The Good Pornographer

Brian Bouldrey reads from his darkly comic novel about Walace Weiss, a fantasy novelist in recovery wrestling with addiction, unfinished manuscripts, and the chaotic found family he's assembled in his neglected McMansion. It's a mock-epic that swings between absurdity and genuine humanity—think Deadpool meets rehab memoir, with a cast of unforgettable characters (a porn star turned counselor, a nine-year-old planning funerals, a dealer who doubles as jester) and Bouldrey's trademark irreverent riffing on genre, fandom, and the messy business of getting sober. A Lambda Literary Award winner and Northwestern lecturer, Bouldrey brings wit, recklessness, and heart to this exploration of epic mistakes and epic grace.