Oblong Online: Michael Sadowski, "Men I've Never Been: A Memoir" in conversation with Domenica Ruta

Presented in partnership with Bard Written Arts

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Award-winning author Michael Sadowski will talk with Domenica Ruta about his new memoir, Men I’ve Never Been in which he recounts his odyssey as a boy who shuns his own identity—and, ultimately, his sexual orientation—in order to become who he thinks he’s supposed to be.

Beginning with the memory of a four-year-old sitting in a dingy dive bar, sounding out newspaper headlines while his boasting father collects drinks from onlookers, each chapter highlights a different image of manhood that Sadowski saw at home, at school, or on television—from sports heroes, hunters, and game show hosts to his charismatic but hard-drinking father. As he learns not to talk, laugh, cry, or love, he retreats further behind a stoic mask of silence—outwardly well-functioning but emotionally isolated, sinking under the weight of the past.

Michael Sadowski is the author of the acclaimed books, In a Queer Voice, Safe Is Not Enough, and Adolescents at School. He is an administrator and professor at Bard College.

Domenica Ruta is the author of the celebrated New York Times bestselling memoir With or Without You, and Last Day. Her short fiction has appeared in the Boston Review, the Indiana Review, and Epoch. She lives in New York City.