literature wayne koestenbaum books my lover the rabbi

Wayne Koestenbaum, a leading figure in New York's queer and literary scenes since the 1980s, is releasing his first novel in nearly two decades, *My Lover, the Rabbi*, in March. The 464-page book centers on an unnamed narrator's psychosexual affair with an aging rabbi, exploring themes of desire, repulsion, internalized homophobia, and the lingering aftermath of the Holocaust. Koestenbaum, known for his confessional prose and genre-straddling criticism—including his 1993 book *The Queen's Throat*—discusses the novel's intellectual filth, the conflation of desire and disgust, and his literary role models such as Samuel Delany and Jean Genet.