August Thompson- Anyone’s Ghost (Podcast)

August Thompson Interview: This Lambda Finalist Will Break Your Heart

In Anyone’s Ghost, August Thompson captures the ache of growing up while growing as a writer after his hard-won pursuit of the MFA program at NYU.

How do you write a coming-of-age story that’s both deeply vulnerable and slyly funny, all while resisting clichés about queerness and masculinity? August Thompson joins me to talk about his debut novel, Anyone’s Ghost, a Lambda finalist and one of my favorite under-the-radar gems.

From his MFA experience at NYU to navigating long COVID while finishing the book, Thompson reflects on the highs and lows of becoming a first-time author and the vulnerable process of rejection. He also shares how humor, bisexuality, and memory shape his storytelling, which major literary prizes have now recognized with adoration.

In our funny conversation, August and I discussed:

How Art Helped Form the Bones of August’s Story – August shares the books, films, and music that inspired his book, which even brought in the lead singer from The National for a book signing moment of his dreams at The Strand.
Mining Adolescence for Humor– The role of humor was as imperative as Thompson’s love story, and why he wanted to balance this story with this unexpected levity amidst the yearning.
The Fresh Perspective on Sexuality For Readers – Thompson discusses his approach to writing about bisexuality and the narratives regarding male bisexuality that he still wishes to see in publishing, while celebrating being longlisted for a Lambda Literary Award.

Best Books About Music from MomAdvice.com

As a bonus for listeners, don’t miss this week’s companion list with books about music: Books About Music That Hit All the Right Notes. Explore 41 books about music and memoirs that celebrate musicians, bands, songwriting, and life behind the scenes. Patrons will also receive today’s printable checklist to bring on their next library day.

Anyone’s Ghost Book Summary

An extraordinary debut novel in which the transforming love and friendship between two young men during one unforgettable teenage summer in rural New England haunts them into adulthood.

It took three car crashes to kill Jake.

Theron David Alden is there for the first two: the summer they meet in rural New Hampshire, when he’s fifteen and anxious, and Jake’s seventeen and a natural; then six years later in New York City, those too-short, ecstatic, painful nights that change both their lives forever—the end of the dream and the longing for the dream and the dream itself, all at once.

Theron is not there for the third crash.

And yet, their story contains so much joy and self-discovery: the glorious, stupid simplicity of a boyhood joke; the devastation of insecurity; the way a great song can distill a universe; the limits of what we can know about each other; the mysterious, porous, ungraspable fault line between yourself and the person you love better than yourself; the beautiful, toxic elixir of need and hope and want.

Brimming with rare, radioactive talent, August Thompson has written a love story that is electrically alive and exquisitely tuned.

In the words of Jonathan Safran Foer, “This book will make you cry.”

Meet August Thompson

August Thompson is from the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire, and has lived in Los Angeles, NYC, Berlin, and Madrid. His debut novel, Anyone’s Ghost, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, longlisted for the Center For Fiction Debut Novel Prize, and named a best book of the year by Amazon, Vogue, and Elle. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times Magazine, and beyond.