Whatever Happened To Queer Happiness?

'A timely probe into small acts of dissent, seeking out a wild tenderness and new sources of light.' Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of Gay Bar In this highly accessible, entertaining and provocative work of non-fiction Kevin Brazil combines essay and memoir to ask one of the most pertinent questions of our current age: whatever happened to queer happiness? Exploring the lives of artists and writers from the past, current discourse around queerness and his own experiences, Brazil argues that art and literature needs to move away from celebrating the pain of queerness and embracing all the positive, ecstatic, collective joy that queer culture produces. Brazil's enlivening ideas around queerness combat the isolation of individuality and shame, instead championing collectivity, commonality, and visions of shared pleasure; offering both critique and a way of remaking the world. A timely, eminently readable and fascinating book for all readers of creative non-fiction, Whatever Happened to Queer Happiness? is a work of literature that will reverberate for years to come.

Kevin Brazil is a writer and critic who lives in London. He grew up in County Wexford, Ireland. His writing has appeared in Granta, Frieze, The White Review, London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, Art Review, Studio International, and elsewhere.