2022
Kirkus Reviews by Karen Schechner (13 May 22)
"3 LGBTQ+ Indie Books That Will Surprise You"
Kirkus Reviews by Myra Forsberg (05 Jan 22)
"3 Indie Collections for Short Story Lovers"
The Bay Area Reporter by Gregg Shapiro (05 Jan 22)
"'Better' than ever: author Philip Dean Walker"
2021
The Gay & Lesbian Review Blog by Joseph Delgado (22 Oct 21)
"AIDS as it was, as it has been"
TheBody: The HIV/AIDS Resource by Tim Murphy (15 Sep 21)
"Imagined Lives of Real People: Philip Dean Walker Discusses His New Early-AIDS-Era Story Collection"
A&U: America's AIDS Magazine by John Francis Leonard (21 Jun 21)
Better Davis and Other Stories
Kirkus Reviews *starred review (27 May 21)
Better Davis and Other Stories
2019
Spectrum Culture by Mike McCelland (31 Jan 19)
Read by Strangers
2018
The Gay & Lesbian Review by Jean Roberta (1 Nov 18)
Read by Strangers
Washington Independent Review of Books by John Copenhaver (18 Sep 18)
Read by Strangers
[PANK] Magazine by John Copenhaver (29 Aug 18)
Read by Strangers
Kirkus Reviews *starred review (24 Jul 18)
Read by Strangers
Hot off the Press Blog by Jean Roberta (21 Jul 18)
Read by Strangers
Kirkus Reviews Indie Blog
by David Rapp, Senior Indie Editor (27 Jun 18)
"Living in the '80s" (At Danceteria and Other Stories mention)
The Writer's Center Interview by Zach Powers (30 May 18)
Read by Strangers
Lambda Literary Review by John Francis Leonard (29 May 18)
Read by Strangers
Chicago Literati Interview: "Only Before and After" by Courtney Harler (25 May 18)
Read by Strangers
Café MFA: American University MFA Book Reviews by K. Tyler Christensen (19 May 18)
Read by Strangers
Written on the Edge (WROTE) by Jayne Lockwood (13 May 18)
Read by Strangers
Out in Print: Queer Book Reviews by Jerry L. Wheeler (23 Apr 18)
Read by Strangers
2017
Cafe American: American University MFA Book Reviews by Karen Keating (13 Sep 17)
"Tales of Glamour and Fear in the Early Days of AIDS"
Out in Print: Queer Book Reviews by Keith John Glaeske (10 Jul 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Kirkus Reviews Indie Blog (22 Jun 17)
by Karen Schechner, Vice President of Kirkus Indie, Kirkus Reviews
"Gay New York"
The Gay & Lesbian Review by Emily Natasha Voorhees (26 Apr 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Bay Area Reporter by Jim Piechota (13 Apr 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Spectrum Culture by Mike McCelland (10 Feb 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Kirkus Reviews *starred review (25 Jan 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
A&U: America's AIDS Magazine by John Francis Leonard (18 Jan 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Playing with Words by Angela Amman (18 Jan 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Gay RVA - Queer Books with Julie by Julie Clayton (18 Jan 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Out & About Nashville by Thom Murphy (09 Jan 17)
"Greenwell and Walker, Gay Authors, Write of Frailty and our Struggle to See Beyond It"
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Lambda Literary Interview with Craig L. Gidney (02 Jan 17)
"On 1980s Nostalgia, Listening to Sylvester, and Writing a Themed Collection"
2016
Real Life Style by Lani Inlander (10 Dec 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Strange Alphabets by Craig L. Gidney (01 Dec 16)
Celebrity Ghosts, '80s Style: At Danceteria and Other Stories by Philip Dean Walker
Baltimore Outloud (Holiday Gift Guide 2016) by Gregg Shapiro (25 Nov 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Written on the Edge (WROTE) by Jayne Lockwood (19 Nov 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Reviews by Amos Lassen by Amos Lassen
At Danceteria and Other Stories
New York Journal of Books by Richard Cytowic (14 Nov 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Eris Magazine by James Schwartz (6 Nov 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Lambda Literary Review by John Bavoso (31 Oct 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Barrelhouse by Wendy Besel Hahn (27 Oct 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Booktrib by Rachel Carter (17 Oct 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Advance Praise for At Danceteria and Other Stories:
“This highly original meditation on the '80s is like nothing else you've read. Dead celebrities are brought back to life in the oddest places: Jackie O in a New York sex club, Princess Di in a London drag bar, Rock Hudson at the White House. Plus Sylvester, Halston and Liza, Keith Haring, Madonna, and, best of all, an anonymous narrator who notices that only good-looking guys in New York are getting the new gay cancer. Odd conjunctions, great wit, and the shadow of AIDS make these stories deceptively light and strangely disturbing.” —Andrew Holleran, author of Dancer from the Dance
