://tinyurl.com/ptzst44k

[johnrgordon]

HARK is a young adult novel about race, sexuality and the power of fighting for your voice, which is a message we could all use now. You can order this text here: https://tinyurl.com/ymrbb6z3

[johnrgordon]

JOHN R. GORDON'S Drapetomania is radical for multiple reasons; it is the first novel about same gender-loving men during slavery times, and it is also the most visceral exploration of the totality of this experience. 

The book was acclaimed by many noteworthy luminaries like MICHAEL ERIC DYSON and ALEX DE VEAUX (AUDRE LORDE'S biographer and friend), amongst others.

You can order this award-winning epic here: https://tinyurl.com/4kw27438

[johnrgordon]

JOHN R GORDON won the prestigious Ferro-Grumley Award for his groundbreaking novel, Drapetomania, which is the first novel focused on the plight of same-gender loving men during slavery times.

Critically acclaimed across the board, this epic saga is one to savour.

[johnrgordon]

JOHN R GORDON and RIKKI BEADLE-BLAIR edited Black and Gay in the UK, which was the first anthology of Black British gay writers. This was more than a decade ago. What these past ten years have proven is that the work feels more necessary than ever.

You can order this incredible book here: https://tinyurl.com/yku5vrzt