Mark your calendars for May 30th! That’s when the writer power couple Byron Lane and Steven Rowley release their new books, Big Gay Wedding and The Celebrants, respectively. If you follow Byron and Steven on social media, you know that Byron proposed to Steven in the Acknowledgements section of his first novel, A Star is Bored. For those who have not been following the two writers, here is a little bit about them.
From Steven Rowley’s website:
Steven Rowley is the bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus, a Washington Post Notable Book of 2016, The Editor, named by NPR and Esquire Magazine as one of the Best Books of 2019, and The Guncle, a Goodreads Choice Awards finalist for 2021 Novel of the Year and winner of The 22nd Thurber Prize for American Humor. His fiction has been published in twenty languages.
Lily and the Octopus is in development as a feature film at Amazon Studios. The Editor was optioned by Twentieth Century for producer Greg Berlanti. Feature film rights for The Guncle have been picked up by Lionsgate. Rowley has worked as a freelance writer, newspaper columnist and screenwriter. Originally from Portland, Maine, he is a graduate of Emerson College and currently resides in Palm Springs with his husband, the writer Byron Lane.
From Byron Lane’s Website:
Byron Lane is an author, playwright, and screenwriter. His latest novel, Big Gay Wedding, is about a family and small town forever changed by a gay marriage. His debut novel is called A Star is Bored, about an uptight celebrity assistant struggling to manage his eccentric movie star boss, inspired in part by Lane’s time as assistant to beloved actress Carrie Fisher. The New York Times Book Review hails: “Wildly funny.” And People magazine raves: “Funny, dishy, deeply affectionate… the force is with him.”
Lane also wrote and co-stars in the play Tilda Swinton Answers An Ad On Craigslist, a comedy hit having sold out runs in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, and Edinburgh Fringe. It’s been critically praised by The Guardian, British Theatre, and Broadway World which says: “Hysterical… Lane has written a brilliant tour de force.” He wrote and co-stars in Last Will & Testicle, an award-winning web series about his testicular cancer diagnosis. It screened at festivals around the world, was called “fearless” by Cosmopolitan magazine, and featured by NBC Out as a “New York Television Festival Pilots to Put on Your Radar.” He wrote and co-stars in a feature film called Herpes Boy, starring Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer, which won Best Comedy at Comic Con and an Audience Award from Austin Film Festival. And he wrote and produced a trailer for a series called Gay Divorce which was a finalist in Project Greenlight’s See Yourself contest.
Lane is a two-time regional Emmy Award winner from his time as a TV News journalist. He’s originally from New Orleans and lives in Palm Springs, California with his husband, best-selling author Steven Rowley, and their rescue dogs, Raindrop and Shirley.
In an exclusive interview, Byron and Steven talk about their new books, their own “small gay wedding,” finding inspiration from each other, and much more.
Check out the full interview below.
Sources: Steven Rowley Official Webpage, Byron Lane Official Webpage
I’ll be reading Big Gay Wedding very soon 😉