FULL DISCLOSURE: Not only is Manuel Muñoz a good friend of mine, he’s a brilliant writer. We traded emails with Muñoz recently. He has a new collection of short stories out, The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue. Before going off to Harvard and Cornell, Muñoz grew up in a small blue-collar town you’ve never heard of in southern California. I say this because his work often chronicles the complex four-way intersection of Chicano and Latino and Literary and Gay — and because he has been both shunned and lauded for tackling those unseemly hush-hush subjects. As we expected, Muñoz’s responses are both engaging and thoughtful — if not thorough. We discuss what it means to be a gay writer anymore — or a Latino writer — or a Chicano writer who happens to be gay — or any and none of the above. – ANTONIO CERNA
