Now
Available
Now
Available
Artwork
Correspondence
Now
in paperback
Biography
Reissues
|
|
John Rechy receives UCLA's highest honor. On October 24th, John Rechy was awarded the UCLA Medal after delivering the 2019 Lois E. Matthews Lecture, "Intimate Memories Evoked by Recent Events at the Border". Previous winners include former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, philanthropist David Geffen and author Toni Morrison.
Read the article in the UCLA Daily Bruin. |
|
|
After the Blue Hour
A new novel by John Rechy |
|
"One of the few original American writers of the last century."
Gore Vidal |
John Rechy's first novel, City of Night, an international bestseller, is considered a modern classic. Subsequent work asserts his place among America's most important writers. The author's most daring work, After the Blue Hour is narrated by a twenty-four-year-old writer named John Rechy. Fleeing a turbulent life in Los Angeles, he accepts an invitation to a private island from an admirer of his work. There, he joins Paul, his imposing host in his late thirties, his beautiful mistress, and his precocious teenage son. Browsing Paul's library and conversing together on the deck about literature and film during the spell of evening's "blue hour," John feels surcease, until, with unabashed candor, Paul shares intimate details of his life. Through cunning seductive charm, he married and divorced an ambassador's daughter and the heiress to a vast fortune. Avoiding identifying his son's mother, he reveals an affinity for erotic "dangerous games." With intimations of past decadence and menace, an abandoned island nearby arouses tense fascination over the group. As "games" veer toward violence, secrets surface in startling twists and turns. Explosive confrontation becomes inevitable.
|
|
Honorable Mention. In a review of the new book Arcade, essayist and critic Alex Espinoza discusses the legacy of John's landmark book City of Night.
Scholarly. Beth Hernandez-Jason has posted her dissertation on The Act of Reading John Rechy online. An edited collection of scholarly essays which includes an interview with John published by a press in Spain can be found here. Lastly, here’s a link to the symposium (the first celebration of the 50th anniversary of City of Night) at UC Merced about John’s work in 2013.
Retyping the Classics. Los Angeles artist Tim Youd has, for the last four years, been retyping great English-language novels one by one in different locations. In June and July he has typed City of Night and Numbers in Hollywood. Click here to read more.
David Bowie's Top 100 Books. The sad loss of David Bowie has brought back into circulation his list of the top 100 books which he compiled in 2013. Prominent on that list is John Rechy's City of Night. Click here to view the entire list.
Lifetime Acievement Award! The University of California Riverside and the Los Angeles Review of Books are teaming up to give their first Lifetime Achievement Award to John Rechy. Click here.
Feature article in Texas Monthly on City of Night turning 50. Click here.
City of Night, most influential gay novel ever, LA Weekly proclaims. Read the entire article.
John Rechy to Receive Prestigious Award. This year’s Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature, presented by
UC Santa Barbara, as been awarded to John Rechy. Click here.
City of Night
50th Anniversary Edition
Available Now
Slate's editors pick CITY OF NIGHT as one of the best books of 2013!. Click here. In addition, Slate interviews John Rechy here.
John Rechy's City of Night turns 50. Gregg Barrios writes about the newly reissued edition of City of Night commemerating the 50th anniversary of this landmark novel in the New York Times while David Ulin discussed the book in the Los Angeles Times.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reviews the 50th Anniversary Edition.
|
In October 2013, the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center presented a program with John Rechy,
Héctor Calderón, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese,
David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times Book Critic, and
John Densmore, The Doors to celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration of 'City of Night'. View the full presentation.
|
|
When John Rechy’s explosive first novel appeared in 1963, it marked a radical departure in fiction, and gave voice to a subculture that had never before been revealed with such acuity. It earned comparisons to Genet and Kerouac, even as Rechy was personally attacked by scandalized reviewers. Nevertheless, the book became an international bestseller, and fifty years later, it has become a classic. Bold and inventive in style, Rechy is unflinching in his portrayal of one hustling “youngman” and his search for self-knowledge within the neon-lit world of hustlers, drag queens, and the denizens of their world, as he moves from El Paso to Times Square, from Pershing Square to the French Quarter. Now including never-seen original marked galley pages and an interview with the author, Rechy’s portrait of the edges of America has lost none of its power to move and exhilarate. |
Read an excerpt. |
DOMA, John Rechy and the land of the free. Read David Ulin's piece in the Los Angeles Times on how John Rechy should be proud of his contribution to the Supreme Court overturning a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, sending Proposition 8 back to a federal district court in California, liberation politics, and the courageous role John has played through his writing and his life to see such changes sweep the country.
