Armistead Maupin, whose Tales of the City novels and TV series have made the author one of the world’s most important and best known gay literary voices, will appear as a special guest at this year’s 2nd Annual Pride on the Page Book Festival (www.prideonthepage.org). The on-stage discussion with local writer David Eugene Perry on Friday, October 13 at 7pm will benefit the Palm Springs Public Library Foundation. United Airlines, a longtime ally of the LGBTQ community is sponsoring the appearance with additional support from El Mirasol Villas Resort and Visit Palm Springs. Maupin and his husband, artist, and photographer Christopher Turner, make their home in London, England.
“Chris and I are thrilled to be returning to Palm Springs,” said Maupin, “and I look forward to reading aloud a sneak preview of my new novel, Mona of the Manor, to be published in March 2024.”
Maupin will be onstage in conversation with longtime journalist David Eugene Perry, host and creator of 10 Percent TV, the longest running LGBTQ TV show in California history which ran for ten years and 351 episodes. Perry’s debut novel, Upon This Rock, won the 2021 Ben Franklin Silver Medal from the Independent Book Publishers Association and “Best Gay Book of 2021” from the San Francisco Book Festival. Called an “elegant, twisty thriller” by Maupin, and “the gay ‘DaVinci Code but a lot better” by Fenton Johnson, Upon This Rock, is currently in screenplay development with a sequel, Thorns of the 15 Roses, underway. Following the main event Maupin will autograph books. A selection of his titles will be available for sale in the lobby courtesy of The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs.
Tickets for the evening are $65 in advance for general admission seating ($75 day-of, if available) with a limited number of VIP tickets at $95 that include a pre-event reception (6pm), a copy of his memoir Logical Family and preferred seating. Tickets to the event may be purchased online at: https://rb.gy/3nvgw.
Launched in 1976 as a groundbreaking serial in the San Francisco Chronicle, Armistead Maupin’s iconic Tales of the City series has since blazed its own trail through popular culture from a sequence of globally best-selling novels to a Peabody Award-winning television miniseries starring Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney, to an ambitious new musical that had its world premiere at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater in 2011. The series now encompasses eight hugely popular novels: Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others, Sure of You, Michael Tolliver Lives, and Mary Ann in Autumn. The final Tales novel, The Days of Anna Madrigal, was released in January 2014. It premiered at #3 on the Independent Bestseller list and #7 on the New York Times Bestseller list. In 2019 Netflix aired a new series based on the novels titled Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City.
Maupin’s 1992 novel, Maybe the Moon, which followed the serio-comic adventures of a dwarf actress working in Hollywood, was named one of the ten best books of the year by Entertainment Weekly. The Night Listener (2000), a psychological suspense novel inspired by an eerie episode in Maupin’s own life, became a 2006 feature film starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette.
In 2017 he wrote a memoir titled Logical Family which grew out of his critically acclaimed one-man show of the same name. Neil Gaiman said this about Logical Family; “Maupin is one of America’s finest storytellers, and the story of his life is a story as fascinating, as delightful and as compulsive as any of the tales he has made up for us.”
In 1997 Maupin received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Publishing Triangle of New York. In 2002 he was honored with the Trevor Project’s Life Award “for his efforts in saving young lives.” Maupin was the first recipient of Litquake’s Barbary Coast Award for his literary contribution to San Francisco. In 2012 he was awarded Lambda’s Pioneer Award which is bestowed on individuals who have broken new ground in the field of LGBT literature and publishing. In 2014 he received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He also received the Visionary Award from the 2014 Outfest Legacy Awards for his collected novels and their “…diverse, interconnected community of San Francisco bohemians — which shaped our collective fantasy of what LGBT life is and could be.” Maupin is the subject of two documentaries: Armistead Maupin is a Man I Dreamt Up (1992) and Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin (2017).
The special event with Maupin on Friday evening kicks off the Second Annual Pride on the Page Book Festival, with most events taking place Saturday, October 14 (10am – 5:30pm). The FREE full day festival will take place at the Palm Springs Cultural Center’s historic Camelot Theatre (2300 Baristo Road, Palm Springs) and features ten panels of 40+ LGBTQ+ and affirming authors and their books in lively discussions. The goal of the Pride on the Page Festival is to communicate different viewpoints and represent various genres that will attract readers/people who have never experienced queer culture, and others who have made it the focus of their lives. The Festival’s panel moderators will lead the authors through discussions of their work, hearing from their point-of-view, helping attendees to discover new authors or get reacquainted with long-time favorites.
Advanced registration on Eventbrite is requested to help manage the event. Those that register and then check-in on the day of the event will receive a free gift. Register at: https://rb.gy/h82yj To learn more about the Pride on the Page Book Festival, the appearing authors, schedule of events and more, go to www.prideonthepage.org.
There will be something for everyone at the Second Annual Pride on the Page Book Festival presented by the Palm Springs Public Library Foundation and the Palm Springs Public Library. In addition, other sponsors include the City of Palm Springs, Palm Springs Cultural Center, The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs (the official book seller at the events), United Airlines, David Perry Communications, El Mirasol Villas Resort, Visit Palm Springs, KGAY Radio, CV Independent, and The Standard.
Enriching Lives, Connecting Community, Inspiring Growth, and Sparking Creativity. For over a century, Palm Springs has recognized the importance of a thriving local library. From a small adobe housing its first books in 1919 to today’s stacks holding over 100,000 resource items, the library has served residents from a dozen different branches. The mission of the Palm Springs Public Library Foundation is to continue that legacy. We aim to support the Palm Springs Public Library and to increase and broaden its use as a cultural and educational institution through financial support securing its place as an essential community resource. Ensuring local access to high-quality library services for generations requires more than just tax-based funding. Although public funds make libraries possible, it is private gifts that make them flourish. To learn more about the Foundation or how to become a member go to https://www.pslibraryfoundation.org/