“In his debut collection, At Danceteria and Other Stories, Philip Dean Walker writes with a kind of savage nostalgia, one that knows the past was not prettier or glitzier or more fabulous—only more terrifying. Set in the early 1980s, when the word 'queer' was still an insult and when doctors and nurses invented their own names for the mysterious disease killing beautiful young men, At Danceteria and Other Stories brutally exposes how what we don't know about ourselves can kill us. Walker's writing is vivid, electric, and devastating.” —Stephanie Grant, author of The Passion of Alice
“These stories--so funny and inventive, so merciless, smart, and affecting--are like no others I know, populated with American celebutantes, like Liza Minnelli, Jackie Kennedy, and Little Edie Beale, and punctuated by an abiding American loneliness that has the power to break one's heart. Walker's stories are fully, fully alive.” —Richard McCann, author of Mother of Sorrows
“At a time when many young gay writers are forgetting their queer lineage, Philip Dean Walker comes along and schools us with his debut short story collection. Here is Halston, Liza, and Warhol at Studio 54; here is a drag queen who rivals Josephine Baker's star appeal; and here is, in Walker's words, the boy who lived next to the boys next door, dead during the early plague years, but resurrected through Walker's alluring prose, prose that renders the past our present. These stories are clever and do not apologize for their cleverness, like Rock Hudson, who explains here, 'Handsome men know they're handsome. There was no reason to be coy or overly modest about it—that kind of thing just reeked of phoniness to him.' Phony, these stories are not. From the Castro to Grey Gardens, I travelled gleefully alongside Walker in At Danceteria and Other Stories, and am only disappointed the journey had to end.” —D. Gilson, author of I Will Say This Exactly One Time: Essays
“Reading Philip Dean Walker is like being swept into the defiantly glittering rooms of tragedy-darkened souls. Walker's At Danceteria and Other Stories testifies to the tart-tongued power of language to resurrect and witness, in tales that are screamingly funny and hauntingly sad. His men and women radiate an alluring self-awareness and fallibility that touches our deepest places.” —Elise Levine, author of Driving Men Mad
2015
The Review Review by Angus MacCaull
"A Goddess Lying Breathless in Carnage"
2012
Out in Print by Jerry Wheeler (13 Dec 12)
"At Danceteria"
NewPages.com by Shannon Smith (15 Feb 12)
"Unicorn"
Kirkus Reviews by Karen Schechner (13 May 22)
"3 LGBTQ+ Indie Books That Will Surprise You"
Kirkus Reviews by Myra Forsberg (05 Jan 22)
"3 Indie Collections for Short Story Lovers"
The Bay Area Reporter by Gregg Shapiro (05 Jan 22)
"'Better' than ever: author Philip Dean Walker"
2021
The Gay & Lesbian Review Blog by Joseph Delgado (22 Oct 21)
"AIDS as it was, as it has been"
TheBody: The HIV/AIDS Resource by Tim Murphy (15 Sep 21)
"Imagined Lives of Real People: Philip Dean Walker Discusses His New Early-AIDS-Era Story Collection"
A&U: America's AIDS Magazine by John Francis Leonard (21 Jun 21)
Better Davis and Other Stories
Kirkus Reviews *starred review (27 May 21)
Better Davis and Other Stories
2019
Spectrum Culture by Mike McCelland (31 Jan 19)
Read by Strangers
2018
The Gay & Lesbian Review by Jean Roberta (1 Nov 18)
Read by Strangers
Washington Independent Review of Books by John Copenhaver (18 Sep 18)
Read by Strangers
[PANK] Magazine by John Copenhaver (29 Aug 18)
Read by Strangers
Kirkus Reviews *starred review (24 Jul 18)
Read by Strangers
Hot off the Press Blog by Jean Roberta (21 Jul 18)
Read by Strangers
Kirkus Reviews Indie Blog
by David Rapp, Senior Indie Editor (27 Jun 18)
"Living in the '80s" (At Danceteria and Other Stories mention)
The Writer's Center Interview by Zach Powers (30 May 18)
Read by Strangers
Lambda Literary Review by John Francis Leonard (29 May 18)
Read by Strangers
Chicago Literati Interview: "Only Before and After" by Courtney Harler (25 May 18)
Read by Strangers
Café MFA: American University MFA Book Reviews by K. Tyler Christensen (19 May 18)
Read by Strangers
Written on the Edge (WROTE) by Jayne Lockwood (13 May 18)
Read by Strangers
Out in Print: Queer Book Reviews by Jerry L. Wheeler (23 Apr 18)
Read by Strangers
2017
Cafe American: American University MFA Book Reviews by Karen Keating (13 Sep 17)
"Tales of Glamour and Fear in the Early Days of AIDS"
Out in Print: Queer Book Reviews by Keith John Glaeske (10 Jul 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Kirkus Reviews Indie Blog (22 Jun 17)
by Karen Schechner, Vice President of Kirkus Indie, Kirkus Reviews
"Gay New York"
The Gay & Lesbian Review by Emily Natasha Voorhees (26 Apr 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Bay Area Reporter by Jim Piechota (13 Apr 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Spectrum Culture by Mike McCelland (10 Feb 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Kirkus Reviews *starred review (25 Jan 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
