lucian childs

In this episode, host Katie Bausler chats with Lucian Childs, author of Dreaming Home, a powerful collection of six linked short stories on the outing of a gay teenager by his younger sister, his father’s violent reaction and how that trauma ripples through the course of four decades. The stories, set in Texas, the San Francisco Bay Area and Florida, deftly weave issues like conversion therapy, Queer Youth homeless, combat veteran PTSD, and the AIDS pandemic. Since its summer 2023 release Dreaming Home has made the best books lists of the New York Times, The Globe and Mail, LAMBDA Literary Review and more.

Please subscribe and follow the 49 Writers Active Voice podcast on Apple, Spotify and 49writers.org. And help spread the word by liking it on podcast platforms or sharing with friends and family. This conversation was recorded at KTOO Juneau. Music by Liz Snyder and Alex Kotlarz. 

Welcome to our Summer of Book Love series!
Every Tuesday this summer we will feature new episodes of 7 Minutes in Book Heaven which has your next summer read! New episodes of This Queer Book Saved My Life! drop this September.

Today we meet Lucian Childs and his new novel: Dreaming Home.

What's it about? When a sister's casual act of betrayal awakens their father's demons--ones spawned by his time in Vietnamese POW camps--the effects of the ensuing violence against her brother ripple out over the course of forty years, from Lubbock, to San Francisco, to Fort Lauderdale. Swept up in this arc, the members of this family and their loved ones tell their tales. A queer coming-of-age, and coming-to-terms, and a poignant exploration of all the ways we search for home, Dreaming Home is the unforgettable story of the fragmenting of an American family.

Buy Dreaming Home
Visit our Bookshop or buy directly right now: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781771965491

Connect with Lucian Childs
Website: lucianchilds.com
Instagram: @lucian_childs
Facebook: Lucian-Childs-Author
Twitter: @lucianchilds

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