Selected Essays, 2019–2023

FORTHCOMING Spring 2026

“There are floods that destroy entire contents of a library or publishing house; libraries and museums bombed during wartime; authors themselves demanding certain works or letters be burned at their death; those who attempt at their own risk to save what they can of a manuscript; manuscripts left in taxis and never to be found[…]

My 1980s Gayboy Playlist

FORTHCOMING Winter 2026

In this remarkably intimate book, My 1980s Gayboy Playlist, award-winning music writer Arved Ashby muses over pieces that impacted his sexual and musical awakenings as a troubled gay adolescent—pieces by Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Beethoven, Anton Bruckner, Alban Berg, Prince, Kurt Cobain, and Tom Petty. Ashby shares memories both intimate and far-ranging, but My 1980s Gayboy Playlist[…]