The Godfather of Gay Lit Felice Picano turned his back on fame when he was the most famous gay writer in the world in 1980. Felice had written international bestsellers like The Lure which also was the first gay-themed book to be picked up by the Book of the Month club in America, four years after his 1975 debut novel Smart as a Devil was a finalist for the prestigious PEN/Hemingway Award.
Picano famously cofounded the Violet Quill literary club – with Andrew Holleran, Edmund White, Robert Ferro, Christopher Cox, Michael Grumley and George Whitmore – to promote and increase the visibility of gay authors and their works. Felice also founded and ran the SeaHorse Press and Gay Presses of New York for 15 years. Fittingly, in 2009 he received the Lambda Literary Foundation’s lifetime achievement Pioneer Award.
Now, 50 years after it was first published, Smart as a Devil as well as Picano’s 1976 bestseller Eyes are being reissued this spring by ReQueered Tales. Then in August, Rebel Satori Press will publish In the Field with Janet 201, which features five sci-fi short stories set in the universe of his City on a Star trilogy.
Originally from New York, Picano lives in Los Angeles. We recently sat down for a candid Q&A about his new books, as well as his recent health battles, including cancer and a hip replacement.
Your classic psychological thrillers Smart as the Devil and Eyes are both being republished. Fifty years ago, when you were 31, did you think you would have such incredible longevity as an author?
FELICE PICANO: My concern back then was just to get a book published. Period. The first book was a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway Award, the second one got even more attention.
I kept asking myself, “How is this happening?” It was so amazing!
Eyes was then optioned to become a film.
FELICE PICANO: I was in Hollywood in 1977 working for Brut Productions, a TV and film
production company owned by Cary Grant, and a producer was trying to turn it into a movie. It never got made. They liked me and wanted me to continue on. But I collected the money and went home.
As showbiz columnist James Bacon once observed, “Hollywood is a four-letter town!”
FELICE PICANO: It’s a big business. Some things work, some things don’t. I told Oscar-
nominated director and writer Frank Perry (Mommie Dearest) that Eyes couldn’t be turned into a movie because the man was the object of desire, not the woman. Eyes was under option for 20 years. Sissy Spacek had it, Lindsay Anderson had it. All kinds of people had it under option. I lived on Fire Island for 10 years on that option.
In August, Rebel Satori Press will publish In the Field with Janet 201, which is set in the universe of your City on a Star trilogy.
FELICE PICANO: It is five separate stories, two of which have already been published in magazines and anthologies, and it’s set in the universe of my trilogy. It’s about artificial intelligence and people and how eventually they will work together, not work together, and eventually mesh.
Does sci-fi allow you to explore the human character more fully?
FELICE PICANO: Well, in a different way that is more free and open. These stories enable me to look at sexuality as something that happens. People are with people, and they decide to have sex and they are not identity bound. There isn’t somebody above them saying, “Oh, you can’t do that, or you can do that.” It just happens now. And since AI is a human construction, it is not alien at all. In fact, it is the most human thing we can do.
It sounds like you are not scared of AI.
FELICE PICANO: I’m not.
Do you not fear AI-written novels can replace novels by Felice Picano?
FELICE PICANO: No, everybody will recognize it’s not Felice Picano.
You were last in Montreal in 2022 on a book tour. Shortly after that tour you had a health scare. What happened?
FELICE PICANO: I had neck cancer. My health improved as a result of six months of intense radiation and chemotherapy, which was ghastly. I lost a lot of weight and haven’t really regained it since, I’m quite thin now. Then I was in London last fall, and when I got back to the United States, I had another health scare, falling and breaking my hip. I had my hip replaced and while in the hospital they discovered I had breeding ulcer. So I’m still undergoing treatment for that. But my hip is replaced, and I’m walking without a cane now.
You live in West Hollywood. What was it like to live through the Los Angeles wildfires in January?
FELICE PICANO: Friends of mine in Altedena and Pasadena were evacuated, but they didn’t lose anything. But I’m sure there’s a lot of Hollywood people I’ve met who lost everything because they all moved to the Pacific Palisades.
Will you stay in L.A.?
FELICE PICANO: Sure. The fires didn’t scare me.
You are famous for your memoirs. Many icons and celebrities write their autobiographies, but so many of them are not interesting. What is the key to a fascinating memoir?
FELICE PICANO: Concision, selection of time, place and period. My three memoirs Ambidextrous, Men Who Loved Me, and A House on the Ocean, A House on the Bay – the first one takes place from the age of 11 to 13, the second one from about 19 to 22, and the third one from about 31 to 35 – take place in very specific places. They have a limited cast of characters, and they read enough like novels that people read them like novels.
You and I both thought that Tab Hunter’s 2005 memoir Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star was compelling. Both you and Tab had affairs with Anthony Perkins.
FELICE PICANO: I only slept with Perkins once. And our affair happened much later. When I told Tab that, he said, “Oh no, he’s not gay anymore.” And I said, “You’re so naïve, dear.” But what made Tab’s memoir so interesting was we didn’t know what had happened to him. He was a movie star and then he vanished. So it was an interesting memoir and mystery.
Everybody wants to be famous today, but few think of the ramifications. For instance, do you miss anonymous sex?
FELICE PICANO: Yes! I miss it terribly. A friend of mine is recording video interviews of me talking about my life, we’ve recorded about a dozen 45-minute instalments. He said to me, “In 1980 you were the most famous gay writer in the world, and then you weren’t.” I replied to him that I didn’t like being famous, so I pulled back. I didn’t like what it was all about and I had other things to do. I concentrated on running SeaHorse Press and Gay Presses of New York and getting other people’s work out there, and getting other people well known, and I’m very glad I did that.
People are still obsessed with fame…
FELICE PICANO: One of the things I discovered was people would come up to you and what they really wanted to know is, “Why are you famous, and why am I not?”
I thank my lucky stars you chose to be out. I always thought your career was a game changer.
FELICE PICANO: Why do you say that? I’m curious.
Before the Violet Quill, there were writers who were homosexual. Then you and the Violet Quill came along and created Gay Lit. You made it possible for me and others to be out.
FELICE PICANO: Yes, good. I’m glad to hear that. Wonderful! I’m so glad. If I did anything, I’m glad I did that.
You’re a living legend, Felice.
FELICE PICANO: Alleged living legend! Despite my health issues, I’m still writing. I remain very creative. It’s like my writing life has its own thing going on.
INFOS | Smart as the Devil and Eyes by Felice Picano will be published by ReQueered Tales in Spring 2025.
In the Field With Janet 201 by Felice Picano will be published by Rebel Satori Press in Summer 2025.
