Author of Jazzed and astrology columnist Jill Dearman hosts an evening at Spotty Dog with author Shawn Stewart Ruff on Saturday, March 8th at 7pm.
SHAWN STEWART RUFF
(born July 19, 1959) is an American novelist and editor who won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Debut Fiction at the 21st Lambda Literary Awards in 2008 for his debut novel Finlater. He has since published the novels Toss and Whirl and Pass (2010) GJS II (2016), Days Running (2025), and the novella One/10th (2013).
He is also the editor of the landmark Go the Way Your Blood Beats: An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Fiction by African-American Writers (1996), which was a shortlisted nominee for the Lambda Literary Award for Fiction Anthologies at the 9th Lambda Literary Awards in 1997.
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, he studied English literature at the University of Cincinnati. He is currently based in New York City.
Trixie’s List asked Shawn Stewart Ruff a few questions about his upcoming book and visit to Hudson:
Trixie’s List: Tell us about your new book, Days Running. What inspired you to write it?
Shawn Stewart Ruff:
It’s about 16-year-old Clifford Douglas, a precocious black high school senior who dreams of attending college on the West Coast. On a cold wintry night, he is brutally attacked after being seen kissing his boyfriend. The attacker is no stranger or enemy; that is, until that tragic night. The novel is about what actually happened and what Clifford does about it.
Back in 2017, while serving on a Manhattan grand jury, we jurists heard a teen black boy describe being attacked and sexually assaulted by the foster-care brother he shared a bedroom with. What I sensed in his unforgettable testimony wasn’t fear; it was controlled fury — that this person he perhaps trusted could do what he did.
Trixie’s List: Are the theme(s) in Days Running, still relevant today? How?
Shawn Stewart Ruff:
The novel’s timestamp is the late nineteen seventies, the period of my rearing in racist, homophobic, conservative Cincinnati, Ohio. But I see the story as an allegory for what’s happening right before our eyes. With the re-emergence of Trump, queer people are under attack by a white right wing, Christian nationalist vision of America that holds us — all of us! — in the crosshairs. Our personhood is settled law. Until it isn’t!
Trixie’s List: Have you visited Hudson before? If so, what was your impression?
Shawn Stewart Ruff:
I know of Hudson only through passing on trips to Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and Rowe, Vermont. I have often traveled the Chicago-New York Amtrak route, the best part of which is the Hudson River Valley. On reading/signing day, a friend and I plan to arrive early afternoon for a proper visit.
Author of Jazzed and astrology columnist Jill Dearman hosts an evening at Spotty Dog with author Shawn Stewart Ruff on Saturday, March 8th at 7pm.