Felice Anthony Picano (February 22, 1944 – March 12, 2025) was an American writer, publisher and critic who encouraged the development of

gay literature Gay literature is a collective term for literature produced by or for the gay community which involves characters, plot lines, and/or themes portraying male homosexual behavior. Overview and history Because the social acceptance of homosexuali ...

in the United States. His work is documented in many sources.

Life and career

Felice Anthony Picano was born in

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

on February 22, 1944, and graduated ''

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' from

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing. Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...

in 1964 with English department honors. He founded SeaHorse Press in 1977, and The Gay Presses of New York in 1981 with Terry Helbing and Larry Mitchell; he was Editor-in-Chief there. He was an editor and writer for ''

The Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to: Magazines * The Advocate (magazine), ''The Advocate'' (magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States * ''The Harvard Advocate' ...

'', ''Blueboy'', ''

Mandate Mandate most often refers to: * League of Nations mandates, quasi-colonial territories established under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, 28 June 1919 * Mandate (politics), the power granted by an electorate Mandate may also r ...

'', ''

Gaysweek ''Gaysweek'' was an American weekly gay and lesbian newspaper based in New York City printed from 1977 until 1979. Considered the city's first mainstream weekly lesbian and gay newspaper, it was founded by Alan Bell in 1977 as an 8-page single-col ...

'', and ''

Christopher Street Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th Street west of Sixth Avenue. It is most notable for the Stonewall Inn, which is located on Christopher St ...

''. He was the Books Editor of ''The New York Native''. At ''The Los Angeles Examiner'', ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the He ...

'', ''

New York Native The ''New York Native'' was a biweekly gay newspaper published by Charles Ortleb in New York City from December 1980 until January 13, 1997. It was the only gay paper in New York City during the early part of the AIDS epidemic, and pioneered repo ...

'', ''Harvard Lesbian & Gay Review'' and the ''Lambda Book Report'', he was a culture reviewer. He also wrote for ''OUT'' and ''OUT Traveller''. With

Andrew Holleran Andrew Holleran is the pseudonym of Eric Garber (born 1944), an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer, born on the island of Aruba. Most of his adult life has been spent in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a small town in Florid ...

Robert Ferro Robert Ferro (October 21, 1941 – July 11, 1988) was an American novelist whose semi-autobiographical fiction explored the uneasy integration of homosexuality and traditional American upper middle class values. Biography He was born in Cranfo ...

Michael Grumley Michael Grumley (July 6, 1942 – April 28, 1988) was an American writer and artist. Grumley was born in Bettendorf, Iowa. He attended the University of Denver, the City College of New York and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Grumley received a B.S. D ...

Edmund White Edmund Valentine White III (January 13, 1940 – June 3, 2025) was an American novelist, memoirist, playwright, biographer, and essayist. A pioneering figure in LGBTQ and especially gay literature after the Stonewall riots, he wrote with ra ...

Christopher Cox Charles Christopher Cox (born October 16, 1952) is an American attorney and politician who served as chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a 17-year Republican Party (United States), Republican member of the United States House ...

, and George Whitmore, he founded the literary group The Violet Quill, considered to be the pathbreaking gay male literary nucleus of the 20th Century. In a 2024 letter to the ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Book ...

'', Picano objected to the "apotheosis" reserved by

Vivian Gornick Vivian Gornick (born June 14, 1935) is an American radical feminist critic, journalist, essayist, and memoirist. Early life and education In 1957 Gornick received a bachelor of arts degree from City College of New York and in 1960 a master of a ...

for the ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Ma ...

'' in her review of Tricia Romano's book, titled ''The Freaks Came Out to Write'', about the New York periodical. He claimed that "anyone reading only the ''Voice'' would have been unaware of any LGB contribution to culture in the 1970s and 1980s," adding that, in the periodical, there was "no popular music department" and "so

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

's worldwide explosion went unremarked." In his memoir ''Men Who Loved Me'', he described his close friendship with the poet

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry is noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, ...

. In his later memoir/history, ''Art & Sex in Greenwich Village'', he wrote about contacts with

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...

James Purdy James Otis Purdy (July 17, 1914 March 13, 2009) was an American novelist, short-story writer, poet, and playwright who, from his debut in 1956, published over a dozen novels, and many collections of poetry, short stories, and plays. His work ha ...

