This Queer Book Saved My Life Live with Chloé Caldwell and Mia Arias Tsang

Join us for a live discussion from This Queer Book Saved My Life with Mia Arias Tsang and Chloé Caldwell, moderated by podcast host and founder John Parker. An evening of queer first loves, heartbreaks, friendship, finding oneself through writing, and just a little bit of internet stalking. 

Tsang will share the life-saving impact Caldwell’s novella Women had for her: how it helped her overcome queer heartbreak, driving her to find Caldwell in real life, enroll in Caldwell’'s writing classes, champion Women’s re-release, and ultimately develop a friendship that years later would prove life-saving for Caldwell herself. 

The program will include featured readings from Tsang, Caldwell and John Parker, including from: Women, Tsang's new essay collection Fragments of Wasted Devotion (2025), and Chloé's forthcoming memoirTrying (August 2025). Check out our special booklist including these titles and more suggestions by This Queer Book Saved My Life. 

Books will be available for sale and preorder by local queer bookstore Hive Mind Books. 

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PARTICIPANTS

Mia Arias Tsang is a writer, freelance editor, and former biologist based in Queens, NYC. In 2025, she published her debut essay collection Fragments of Wasted Devotion. From 2018-2020, she served as the editor-in-chief of Broad Recognition, Yale’s intersectional feminist magazine. She serves as Copy Editor for Identity Theory Magazine and Program Coordinator for House of SpeakEasy, a literary nonprofit which works to expand access to books and book culture throughout New York City. Mia’s work has been published in Autostraddle, Copy, Half Mystic Press, VelvetPark Media, Bullshit Lit, and elsewhere.

 

 

 

 

Chloé Caldwell is the author of the national bestseller, Women. Chloé’s next book, Trying, is forthcoming from Graywolf, on August 5th, 2025. She is also the author of the books I’ll Tell You In Person, The Red Zone, and Legs Get Led Astray. Her essays have appeared in Vogue, Bon Appétit, The Rumpus, and half a dozen anthologies including Goodbye To All That: Writers on Loving. She has been on faculty at Writing Workshops Paris, Writing Workshops Iceland, Chautauqua Institute, Fine Arts Work Center, Catapult, Litreactor, and Gotham Writer’s Workshop.

 

 

 

 

 

John Parker (J.P. Der Boghossian) is the host and founder of This Queer Book Saved My Life, a 2024 GLAAD Media Award nominee for outstanding podcast. He was a 2022 Lambda Literary Fellow and his essays have appeared in the anthologies We Are All Armenian: Voice from the Diaspora, The Sun Isn't Out Long Enough, and Emerge. He founded the Queer Armenian Library which is the world's first library devoted to works by, about, and for Queer Armenians. In 2024, it was on featured display at Oxford University's Bodleian Library. He additionally hosts The Gaily Show on AM950-KTNF in Minneapolis, one of the only daily LGBTQ news and talk shows in the United States.