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Goes On, Without the World’s Understanding
Thomas Westerfield
“An excellent collection! Filled with pathos, rage and, dare I say it, even a touch of charm at times, these stories linger long after the final sentence.”
—John Weagly, award-winning author of Dancing in the Knee-Deep Midnight and The Undertow of Small Town Dreams
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Description
From a Boy’s Haunted Barbies to a Magnificent Faggot’s Last Aria: The Collection That Won a 2025 Tanne Award
2025 Tanne Award Recipient
Compassionate. Provocative. Moving.
In this new collection, Thomas Westerfield challenges our expectations about the stories that can be told regarding sexuality, race, love, abuse, trauma, art, and intergenerational relationships.
We meet, among others, a men’s sexual abuse group in rebellion against their earth mother therapist; a ninety-six-year-old gay cult writer who confronts a young queer interviewer; a burnt-out white professor playing dangerous academic games with his Black lesbian colleague; a teenager in a small Kentucky town in 1971 who experiences gay life for the first time through the movie, The Boys in the Band; a retired man sharing a Las Vegas roulette table with a lonely drunk college student celebrating his twenty-first birthday; a little boy terrified of what his Barbies will do to him in the dark of night; and a sex-trafficked young man, now free, explaining why he will never return to his family.
Some find acceptance, even peace, within the many contradictory and often warring elements of their hearts; some do not. But all are embraced with compassionate acceptance as they go on, without the world’s understanding.
Praise for Goes On, Without the World's Understanding
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About the Author
Thomas Westerfield’s stories have been recognized as a finalist by the Saints and Sinners Festival, the New Millennium Writing Awards for Fiction, and the Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Competition. His plays, Catharsis and Monasteries, received productions and staged readings in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He was recognized as one of the “25 Unsung Heroes of the Gay Community” in 1988 by The Advocate magazine for his playwriting and his role in cofounding the Owensboro Gay Alliance in Kentucky.
He currently resides in San Francisco freelancing as a writing consultant while working on his novel That Goddamned Red Rose. He is also a certified Laughter Yoga Leader who has conducted sessions for corporate and social service employees, dialysis patients, and seniors living with dementia. His website is thomaswesterfieldwriter.com.
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Praise
Praise for Goes On, Without the World's Understanding
“An excellent collection! Filled with pathos, rage and, dare I say it, even a touch of charm at times, these stories linger long after the final sentence.”
“In ‘This is Enough,” Westerfield dares to step inside the mind of Johnny, a boy trapped in a world of abuse and cruelty. The way he portrays him holding onto his human core is childlike, believable and inspiring. The stories explore darkness, but also offer enduring glimmers of compassion, hope and kindness. It is a unique, surprising and satisfying bundle.”
“Thomas Westerfield’s closely observed characters surprise, unsettle, provoke, entertain, and illuminate.”
“Westerfield’s characters live in the gray spaces that have become so difficult to talk about in our absolutist culture. Each is drawn with brave complexity and weary resiliency. They speak with hard-won insight of lives both fabulous and fraught with contradictions and lead us to a better understanding of our own imperfect humanity.”