TRAMPS LIKE US

This autobiographical novel, originally published to little fanfare in 2001 and long out of print, has been championed by influential queer poet Eileen Myles and reissued with their introduction. A coming-of-age story and picaresque novel set in the 1970s and '80s, Tramps is narrated by Joe, who flees a tyrannical and abusive father in Kansas City to explore the bars, bathhouses, and street life of New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco at the twilight of gay liberation and dawn of the AIDS epidemic. Narrator Nick Monteleone captures the Alice-in-Wonderland quality of Joe's adventures, dryly recounting all the drugs, dance floors, drag shows, and sexual encounters while channeling the loving camaraderie between Joe and his friends. A rediscovered LGBTQ+ classic that draws listeners into a lost world. [Published: JANUARY 2026]