Charles Henri Ford Charles Henri Ford (February 10, 1908 – September 27, 2002) was an American poet, novelist, diarist, filmmaker, photographer, and collage artist. He published more than a dozen collections of poetry, exhibited his artwork in Europe and the Uni ...

Edward Gorey Edward St. John Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000) was an Americans, American writer, Tony Awards, Tony Award-winning costume designer, and artist, noted for his own illustrated books as well as cover art and illustration for book ...

Robert Mapplethorpe Robert Michael Mapplethorpe ( ; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female Nude (art), n ...

and many contemporary and younger authors. In ''True Stories'', Picano wrote about other people including

Bette Midler Bette Midler ( ;''Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and author. Throughout her five-decade career Midler has received List of awards and nominations received by Bette Midler, numero ...

Diana Vreeland Diana Vreeland (September 29, 1903 – August 22, 1989) was an American fashion columnist and editor. She worked for the fashion magazine ''Harper's Bazaar'' and as editor-in-chief at '' Vogue'', later becoming a special consultant to the Costume ...

, as well as friends and acquaintances from his childhood and early adulthood. In his newest book, ''Nights at Rizzoli'', Picano writes about being a book clerk and bookstore manager in the early 1970s with

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his nu ...

Jackie Onassis Jackie or Jacky may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackie (given name), a list of people and fictional characters named Jackie or Jacky ** Jackie, current ring name of female professional wrestler Jacqueline Moore ** Jackie Lee (I ...

Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 12th-greatest male ...

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician. He is known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of The Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; Jagge ...

and S.J. Perelman. Among those who Picano introduced to the public via his publishing companies were Dennis Cooper,

Harvey Fierstein Harvey Forbes Fierstein ( ; born June 6, 1952) is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter, known for his distinctive gravelly voice. He gained notice for his theater work in '' Torch Song Trilogy'', winning both the Tony Award for Best ...

Jane Chambers Jane Chambers (March 27, 1937 – February 15, 1983) was an American playwright. She was a "pioneer in writing theatrical works with openly lesbian characters". Chambers was born in Columbia, South Carolina, but grew up in Orlando, Florida, where ...

Brad Gooch Brad Gooch (born 1952) is an American writer. Biography Born and raised in Kingston, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor's degree in 1973 and a doctorate in 1986. Gooch has lived in New York City since 1971. His 2 ...

, Doric Wilson,

Robert Peters (writer) Robert Louis Peters (October 20, 1924 – June 13, 2014) was an American poet, critic, scholar, playwright, editor, and actor. He held a PhD in Victorian literature. Born in an impoverished rural area of northern Wisconsin in 1924, his poetry care ...

, and Gavin Dillard. Several of his novels have been national and international best-sellers, and they have been translated into fifteen languages. A longtime resident of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

and

Fire Island Pines Fire Island Pines (often referred to as ''The Pines'', simply ''Pines'', or ''FIP'') is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet in Brookhaven, New York, United States. It is located on Fire Island, a barrier island separated from the southern side of Long I ...

, Picano resided for periods of time in Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, England, and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Germany. He later settled in

West Hollywood, California West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. History Most historical writing ...

. He died from lymphoma at

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a non-profit, Tertiary referral hospital, tertiary, 915-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science centre, academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars ...

in Los Angeles, on March 12, 2025, at the age of 81.

Literary prizes

Picano received the

Ferro-Grumley Award The Ferro-Grumley Award is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle and the Ferro-Grumley Foundation to a book deemed the year's best work of LGBT fiction. The award is presented in memory of writers Robert Ferro and Michael Gru ...

and Gay Times of England Award for best gay novel and the Syndicated Fiction/PEN Award for best short story, as well as the Jane Chambers Play Award in 1985. He was a finalist for the first Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and was nominated for five

Lambda Literary Awards Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary Foundation, Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literatur ...

. He received the Lambda Literary Foundation's Pioneer Award in 2010, and the City of West Hollywood's Rainbow Award and Citation in 2013.

