Felice Anthony Picano was an American writer, publisher, and critic who contributed to the development of gay literature in the United States. He founded publishing companies and co-founded Violet Quill, a literary group that shaped gay fiction.
Felice Anthony Picano was born on 22 February 1944 in Queens, New York. Picano graduated cum laude with honours in English from Queens College in 1964. He did graduate work at Columbia University. Unable to find work as an artist, he took low-paid editorial jobs. He later worked at the Rizzoli bookstore, where a colleague introduced him to a literary agent.
In 1976, Felice Picano founded SeaHorse Press, the first gay press in the U.S. In 1981, he co-founded the Gay Presses of New York with Terry Helbing and Larry Mitchell, serving as editor-in-chief. He edited and wrote for publications such as The Advocate, Blueboy, Gaysweek, Christopher Street, and The New York Native. He has also reviewed books and culture for the San Francisco Examiner, the Los Angeles Examiner, and the Harvard Lesbian & Gay Review.
Picano was a founding member of the Violet Quill, along with Andrew Holleran, Robert Ferro, and Edmund White. The group was central to the emergence of modern gay fiction. In a 2024 letter to the London Review of Books, Picano criticised the Village Voice for neglecting LGBTQ+ cultural contributions in the 1970s and 1980s.
His early novels include Smart as the Devil (1975), Eyes (1976), The Mesmerist (1977) and The Lure (1979). The Lure, a crime novel about a straight widower drawn into a serial killer investigation, was the first gay-themed book selected for the Book of the Month Club.
"They did me a wonderful favour by putting 'Warning: Sex and Violence' on the cover," he later said. His subsequent novels included Like People in History (1995), The Book of Lies (1998) and Onyx (2001). He also wrote memoirs, poetry and plays.
Picano documented his literary and personal encounters in memoirs such as Men Who Loved Me and Art & Sex in Greenwich Village. He described his friendships with W. H. Auden, Gore Vidal, Edward Gorey and Robert Mapplethorpe. In Nights at Rizzoli, he recalled his time as a bookseller in the early 1970s, when he met Salvador Dalí, Jackie Onassis and Gregory Peck.
His contributions to publishing introduced authors such as Dennis Cooper and Harvey Fierstein. His work has been translated into fifteen languages. He has received the Ferro-Grumley Award, the Jane Chambers Play Award, and the Lambda Literary Foundation's Pioneer Award. He was a finalist for the inaugural Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and has been nominated for five Lambda Literary Awards.
Picano lived in Manhattan, Fire Island Pines, Los Angeles and London before settling in West Hollywood.
Felice Picano died of lymphoma on 12 March 2025 at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 81. His legacy includes more than thirty works of fiction, non-fiction and plays that have shaped the landscape of gay literature.
Felice Anthony Picano was born on 22 February 1944 in Queens, New York. Picano graduated cum laude with honours in English from Queens College in 1964. He did graduate work at Columbia University. Unable to find work as an artist, he took low-paid editorial jobs. He later worked at the Rizzoli bookstore, where a colleague introduced him to a literary agent.
In 1976, Felice Picano founded SeaHorse Press, the first gay press in the U.S. In 1981, he co-founded the Gay Presses of New York with Terry Helbing and Larry Mitchell, serving as editor-in-chief. He edited and wrote for publications such as The Advocate, Blueboy, Gaysweek, Christopher Street, and The New York Native. He has also reviewed books and culture for the San Francisco Examiner, the Los Angeles Examiner, and the Harvard Lesbian & Gay Review.
Picano was a founding member of the Violet Quill, along with Andrew Holleran, Robert Ferro, and Edmund White. The group was central to the emergence of modern gay fiction. In a 2024 letter to the London Review of Books, Picano criticised the Village Voice for neglecting LGBTQ+ cultural contributions in the 1970s and 1980s.
His early novels include Smart as the Devil (1975), Eyes (1976), The Mesmerist (1977) and The Lure (1979). The Lure, a crime novel about a straight widower drawn into a serial killer investigation, was the first gay-themed book selected for the Book of the Month Club.
"They did me a wonderful favour by putting 'Warning: Sex and Violence' on the cover," he later said. His subsequent novels included Like People in History (1995), The Book of Lies (1998) and Onyx (2001). He also wrote memoirs, poetry and plays.
Picano documented his literary and personal encounters in memoirs such as Men Who Loved Me and Art & Sex in Greenwich Village. He described his friendships with W. H. Auden, Gore Vidal, Edward Gorey and Robert Mapplethorpe. In Nights at Rizzoli, he recalled his time as a bookseller in the early 1970s, when he met Salvador Dalí, Jackie Onassis and Gregory Peck.
His contributions to publishing introduced authors such as Dennis Cooper and Harvey Fierstein. His work has been translated into fifteen languages. He has received the Ferro-Grumley Award, the Jane Chambers Play Award, and the Lambda Literary Foundation's Pioneer Award. He was a finalist for the inaugural Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and has been nominated for five Lambda Literary Awards.
Picano lived in Manhattan, Fire Island Pines, Los Angeles and London before settling in West Hollywood.
Felice Picano died of lymphoma on 12 March 2025 at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 81. His legacy includes more than thirty works of fiction, non-fiction and plays that have shaped the landscape of gay literature.
years of life: 22 February 1944 – 12 March 2025
Books
- unavailableFelice Picano, Charles Silverstein•The Joy of Gay Sex
- unavailable
- unavailable
Audiobooks
fb2epub
Drag & drop your files
(not more than 5 at once)