Armistead Maupin
Acclaimed Novelist, Author of the Tales of the City Series
and The Night Listener
and The Night Listener
Though Armistead Maupin was one of the first of a new breed of openly gay authors, his appeal has always resided in his inclusiveness as a storyteller. For over thirty years his beloved characters from 28 Barbary Lane in the Tales of the City series have cut an unprecedented path through popular culture—from a groundbreaking newspaper serial to six internationally bestselling novels to a Peabody Award-winning miniseries starring Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney. In 2006, an online poll of British readers named Tales of the City the UK ’s all-time favorite gay or lesbian novel. In 2007, in a long-awaited return to that lore, Maupin revisited one of his most beloved Tales characters in Michael Tolliver Lives. A musical adaptation of Tales of the City is in the works from Jeff Whitty and Jason Moore (creators of the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit Avenue Q), set to premiere in 2011. He is currently working on his next novel, Mary Ann in Autumn, to be published fall 2010.
Armistead Maupin’s New York Times bestseller The Night Listener created a sensation in the publishing world when its real-life origins were revealed in an article by The New Yorker and a follow-up investigation by ABC ’s 20/20. The psychological suspense novel was inspired by Maupin’s longtime telephone friendship with Anthony Godby Johnson, a 14-year-old memoirist whose very existence Maupin began to question. “It was like living in the middle of a mystery novel,” Maupin said. “Once it started happening I knew I had to write about it.” He wrote the screen adaptation of The Night Listener, starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by Miramax pictures.
Armistead Maupin is also the author of the bestselling novel Maybe the Moon, which chronicles the misadventures of a dwarf actress working in Hollywood. He wrote the narration for the award-winning documentary "The Celluloid Closet," and was himself the subject of an hour-long BBC documentary; "Armistead Maupin Is a Man I Dreamt Up." As a librettist, he collaborated in 1999 with composer Jake Heggie on "Anna Madrigal Remembers" for mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade and Chanticleer, the classical choral ensemble.
Maupin lives in San Francisco with his husband, Christopher Turner.
“An alchemical confluence of ideal elements—writer, city, and cultural moment—created Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City, perhaps the most sublime piece of popular literature America has ever produced… As with the Beatles, everyone seems to like Maupin’s Tales—and, really, why would you want to find someone who didn’t?”
— Laura Miller, Salon“Armistead Maupin accomplishes the unthinkable: surpassing the excellence of his Tales of the City series. The Night Listener is filled with twists and turns that rival The Sixth Sense and The Crying Game.”
— Publishers Weekly“What Maupin has to say to all of us about love and tolerance is worth hearing. His novels are rich with humor and humanity, and it is no accident that he has often been favorably compared to Dickens.”
— Linda Ellerbee