Publications

Novels and short story collections

* ''Smart as the Devil'', Arbor House (New York, NY), 1975. * ''Eyes'', Arbor House (New York, NY), 1975. * ''The Mesmerist'', Delacorte (New York, NY), 1977. * ''The Lure'', Delacorte (New York, NY), 1979, Alyson Books (Los Angeles, CA), 2002, Bold Strokes Books, Inc, (Valley Falls NY) 2008 * ''Late in the Season'', Delacorte (New York, NY), 1981, Bold Strokes Books, Inc, (Valley Falls NY) 2008 * '' An Asian Minor: The True Story of Ganymede'' Sea HorsePress (New York, NY), 1981. * ''Slashed to Ribbons in Defense of Love and Other Stories'' Gay Presses of New York (New York, NY), 1983. * ''House of Cards'', Delacorte (New York, NY), 1984. * ''To the Seventh Power'', William Morrow (New York, NY), 1989. * ''Dryland's End'', Masquerade Books, 1995, Harrington Park Press (New York, NY), 2004. * ''Like People in History'', Viking (New York, NY), 1995. * ''Looking Glass Lives'', illustrated by F. Ronald Fowler, Alyson Books (Los Angeles, CA), 1998, Bold Strokes Books, Inc, (Valley Falls NY) 2008 * ''The Book of Lies'', Alyson Books (Los Angeles, CA), 1999. * ''The New York Years: Stories'' (contains ''An Asian Minor'' and ''Slashed to Ribbons in Defense of Love''), Alyson Books (Los Angeles, CA), 2000. * ''Onyx'', Alyson Books (Los Angeles, CA), 2001. * ''Tales: From a Distant Planet'' (collection), French Connection Press (Paris, France) * ''Contemporary Gay Romances'' (collection), Bold Strokes Books, Inc, (Valley Falls, NY), 2010 * ''Twelve O'Clock Tales'' (collection), Bold Strokes Books, Inc, (Valley Falls, NY) 2011 * ''Twentieth Century Un-limited: Two Novellas'', Bold Strokes Books, Inc, (Valley Falls, NY) 2012

Memoirs

* '' Ambidextrous: The Secret Lives of Children'', Gay Presses of New York (New York, NY), 1985. * ''Men Who Loved Me: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel'', New American Library (New York, NY), 1989. * ''A House on the Ocean, a House on the Bay: A Memoir'', Faber and Faber (Boston, MA), 1997. * ''Fred in Love'', University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI), 2005. * ''Art and Sex in Greenwich Village: Gay Literary Life after Stonewall'', Perseus Publishing, 2007. * ''True Stories:Portraits From My Past'', Chelsea Station Editions, 2011 * ''True Stories Too: People and Places From My Past'', Chelsea Station Edition, 2014 * ''Nights at Rizzoli'',

OR Books OR Books is a New York City-based independent publishing house founded by John Oakes and Colin Robinson in 2009. The company sells digital and Print on demand, print-on-demand books directly to the customer and focuses on creative promotion throug ...

, 2014

Poetry

* ''The Deformity Lover and Other Poems'', Sea Horse Press (New York, NY), 1978. * ''Window Elegies'', Close Grip Press, 1986.

Anthology

* ''A True Likeness: An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Writing Today'' (editor), SeaHorse Press (New York, NY), 1980. * ''Ambientes: New Queer Latino Writing'' (co-edited with Lazaro Lima), University of Wisconsin Press (Madison: WI), 2011. * ''Best Gay Stories 2012'' (edited by Peter Dubé; story ''My Childhood Friend'' was chosen as one of 15 inclusions),

Lethe Press Lethe Press is an American book publishing company based in Western Massachusetts.

2012

Drama

* ''One O'Clock Jump'' (one-act play), produced Off-Off Broadway, 1985. * ''Immortal'' (play with music; based on Picano's novella ''An Asian Minor: The True Story of Ganymede''), produced Off-Off Broadway, 1986. * ''The Bombay Trunk'', produced in San Francisco, 2002. * ''Ingoldsby'', produced in Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2007

Screenplays

* ''Eyes'', based on the novel of the same title (1986) * ''Universal Donor'' (2003) * ''Very Large Array'' (2007) * ''Perfect Setting''

Nonfiction

* ''The New Joy of Gay Sex'', co-authored with Charles Silverstein, preface by Edmund White, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1992, revised and expanded 3rd edition, illustrated by Joseph Phillips, HarperResource (New York, NY), 2004.

References

External links

Official website
* *

* Felice Picano Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Picano, Felice 1944 births 2025 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists American gay writers American LGBTQ novelists American male novelists Gay memoirists LGBTQ people from New York (state) Novelists from New York (state) Writers from Queens, New York American people of Italian descent People from West Hollywood, California Deaths from lymphoma in California Queens College, City University of New York alumni