A&U: America's AIDS Magazine by John Francis Leonard (18 Jan 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Playing with Words by Angela Amman (18 Jan 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Gay RVA - Queer Books with Julie by Julie Clayton (18 Jan 17)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Out & About Nashville by Thom Murphy (09 Jan 17)
"Greenwell and Walker, Gay Authors, Write of Frailty and our Struggle to See Beyond It"
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Lambda Literary Interview with Craig L. Gidney (02 Jan 17)
"On 1980s Nostalgia, Listening to Sylvester, and Writing a Themed Collection"
2016
Real Life Style by Lani Inlander (10 Dec 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Strange Alphabets by Craig L. Gidney (01 Dec 16)
Celebrity Ghosts, '80s Style: At Danceteria and Other Stories by Philip Dean Walker
Baltimore Outloud (Holiday Gift Guide 2016) by Gregg Shapiro (25 Nov 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Written on the Edge (WROTE) by Jayne Lockwood (19 Nov 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Reviews by Amos Lassen by Amos Lassen
At Danceteria and Other Stories
New York Journal of Books by Richard Cytowic (14 Nov 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Eris Magazine by James Schwartz (6 Nov 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Lambda Literary Review by John Bavoso (31 Oct 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Barrelhouse by Wendy Besel Hahn (27 Oct 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Booktrib by Rachel Carter (17 Oct 16)
At Danceteria and Other Stories
Advance Praise for At Danceteria and Other Stories:
“This highly original meditation on the '80s is like nothing else you've read. Dead celebrities are brought back to life in the oddest places: Jackie O in a New York sex club, Princess Di in a London drag bar, Rock Hudson at the White House. Plus Sylvester, Halston and Liza, Keith Haring, Madonna, and, best of all, an anonymous narrator who notices that only good-looking guys in New York are getting the new gay cancer. Odd conjunctions, great wit, and the shadow of AIDS make these stories deceptively light and strangely disturbing.” —Andrew Holleran, author of Dancer from the Dance
“In his debut collection, At Danceteria and Other Stories, Philip Dean Walker writes with a kind of savage nostalgia, one that knows the past was not prettier or glitzier or more fabulous—only more terrifying. Set in the early 1980s, when the word 'queer' was still an insult and when doctors and nurses invented their own names for the mysterious disease killing beautiful young men, At Danceteria and Other Stories brutally exposes how what we don't know about ourselves can kill us. Walker's writing is vivid, electric, and devastating.” —Stephanie Grant, author of The Passion of Alice
“These stories--so funny and inventive, so merciless, smart, and affecting--are like no others I know, populated with American celebutantes, like Liza Minnelli, Jackie Kennedy, and Little Edie Beale, and punctuated by an abiding American loneliness that has the power to break one's heart. Walker's stories are fully, fully alive.” —Richard McCann, author of Mother of Sorrows
“At a time when many young gay writers are forgetting their queer lineage, Philip Dean Walker comes along and schools us with his debut short story collection. Here is Halston, Liza, and Warhol at Studio 54; here is a drag queen who rivals Josephine Baker's star appeal; and here is, in Walker's words, the boy who lived next to the boys next door, dead during the early plague years, but resurrected through Walker's alluring prose, prose that renders the past our present. These stories are clever and do not apologize for their cleverness, like Rock Hudson, who explains here, 'Handsome men know they're handsome. There was no reason to be coy or overly modest about it—that kind of thing just reeked of phoniness to him.' Phony, these stories are not. From the Castro to Grey Gardens, I travelled gleefully alongside Walker in At Danceteria and Other Stories, and am only disappointed the journey had to end.” —D. Gilson, author of I Will Say This Exactly One Time: Essays
“Reading Philip Dean Walker is like being swept into the defiantly glittering rooms of tragedy-darkened souls. Walker's At Danceteria and Other Stories testifies to the tart-tongued power of language to resurrect and witness, in tales that are screamingly funny and hauntingly sad. His men and women radiate an alluring self-awareness and fallibility that touches our deepest places.” —Elise Levine, author of Driving Men Mad
2015
The Review Review by Angus MacCaull
"A Goddess Lying Breathless in Carnage"
2012
Out in Print by Jerry Wheeler (13 Dec 12)
"At Danceteria"
NewPages.com by Shannon Smith (15 Feb 12)
"Unicorn"