"The author of seven books, most recently Ten Bridges I've Burnt: A Memoir in Verse , he's also a musician, filmmaker, dancer, and choreographer. Purnell started publishing zines at fourteen. At the center of all his pursuits, he says, is his preoccupation with language, which drives his wide-ranging body of work. Purnell's fiction, often depicting queer life on the margins, is equal parts rollicking and intimate, wickedly funny one moment and startlingly sincere the next."
"a man narrowly avoids being splattered across the freeway by a dozing cab driver after sneaking a bump at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting-the story's true subject is the passage of time, and what happens when you've seen more of life than you ever expected to. As the narrator puts it, "I miss absolutely nothing about being young-internally, I know I was meant to be an old man-but goddamn if I know how I am going to get there in one piece.""
Brontez Purnell is a multidisciplinary artist working in books, music, film, dance, and choreography who began publishing zines at fourteen. A preoccupation with language drives a wide-ranging body of work. Fictional narratives often depict queer life on the margins with a tone that mixes rollicking humor and intimate sincerity. A recent story unfolds over a single January evening, following a near-fatal moment after a relapse at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting and using that night to examine the passage of time and the dissonance between wanting to be older and fearing the journey there. Recovery, relationships, and aging recur as central themes.
Read at Harper's Magazine
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