Andy Quan

Slant by Andy Quan

Sharp, accessible and witty, Slant offers a fresh exploration of issues of race, sexuality, and life in the global village. The collection alternates between three main themes of childhood and family in the Chinese Diaspora; gay sexuality, community and rites-of-passage; and voyages literal and metaphorical. Slant asks "how do we belong?" and answers in a voice that is compelling and unique.

Calendar Boy by Andy Quan

On the edge of adulthood, self-discovery, coming out; in university towns, Europe, Vancouver, Toronto, Sydney, the protagonists of the short stories in Calendar Boy unravel cultural heritage, community, identity on the road to - they hope - love, happiness and self-acceptance. Set around the globe, fifteen adventurous stories weave fictions with real-life smarts, guts and oomph underpinning them. In "How to Cook Chinese Rice," a recipe format - 10 Percent called it "the gay Like Water for Chocolate" - yields insight into what it's like to be young, Asian and queer in Canadian society. "Higher Learning" pitches a hormone-fuelled, Vancouver-bred, first-year university student into the alternate universe of a small Ontario community. A love triangle of sorts anchors "Maintenance," a story heavy with the ache of jealousy and unrequited desire. Throughout, Quan shifts gears effortlessly from street-smart colloquial voice to rapid-fire monologue to the bemused, exhilarated tone of immigrants new to Canada or to gay male culture. With one foot in urban Canadian life and the other in the global village, Calendar Boy will hit home even as it makes you see the world in new ways.

Biography

Objectives when I write? It's to observe and understand the world, to find my place in it, and to tell my story since others weren't telling it. Many stories were written to tackle not only prejudice within the gay community, but to tackle simplicity in any community. To counter all the ways that society expects individuals to either be all the same, or to remain within a particular identity or group. ... I want to tell stories that are specific but universal in our shared experiences of jealousy, love, friendship, and loneliness.

Organizations & Institutions

Fields of Study

Published Works

Slant (poetry), Nightwood Editions, 2001

Calendar Boy (short fiction), New Star Books, 2001

Anthologies

Swallowing Clouds: An Anthology of Chinese-Canadian Poetry (poetry), editors Andy Quan and Jim Wong-Chu, Arsenal Pulp Press, 1999

Circa 2000: Gay Fiction at the Millennium, Edited by Robert Drake and Terry Wolverton, L.A./New York: Alyson Books, 2000

Take-Out: Queer Writing from Asian Pacific America, Edited by Quang Bao and Hanya Yanagihara, AAWW & Temple University Press, 2001

Carnal Nation: Brave New Sex Fictions, Edited by Carellin Brooks & Brent J. Grubisic, Vancouver, B.C.: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2000

Best of Gay Erotica 2002, Edited by Richard Labonte & Selected by Neal Drinnan, San Francisco: Cleis Press, 2000

Best of the Best Gay Erotica (1996 - 2000), Edited by Richard Labonte, San Francisco: Cleis Press, 2000

Best Gay Erotica 2000, Edited by Richard Labonte & Selected by R. Travers Scott, San Francisco: Cleis Press, 1999

Best Gay Erotica 1999, Edited by Richard Labonte & Selected by Felice Picano, San Francisco: Cleis Press, 1998

Quickies 2: Short Short Fiction on Gay Male Desire, Edited by James Johnstone, Vancouver, B.C.: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1999

Quickies: Short Short Fiction on Gay Male Desire, Edited by James Johnstone, Vancouver, B.C.: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1998

Contra/Diction, Edited by Brent J Grubusic, Vancouver, B.C.: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1998

Current Projects

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