In Conversation: Bryan Washington and Pamela Sneed

Visual AIDS Board Member Pamela Sneed and Bryan Washington will discuss Washington’s debut novel, Memorial online with The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.

Memorial was on a dozen best-book-of-2020 lists and won a number of awards. Vogue magazine called it “A fresh, vibrant love story that interweaves race, queerness, nationality, family, and intimacy with narrative ease.” In the novel, Benson and Mike are two young guys who live together in Houston. Mike is a Japanese American chef at a Mexican restaurant and Benson is a Black day care teacher. They’ve been together for a few good years, but now they’re not sure why they’re still a couple. There’s the sex, companionship, and love. But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives in Texas for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye, leaving his mother in Benson’s care.

Washington will discuss the novel with Pamela Sneed, the poet, performer, visual artist, and educator who has been recommended by The NY Times. About her memoir Funeral Diva, The NY Times said that “Sneed is an acclaimed reader of her own poetry, and the book has the feeling of live performance. Its strength is in its abundance, its desire for language to stir body as well as mind.”

RSVP here.

Both Bryan Washington's Memorial and Pamela Sneed's Funeral Diva are available for purchase on the Bureau's online store. Both titles are part of our Black History Month Sale--25% off for the month of February. Click on either title to purchase. Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!