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

It's a new year, so we hope you enjoy our new format and theme song. Be sure to support us on Patreon, buy the books we feature on the show through our bookshop, or read them through Quatrefoil Library's free e-library. Links in the shows and on our website.

Support the show

A new episode of This Queer Book Saved My Life drops next week on January 7! In our off weeks, we air the most recent episode of The Gaily Show which J.P. hosts for AM950 Radio.

Today is the literature episode from this year’s first annual The Gaily Show Awards or The Gailies. A guest judge is invited to look back at the year that was in literature, film, TV, and poetry. Our guest judge for Literature is author Patrick Nathan. His new novel The Future Was Color was selected by the Los Angeles Book Review as their "Book of the Summer." He is also the author of Some Hell and Image Control: Art, Fascism, and the Right to Resist.

You can find the full list of honorees (and some dishonorees) on The Gaily Show’s social media. On Bluesky: @thegailyshow.org. On Instagram: @the_gailyshow.

Watch on YouTube

We're in video too! You can watch this episode at youtube.com/@thegailyshow

Credits

Host/Founder: J.P. Der Boghossian
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Production and Distribution Support: Brett Johnson, AM950
Marketing/Advertising Support: Chad Larson, Laura Hedlund, Jennifer Ogren, AM950
Accounting and Creative Support: Gordy Erickson

We've partnered with Once Upon a Crime Books on a holiday episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven. Located in Minneapolis, Once Upon a Crime Books is an independent bookstore specializing in mystery fiction. Listen to these 4 new episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven everywhere you stream your podcasts and visit Upon a Crime Books online at onceuponacrimebooks.com.

Support the show

Happy Holidays from us to you! Whichever holiday you celebrate (or don't) we hope it's with your families of choice!

Here's a holiday message from us to you as Executive Producer Jim Pounds and I look back at the year that was, our upcoming venture with The Gaily Show, and a sneak peak of This Queer Book Saved My Life in 2025.

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

We've partnered with Once Upon a Crime Books on a holiday episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven. Located in Minneapolis, Once Upon a Crime Books is an independent bookstore specializing in mystery fiction. Listen to these 4 new episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven everywhere you stream your podcasts and visit Upon a Crime Books online at onceuponacrimebooks.com.

Support the show