"When it comes to my art, I am a top, a bottom, and totally versatile."

j.brotherlove interviews Stanley Bennett Clay, author of Looker.

[excerpts below from part 1 of this great interview...]

"For the most part, my characters are hard-working respectable black, gay, lesbian, transgender, straight, latino, older, younger citizens contributing to the betterment of society as opposed to taking away from society and taking away from their personal sense of worth. Most of my characters are pretty self-loving, a little lost at times, but basically headed in the right direction, which is what you love about them. They have the best intentions, but they are, ultimately, human...

I am proud of my blackness, proud of my gayness, proud of my African Americaness, proud to live in one of the coolest cities in the world, and proud to be able to still get a nut without Viagra. (By the way, my partner of four years is kind of grateful for that too). I write for the wonderful world I live in. I have educated a great deal of people by being proudly black and openly gay. So I always write about proudly black, openly gay people living in a diverse world. I don’t write about ghettos—black, gay, societal, political. The world is simply too interesting to cut yourself off from anything, or confining your artistic expression to a monolith. When it comes to my art, I am a top, a bottom, and totally versatile."

Click here to read the full interview, Parts 1 and 2, on j.brotherlove.