West of Yesterday, East of Summer: New and Selected Poems (1973–1993)

Paul Monette

Mar 2014 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

A poetry collection spanning the career of award-winning writer Paul Monette

Paul Monette got his start writing poetry, and it was to this form that he returned following the death of his partner Roger Horwitz from AIDS-related complications. This stunning collection includes Monette’s early work as well as the beautiful and wrenching poems borne out of this immense loss. Written with characteristic wit, these poems deftly traverse humor, rage, love, and sorrow.

West of Yesterday, East of Summer captures the range of an important writer.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Paul Monette including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the Paul Monette papers of the UCLA Library Special Collections.

About the author

Paul Monette (1945–1995) was an author, poet, and gay rights activist. Born in Massachusetts and educated at Yale University, he moved with his partner Roger Horwitz to Los Angeles in 1978 and became involved in the gay rights movement. Monette’s writing captures the sense of heartbreak and loss at the center of the AIDS crisis. His first novel, Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll, was published in 1978, and he went on to write several more works of fiction, poetry, and memoir. Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir, the tender account of his partner’s battle with the disease, earned him both PEN Center West and Lambda Literary Awards. In 1992, Monette won the National Book Award in Nonfiction for Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, an autobiography detailing his early life and his struggle with his sexuality. Written as a classic coming-of-age story, Becoming a Man became a seminal coming-out story. In 1995, Monette founded the Monette-Horwitz Trust, which honors individuals and organizations working to combat homophobia. Monette died in his home in West Hollywood in 1995 of complications from AIDS.