BGSQDBureau of General Services—Queer Division
BGSQD
Lambda-Award winning novelist Shawn Stewart Ruff will read from his latest fiction, Days Running – an ‘intimate and compelling narrative’ situated in the ‘intersection of race, queerness and trauma’ (Steven Reigns) – and engage in conversation with acclaimed author Jacqueline Woodson about queer, Black storytelling, and more.
About Days Running :
It’s a snowy winter in 1970s Cincinnati. Cliffy Douglas – gay, Black and brainy – is trying to make it through his senior year, dodging his volatile father, half-raising his baby siblings, and running around with his secret boyfriend, whose dizzying physical attraction runs as hot as his temper.
When a single, deliberate act of violence lands Cliffy in the hospital, his world is flung into chaos and his carefully planned-for future is threatened. In DAYS RUNNING (DOPAMINE Press; On-sale 2/25/25), award-winning novelist Shawn Stewart Ruff returns to literary territory he has claimed and perfected, bringing us into the jagged world of one queer teenager fighting to outrun the danger at his heels and seize his life as his own
Praise for DAYS RUNNING:
“With an intimate and compelling narrative, DAYS RUNNING delves into the intersection of race, queerness, and trauma.”
– Steven Reigns, A Quilt for David
“I loved this beautiful and haunting novel, about escape, survival, and justice, in a novel both timely and timeless.”
– Carley Moore, Panpocalypse
“A passionate, bold, and gripping story. Ruff fearlessly topples the monoliths of masculinity.”
– James Hannaham, Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta
To reserve a copy of Days Running (Dopamine/Semiotext(e), February 25, 2025, paperback, $17.95) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Days Running for Feb. 28 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Shawn Stewart Ruff is the author of three novels, including Finlater, 2008 winner of a Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction and a finalist for the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award. He is also the editor of the landmark Go the Way Your Blood Beats: An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Fiction by African American Writers (1996).
Jacqueline Woodson is an American writer of books for adults, children, and adolescents. She is best known for her National Book Award-Winning memoir Brown Girl Dreaming, and her Newbery Honor-winning titles After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way. Her picture books The Day You Begin and The Year We Learned to Fly were NY Times Bestsellers. After serving as the Young People’s Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, she was named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress for 2018–19. She was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2020. Later that same year, she was named a MacArthur Fellow.