Is the loss of innocence the beginning of compassion and wisdom?
Today we meet Dean Backus and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh.
Dean is a playwright, essayist, screenwriter, journalist, filmmaker, and high school English teacher. He is the author of Darts and Flowers and the forthcoming The Deep End of the Pool.
Harriet the Spy is a timeless YA classic by queer author Louise Fitzhugh. In it, Harriet M. Welsch is a spy. In her notebook, she writes down everything she knows about everyone, even her classmates and her best friends. Then Harriet loses track of her notebook, and it ends up in the wrong hands. Before she can stop them, her friends have read the always truthful, sometimes awful things she's written about each of them. Will Harriet find a way to put her life and her friendships back together?
Connect with Dean
website: deanbackusauthor.com
instagram: @deanbackusauthor
facebook: facebook.com/deanbackusauthor
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
Buy your own copy of Harriet The Spy: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780440416791
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean Smith
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1
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