Strong Praise. Silver Birch Press praises The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez. Click here.
Feature
Review. Ariel Swartley writes about John Rechy and his
latest book, About My Life and the Kept Woman, in Los
Angeles magazine. Click
here.
A Writer
Responds. John Rechy responds to David Leavitt's New
York Times review of About My Life and the Kept Woman.
Click here.
New
Interview. John Rechy does an extended interview in the
magazine Vice in December 2010. Read it online. Click
here.
City
of Night, One of Five Most Essential Books in Newsweek.
In the April 13th edition of Newsweek magazine,
author Richard Price names City of Night highly among
his Five Most Essential Books. "Both shocking and suffused
with longing," he writes, "a combo that can make an
adolescent boy circa 1966 lose his mind." |
|
A Writer
Protests. Read John Rechy's letter to the editor of the
New York Times Book Review concerning David Leavitt's
review of About My Life and the Kept Woman. While the New
York Times published the letter, they omitted the very last
line. Read the full letter here, including an elaboration on the
last line. Click here.
Reviews of John Rechy's Autobiography. Read the Los Angeles Times review of About My Life and the Kept Woman. Click here. "...color, energy, humor and teeming characters of a Dickens novel..." is how The Dallas Morning News describes John rechy's memoir. Click here. Publishers Weekly calls About My Life and the Kept Woman "...a marvelous autobiography by a writer whose life is as interesting as his fiction." Click here.
John Rechy's Intensified Reality. A feature article on John Rechy and his new book, About My Life and the Kept Woman appears in the Sunday, February 17th Los Angeles Times. Click here to read the article.
About My Life and the Kept
Woman. John Rechy's 15th book is now available in
bookstores and online. In an advance review, Publisher's Weekly
calls About My Life and the Kept Woman "a marvelous
autobiography by a writer whose life is as interesting as his fiction."
More information on this new book will be appearing soon.
Living with Music in the New
York Times. Every Wednesday in the New York Times
book blog, “Living With Music,” a writer or other notable
book-world figure provides a music playlist. On January 16, John
Rechy was featured to discuss thirteen influential pieces of music,
from Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel to Maria Ewing's rendition
of Salome. Click
to visit the New York Times page.
John Rechy MySpace Page.
View the fan page dedicated to John Rechy on MySpace. Click
here.
"From
where do a writer's characters come?" John Rechy asks
in his new contribution to these pages. " Who are they, finally?—these
wily, shifty creatures, darting in and out of trouble, creatures
who cajole, flirt with their author, seduce him, at times challenge
him to the point that they run away beyond their creator's intent. "
Read the answer that follows in this
talk given at the University of Texas at El Paso, where John Rechy
received the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award and was later revised
for a talk at the Los Angeles Institute of the Humanities. Click
here.
Female Actors, Part Two. John Rechy examines how
the banishment of the word 'actress' to erase gender identification
paradoxically creates an opposite effect in his new essay. Click
here.
Honoring A Substantial Artist.
ONE
National Gay & Lesbian Archives has honored John Rechy's
writing, teaching and activism by making him the first recipient
of their ONE Culture Hero Award. According to Gore Vidal: "In
retrospect, one of the few original American writers of the last
century." At an event in October, ONE celebrated John Rechy's
talent, courage, and commitment: "He has lived his life as
an outlaw in many arenas– being a Mexican-American, a gay
man, a writer living in and celebrating Los Angeles, a teacher of
writing (always noting, “Break the rules”), and an LGBT
social critic and activist. His writings, particularly his latest
work, "Beneath the Skin: The Collected Essays
of John Rechy" (2004), depict his unique stance from all
of these positions"
In His Own Words.
