Gregg Shapiro
About Gregg
Gregg Shapiro is the author of the 2019 chapbooks, Sunshine State (NightBallet Press) and More Poems About Buildings and Food (Souvenir Spoon Books). His chapbook Fifty Degrees (Seven Kitchens, 2016) was selected by Ching-In Chen as co-winner of the Robin Becker Chapbook Prize. Other books by Shapiro include the expanded reissue of his short story collection How to Whistle (Rattling Good Yarns Press, 2021) and Lincoln Avenue (Squares and Rebels Press, 2014), the chapbook GREGG SHAPIRO: 77 (Souvenir Spoon Books, 2012), and the poetry collection Protection (Gival Press, 2008). He has work forthcoming in the 2021 anthologies Sweeter Voices Still: An LGBTQ Anthology From Middle America (Belt Publishing) and This is What America Looks Like (Washington Writers’ Publishing House), as well as the literary journals Gargoyle, Limp Wrist, Impossible Archetype, Dissonance Magazine, Cæsura, Bollman Bridge Review and Poetic Medicine. A 1999 inductee into Chicago’s LGBT Hall of Fame and a recipient of the 2003 Outmusic Award for Outstanding Support, he lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his husband Rick and their dog Coco.
Books by Gregg Shapiro Available from Rattling Good Yarns Press
How to Whistle: Expanded Edition
Gay men communicate in many ways, sometimes a glance, sometimes a smile, and sometimes a whistle. In How to Whistle, Gregg Shapiro brings us men of all types sometimes seeking to be with each other and sometimes looking for themselves. They dance, they indulge, they camp, and they enjoy life. Shapiro employs his deft poetic voice to bring you men that will stay with you, men you'll find yourself thinking about for a long time.
Here's What They're Saying About How to Whistle:
“The stories in Gregg Shapiro's How to Whistle are so perfectly pitched in tone and execution, so novelistic in their differing densities and delightful variety, that they form a sure portrait of a time and place in gay life that is both specific and universal.” —Felice Picano, author of Songs & Poems
“You don't have to be queer, or from Chicagoland, to fall hard for Gregg Shapiro's marvelous second collection, How to Whistle. These stories – tart, tender, sexed-up, and terribly wise on the subjects of love and memory – are a lesson for everyone” —James Magruder, author of Love Slaves of Helen Hadley Hall
“Gregg Shapiro’s stories hum with sex, longing, and electric detail. How to Whistle journeys from the bathhouse to smoky concert venues, and through the confused mind of a culture-hungry teenage brain. This collection goes so many places, yet stays anchored, always, in the heart.” —Brendan Walsh, author of Go and fort lauderdale
“Gregg Shapiro's How to Whistle brings to vibrant life young gay men's casual/intimate/kinky explorations of Boston, D.C., and Chicago in the 1980's. Deadpan humor alternates with delicious dish and quiet introspection in this witty collection of stories about sex, relationship, (in)fidelity, vengeance, and the meaning of friendship in a sometimes dangerous world. An entertaining, deeply insightful, and warmly nostalgic portrait of the way we were.” —Daniel M. Jaffe, author of Foreign Affairs: Male Tales of Lust & Love
$18.95
Other Books and Stories by Gregg Shapiro
- Protection (Gival Press, 2008)
- GREGG SHAPIRO: 77 (Souvenir Spoon Books, 2012)
- Lincoln Avenue (Squares and Rebels Press, 2014)
- How to Whistle (Lethe Press, 2016)
- Fifty Degrees (Seven Kitchens Press, 2016)
- More Poems About Buildings and Food (Souvenir Spoon Books, 2019)
- Sunshine State (NightBallet Press, 2019)
- How to Whistle: Expanded Edition (Rattling Good Yarns, 2021)