Randy Boyd and Sara Youngblood Gregory Join Online Panel on the AIDS Crisis and Speculative Fiction
Two of this year’s POZ Awards nominees for Best in Literature will read from new books that return to the epidemic through speculative fiction, in conversation with AIDS cultural historian Theodore (Ted) Kerr.
Randy Boyd, author of The Unfrozen Few, Book One: Welcome to the Future, and poet and journalist Sara Youngblood Gregory, author of Dead Boys in Space, will appear together in “The AIDS Crisis and Speculative Fiction,” an online author panel presented by the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division (BGSQD) and 12th Street, The New School’s literary journal. Each author will read from their book, then discuss their work and what the two books reveal side by side.
Boyd’s novel follows a group of AIDS patients who wake up in present-day America after being cryogenically frozen in the 1980s. Gregory’s speculative poetry collection won the 2023 Pamet River Prize from YesYes Books and was published in May. Both books are nominees for Best in Literature in the 11th Annual POZ Awards.
The conversation will be moderated by Kerr, a writer and founding member of the collective What Would an HIV Doula Do?, co-author of We Are Having This Conversation Now: The Times of AIDS Cultural Production (Duke University Press) and faculty advisor to 12th Street. BGSQD is Manhattan’s only queer bookstore, located inside the LGBT Community Center. 12th Street is an award-winning literary journal edited and published by students in The New School’s Writing and Democracy Honors Program.
“When Sara’s book and mine landed on the same POZ Awards list, I thought, what a moment,” said Boyd. “Speculative fiction about the AIDS crisis is still a surprisingly short shelf. I’m honored to share an evening with a writer who’s helping fill it.”
The panel takes place Thursday, November 19, 2026, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Eastern (3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Pacific) on Zoom. Registrants receive the Zoom link before the event.
Event details and RSVP: bgsqd.com/event/online-author-panel-the-aids-crisis-and-speculative-fiction
About Randy Boyd: Randy Boyd is the author of five novels, with his first four earning five Lambda Literary Award finalist honors. His latest novel, The Unfrozen Few, Book One: Welcome to the Future, won Fiction: LGBTQ+ in the 2026 Best Book Awards and is a 2026 American Fiction Awards Finalist in LGBTQ+ Fiction. It is published by West Beach Books and available in print, digital and audio editions. More information is available at RandyBoydAuthor.com.
Media Contact: Steven V., West Beach Books — stevenv@westbeachbooks.com