“The work of community-based queer historians is a labor of love. We are academic foot soldiers, doing our unglamorous, time- and labor-intensive work alone, with few resources, without academic or other institutional support. We fit our researching and writing around day jobs. We typically remain outsiders in the academic world of Queer Studies; as Allan Bérubé once noted, “We’re not in the footnotes, not invited on panels, and we get dismissed as not theoretical enough.” — Les K. Wright, the opening of the Foreword to Plague Took Us.
“Your Auntie Mame will open doors for you, doors you never even imaged existed!”
The Bear Book (1997) and The Bear Book II (2001) together are a seminal text of queer history.
“An important gay writer” . Amy B. Raff, Director, Provincetown Public Library
“Your Resilience keeps popping in our LGBTQ+ memoir and historical survival reading threads. Members are particularly drawn to y9ur unflinching account of the ‘forgotten generation’ of long-term AIDS survivors, the candid reflections on academia and sobriety and the way you frame your journey as a contemporary gay Candide. A few readers noted how rare it is to see theater documented with such honesty and sharp wit.”
Seraphina Reed, organizer, Silent Reading Club (Chicago)
“I was a student of yours in the 1990s. You had a profound impact on me. You were the first openly gay man I had met, and you taught me so much about so much. Never doubt you had positive impacts on your students!”
I am internationally recognized as the bear historian of record, “historian and founding figure [of the bear community]” (Paul Henne),” pioneering member of the bear community and celebrated author” (John Hernandez), “known for his gay subcultural writing, especially of the bear subculture” (Lawrence Mass, MD), and “a largely unsung hero who has devoted his life to writing about the interstices and corniches of our communities, notably those that are LGBTQ+.” The Bear Book and Bear Book II are foundational texts in queer studies.
My writing has also focused on gay sexual politics and culture–the Golden Age of The Castro, the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, and the gay recovery community. “Resilience reads like a history of a half-century of American gay life, condensed into one man’s very intimate story.” (Wayne Hoffman, advance praise). “Resilience is a cautionary tale that—with all its joys and struggles—would make an amazing independent gay film.” (Jack Fritscher, advance praise)I am a niche market queer small press publisher and
I was once rejected on a first date for being “too multifaceted.” I am a queer historian, author, fine arts photographer, gay activist, AIDS activist, literary scholar and small press book publisher. I have been a scholar-activist since the 1970s. I received my Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and am a retired professor of English and German. I have authored and edited several books, notably The Bear Book (1997), and The Bear Book II, (2001), which together are a seminal text of queer history. I am currently working on Bear Book III: The Emergence of an International Queer Identity, Community, and Culture. I was a member of the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian History Project, am a founding member of the GLBT Historical Society San Francisco (1988), a pre-HAART long-term AIDS survivor, the founder of the Bear History Project (1995-2005), the founder and inaugural president of the Bear History Project International (incorporated 2023). Bearskin Lodge Press is the imprint of my niche market queer small press publishing company. I am also a fine arts photographer. My photographs have appeared in juried exhibitions. Salt City and Its Environs (2024) is my first book of photos. A second book is currently in the works.
Les K. Wright 