Coming soon to these pages: a collection of interviews with John
Rechy that span the years. Watch for further details.
Feeling
"...unmanly." Read the unedited letter to Details
magazine from John Rechy on The Army's Big, Embarrassing Gay-Porn
Scandal. Click here.
Not All is Bright on our Horizon.
On June 24, 2006, John Rechy gave a talk at the Adelante
Gay Pride Gala in El Paso, Texas, commemorating a thrilling event
in the evolution of gay pride--the Stonewall Riot. John Rechy reminds
his audience that "...pride and courage were not born at Stonewall...and
that not all is bright on our horizon today." Click
here.
Interview with John Rechy.
Read the recent interview on teaching writing and the publishing
world today with John Rechy in Writer's E-Zine. Click
here.
Artwork by John Rechy.
View two drawings by John Rechy, "Lady of the Evening"
and "Salem Alley" on these pages. Click
here.
Sexual Liberator or Enslaver? John
Rechy examines the work of artist Tom of Finland and certain gay
charades of violence celebrated in his drawings in the most recent
essay to appear on these pages. Click here.
Lying
Writers . Read John Rechy's latest contribution on the
fuss about James Frey's purported "memoir" "A Million
Little Pieces" and the nature of truth in writing. Click
here.
"I'll
try 'Hence the Title' for $1200, Alex." In June of
2005, John Rechy's City of Night was the basis of an answer on Jeopardy.
Click
here to read an account of the event.
On Writing. John Rechy
has conducted creative writing courses as guest author at Occidental
College and UCLA. He currently teaches in the Masters in Professional
Writing Program at USC. He also holds private workshops for professional-level
writers. He has lectured on writing and other subjects at Harvard,
Yale, and Duke Universities. A new essay on the The
Buried Wisdom and Poetry in Time-Honored Clichés
now appears on this site. Click here.
Pilgrim Soul Read
John-Manuel Andriote's article on John Rechy called "Pilgrim
Soul" at the Lambda Literary Foundation. Click
here.
A Writer Protests! Over
twenty letters of protest from John Rechy to editors and reviewers
have now been posted in the Speaking Out section of this web site;
new letters will be added periodically. Current material
includes correspondence with Amazon.com resulting from the New York
Times article about the "glitch" in Canada that revealed
the names of "reviewers" who were promised anonymity on
Amazon's book sites. Click here
for complete table of contents.
New Commentaries by
John Rechy are coming soon to these pages. Topics to include: More
Rules of Writing, Surreal Reality, The Beauty of Old Cliches, A
Writer Protests. Latest submission: The Gay Mammies.
Click here for a menu of all current essays.
"Best
of the Best" The
Los Angeles Times calls "The Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens"
"Best of the Best" and lists it as one of the 10 best
works of fiction in 2003! Click
for more details
Forever Kathleen Winsor.
John Rechy pays tribute to the overlooked author Kathleen Winsor
who died on May 26, 2003. Her novel, "Forever Amber,"
sold 100,000 copies upon release in 1944 and went on to sell millions.
Click
here to read the Los Angeles Times article.
Liz Smith, in New
York Newsday, muses on "City of Night" as a movie. Click
here to read an excerpt from her column.
Jonathan Kirsch in conversation
with John Rechy. Listen to an interview with John Rechy
by Jonathan Kirsch on KCRW which aired on Wednesday, November 28,
2001. Click
here. (Requires RealPlayer).
Biography News: "Outlaw:
John Rechy, Vol. 1," a biography of John Rechy by Charles
Casillo is now in bookstores. Click
here to read an excerpt. Charles Casillo was recently interviewed
on KCRW about his biography. Click
here to hear the interview.
New Feature. John Rechy
has conducted creative writing courses as guest author at Occidental
College and UCLA. He currently teaches in the Masters in Professional
Writing Program at USC and also holds private workshops for professional-level
writers. He has lectured on writing and other subjects at Harvard,
Yale, and Duke Universities. From time to time, he will contribute
short essays on writing. Click here
to view the first on the "Terrible Three Rules" that are
capable of doing terrible damage to good writing.
|