Archive — Kevin Bertolero

Good Gay Poets Press

Good Gay Poets Press (1972-1984) was run by poet, historian, editor, and activist Charley Shiveley. Born out of the activity of the Gay Liberation Front, Good Gay Poets was dedicated to publishing the work of gay and lesbian poets, include some of the early work by poets John Wieners, Salvatore Farinella, Walta Borawski, David Eberly, and Maurice Kenny, among others. These titles, now long out-of-print, are restored here as scanned PDF files so that they might be saved and shared amongst a new generation of LGBTQ+ writers and readers. The entire catalog of titles published by Good Gay Poets has been archived below.

For more information about Good Gay Poets Press and related publications, check out this essay written by Charley Shivley himself: Fag Rag: The Most Loathsome Publication in the English Language. Included below are links to various other articles and essays that have been published about the press and its authors.

Two-Spirit Images in the Work of Maurice Kenny by Lisa Tatonetti (Kansas State University) — A wonderful essay on queerness in the poetics of Maurice Kenny.
The Roz Payne Sixties Archive — This archive contains scans of Fag Rag as well as a large number of other publications and materials from the 1960s.
Exhibition: Charles Shively: Cambridge Poet and Activist, 1937-2017 — Exhibit details from The Cambridge Room at the Cambridge Public Library.
Charles Shively Obituary — Published October 18, 2017 in the Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, written by Michael Bronski, Professor of Practice in Media and Activism in Studies of Women, Gender, and at Harvard University.
Cocksucking as an Act of Revolution by Charley Shively — An essay published in the Summer 1972 issue of Fag Rag.
The Last Gay Liberationist by Michael Bronski — An essay about the life of Charley Shively in the Boston Review, published December 20, 2017.
Fag Rag: The ’70s Paper of Gay Political Revolution by Jeremy Lybarger — Published September 11, 2020 in the Columbia Journalism Review.
Second Five Year Plan by the Fag Rag Collective — Republished in Lavender Culture (New York, NY: Jove Publications, 1978).
The Calamus Root: A Study of American Gay Poetry Since World War II by Walter Holland
He Walks in Two Worlds: A Visit with Maurice Kenny by E. Grant — Studies in American Indian Literatures, Fall 1995, Series 2, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 17-27.

This archive is still under development. New materials will be added as they are recovered and digitized. Please reach out to kbertolero@gmail.com with any questions or inquiries.

SEXUALLY DANGEROUS POET by Walta Borawski (1984)

25 YEARS OF MALCONTENT by Stephanie Byrd (1976)

STRIATIONS by George-Thérèse Dickenson (1976)

WHAT HAS BEEN LOST by David Eberly (1982)

THE ORANGE TELEPHONE by Salvatore Farinella (1975)

NIGHT BLOOMING: ABOUT ALLYN AMUNDSON, Ed. by Salvatore Farinella (1976)

AMUSEMENT BUSINESS AND THEN SOME: POEMS by Freddie Greenfield (1976)

ONLY AS FAR AS BROOKLYN by Maurice Kenny (1979)

THE PINBALL PLAYER by Pat M. Kuras (1982)

NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LOS DOLORES by Charley Shively (1975)

BEHIND THE STATE CAPITOL or CINCINNATI PIKE by John Wieners (1975)

WE WERE THERE! A GAY PRESENCE AT THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY by John Wieners (1972)

"EXORCISM OF THE STRAIGHT / MAN / DEMON" by Aaron Shurin [broadside] (1972)

FAG RAG

In the wake of the Stonewall rebellion in New York, gay liberation activism in Boston accelerated, including the establishment of a periodical, Lavender Vision. Initially, gay men and women worked on the newspaper together as a "69 publication," meaning half of the newspaper was devoted to gay men and half to gay women. Shortly after its initial publication, though, lesbian activists split, feeling that gay women needed a space of their own. The newspaper was relaunched as a women-centered periodical and local gay men established Fag Rag. [1]

Fag Rag was a Boston-based gay men's newspaper, published from 1971 until the early 1980s. The publishers were The Fag Rag Collective, which consisted of radical writers, artists and activists. Notable members were Larry Martin, Charley Shively, Michael Bronski, Thom Nickels, and John Mitzel. In its early years the subscription list was between 400 and 500, with an additional 4,500 copies sold on newsstands and bookstores or given away. During its run, Fag Rag published interviews with, and writing by, prominent gay and bisexual authors including William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Christopher Isherwood, John Wieners, Arthur Evans, Allen Young, Gerard Malanga, John Rechy, Ned Rorem, and Gore Vidal. [2]

Issue No. 30-39, 1982 (Twelfth Anniversary Issue)

Liberated Manuscripts

A collection of manuscripts by gay poets that have gone out-of-print or are difficult to access in university libraries and special collections. Please download and share these files with as many people as possible to ensure that they are saved, read, and enjoyed. I will be scanning additional books and adding them to this page periodically. Also, please feel free to reach out if you have digital copies of a collection that you think belongs amongst the group of titles I’ve provided below. I’d be more than happy to add new work that you might have saved and want shared. Enjoy!

THE DAILY NEWS by Brad Gooch (Calais, VT: Z Press, 1977)

CUM by John Giorno (Brooklyn, NY: Adventures in Poetry, 1971)

CEREMONIES by Essex Hemphill (New York, NY: Plume, 1992)

AND GRIEVE, LESBIA by Maurice Kenny (New York, NY: Aardvark Press, 1960)

THE SHORT AND LONG OF IT by Maurice Kenny (Little Rock, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 1990)

CUT OF NOON by Frederick Nicklaus (New York, NY: David Lewis, Inc., 1971)

THE MAN WHO BIT THE SUN by Frederick Nicklaus (New York, NY: New Directions, 1962)

IN THE BLOOD by Carl Phillips (Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press, 1992)

LAMENT FOR THE SLEEPWALKER by Dunstan Thompson (New York, NY: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1947)

POEMS by Dunstan Thompson (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1943)

A CROW'S STORY OF DEER by James L. White (Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1974)

THE DEL RIO HOTEL by James L. White (Moorhead, MN: The Territorial Press, 1975)

DIVORCE PROCEEDINGS by James L. White (Vermillion, SD: University of South Dakota Press, 1972)