Title: The narrow door
Description: In The Narrow Door, Paul Lisicky creates a compelling collage of scenes and images drawn from two long-term relationships, one with a woman novelist and the other with his ex-husband, a poet. The contours of these relationships shift constantly. Denise and Paul, stretched by the demands of their writing lives, drift apart, and Paul's romance begins to falter. And the world around them is frail: environmental catastrophes like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, natural disasters like the earthquake in Haiti, and local disturbances make an unsettling backdrop to the pressing concerns of Denise's cancer diagnosis and Paul's impending breakup. 

Lisicky's compassionate heart and resilience seem all the stronger in the face of such searing losses. His survival--hard-won, unsentimental, authentic--proves that in turning toward loss, we embrace life.
Subjects: Friends and associates, Marriage, American Authors, Biography, Authors, biography, Friendship, New York Times reviewed, LGBTQ biography and memoir, collection:randy_shilts_award=finalist
People: Paul Lisicky, Denise Gess, Mark Doty
Time periods: 20th century