Armistead Maupin

We're kicking off the start of LGBTQ Pride Month with a conversation with one of the leading literary figures in the gay rights movement of the late 20th century. Armistead Maupin started writing stories in 1974 that were published in a small newspaper in the San Francisco area. Those serialized stories were known as tales of the City. Finally, in 1978, Maupin published the first Tales of The City book, the 1st of several in the series. Drawing on his own experience as a gay man, Mupin’s books feature a broad community of diverse characters and backgrounds. Importantly, Armistead Maupin was one of the first writers to directly address the AIDS crisis. I first met him in 1987, but the conversation you're about to hear is from 13 years later, when we talked about his novel The Night Listener.