Inexplicably, William S. Burroughs has not been embraced by the LGBTQI community as one of our own, even though his queerness was central to his life and work.
Fever Spores: The Queer Reclamation of William S. Burroughs serves as an appreciation and reclamation project. We seek to bring Burroughs into the gay literary canon. Editors
Brian Alessandro, co-author of
Edmund White's A Boy's Own Story graphic novel, and
Tom Cardamone, author of the Lambda Award-winning speculative fiction novel
Green Thumb, have compiled interviews and essays featuring emerging and established writers, filmmakers, musicians, artists, and critics, including Blondie founders and musicians
Debbie Harry and
Chris Stein, cultural critic and author
Fran Lebowitz, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner
Tony Kushner (
Angels in America), filmmaker
David Cronenberg (
The Fly,
Dead Ringers,
A History of Violence,
Naked Lunch), multiple Hugo-Nebula Award-winning science fiction writer
Samuel R. Delany (
The Mad Man,
Nova,
Babel-17), National Book Award-winner
Edmund White, PUNK magazine founder and former SPIN and NERVE editor,
Legs McNeil,
Gregory Woods (
A History of Gay Literature),
Paul Russell (
The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov),
Charlie Vázquez (
Dreaming Out Loud: Voices of Undocumented Writers), and Burroughs's bibliographer and literary executor,
James Grauerholz, among many others. Some offer critical assessments of Burroughs, while others share personal experiences.