It’s not giving too much away to tell you that two investigations clear Thomas of any wrongdoing, because readers learn this in the first chapter. Witnesses vouch for his innocence.
But his elite private school’s parent-faculty association, even in liberal Portland, Oregon, votes to fire him.
On this week’s Out in the Bay - now part of KALW's Queer Power Hour - Davison reads passages from Doubting Thomas and discusses guilt and innocence, shame, homophobia, racism, wealth and power, and the limits of liberalism. He also talks about being asked by past publishers and agents to "tone down" the sexuality of queer characters.
Doubting Thomas has been praised by such writers as Michael Cunningham, Armistead Maupin, Justin Torres and T Kira Madden, and is writer/editor Michael Nava’s first acquisition after becoming managing editor for Amble Press.
Matthew Clark Davison teaches creative writing at San Francisco State University and is creator and teacher of The Lab :: Writing Classes with MCD, which he founded in 2007. Read more in the Bay Area Reporter.
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This episode of Out in the Bay produced and hosted by Eric Jansen; edited by Amber Miles and Eric Jansen; audio sweetening by Timoteo Valadez.
