Flamboyance
Granta/Hanover Square Press, 2026
**Booklist Starred Review**
The Telegraph Best Books of 2026 so far
The Next Big Idea Club May 2026 Must-Read Book
An Amazon ‘Best Book of the Month’ in Nonfiction, Notable Book in BookRiot, LGBTQReads, The Daily Kos
A book about flamboyant art and the art of flamboyance, Taking in an eclectic array of examples, from Gothic architecture to the orange flowers of Dungeness, Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, Amy Winehouse, Chappell Roan, and the author’s personal experiences, the book argues for the value of flamboyance as an empowering and creative force.
PRESS & REVIEWS: The Telegraph, The Guardian, Buzz Magazine, Memoir Land, Kirkus, Booklist.
Fire Island
Granta/Hanover Square Press, 2022
Shortlisted for the Polari Book Prize 2022
Best Books of 2022, New Yorker
Best Books of 2022, BBC Culture
New York Times “Editor's Pick”
An Advocate Best LGBTQ+ Book of 2022
A groundbreaking account of New York's Fire Island, chronicling its influence on art, literature, culture and queer liberation over the past century.
PRESS & REVIEWS: New York Times, New Yorker, NBC, Newsday, USA Today, Washington Post, New York Daily News, BBC Culture, TLS, The Observer, AnOther, Esquire, The Advocate, Buzzfeed, Culture Whisper, Jezebel, BookRiot, The Quietus, Autostraddle, Hero, Attitude
The Poetics of Cruising
University of Minnesota Press, 2022
“A thoughtfully researched and rigorous examination of the literary pleasures of sex in public across two centuries. Jack Parlett explores the poetics and politics of cruising, a queerly ekphrastic practice, at the intersections of gender, race, and class. Moving between past and present, words and images, close reading and close looking, The Poetics of Cruising explores the enduring appeal of cruising without nostalgia.” Fiona Anderson, author of Cruising the Dead River: David Wojnarowicz and New York’s Ruined Waterfront
REVIEWS: The Gay and Lesbian Review, Arts Fuse