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How to Whistle: Expanded Edition
Gregg Shapiro
Gregg Shapiro’s stories hum with sex, longing, and electric detail.
—Brendan Walsh, author of Go and Fort Lauderdale
$18.95
Availability: In stock (can be backordered)
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A Glance, a Smile, a Whistle
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.
Praise for How to Whistle:
About the Author
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.
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Praise for 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.”
“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”
“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.”
“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 1980s. 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.”
“Shapiro’s How to Whistle documents the 1980s with sharp observation, humor, and keen insights. A decadent decade when urban tastes and desires “lit in a faint orange glow” knew no boundaries, with friends and lovers being rushed to the hospital a typical lunchtime conversation, and pop icons going from tragic to martyred saints of the bullied. This short story collection is also an homage to 1980s Boston and Chicago, as hip as Tama Janowitz’s Manhattan in Slaves of New York, and as raw and sexy as Bret Easton Ellis’ L.A. in Less Than Zero.”
“Shapiro’s stories capture the breadth and variety of human relationships – friends, lovers and family; casual and deep; social and sexual. Funny, sad, tragic, and full of surprises, they will keep you reading to the very end and wanting more.”
“Gregg Shapiro writes with sincerity and verve about the greatness of our human joys and quandaries – love, sex, fear, friendship,p families of origin and families of choice. His love of narrative is always apparent in these stories, and his love of poetry lingers in every small facet of experience he takes the time to enlarge and lovingly render. For instance: “He crouched and touched the word Zenith, the Z like a lightning bolt underlining the rest of the letters. For instance, “I don’t just hail any cab, I wait for one of those new ones that look like whales on wheels.” And “He is still wearing his white socks which seem to glow fluorescent against his black sheets.” The power and beauty of How to Whistle resides in the details.”
“In How to Whistle, Gregg SShapiro’sstories bring together a whole kaleidoscope of gay life – from tricks to lovers, passionate romances to bitter breakups, gentle tenderness to raw lust – with a voice of singular and simple honesty.”
“Candid, sexy, confiding – in How to Whistle, Gregg Shapiro takes us deep into the velvet-lined rooms of the heart. His insights into the human tragicomedy are remarkable; these stories resonate with truth and wit.”
“Full of lost lovers, recovered artifacts and subtle obsessions, the stories of How to Whistle create a sensation of intimacy that can only be compared to a longtime friend confessing their darkest secrets. Gregg Shapiro is an amazing writer who will make you feel nostalgic for a time and place you did not experience yourself.” —Jonathan Harper, author of Daydreamers
“Full of lost lovers, recovered artifacts and subtle obsessions, the stories of How to Whistle create a sensation of intimacy that can only be compared to a longtime friend confessing their darkest secrets. Gregg Shapiro is an amazing writer who will make you feel nostalgic for a time and place you did not experience yourself.”