A funny, boisterous, and deeply moving novel about aging hairstylist Roland’s childhood friendship with Birdy O’Day, whose fevered quest for pop music glory drives them apart

Roland Keener is an aging hairstylist who’s lived and worked in Winnipeg all his life. He’s more or less content with the quiet and predictable days he shares with his partner of twenty-five years, Tony. That is, until he hears that Birdy O’Day—washed-up music icon and Roland’s childhood best friend and first love—is playing his first concert in Winnipeg since fleeing decades earlier.

Holing up with a scrapbook of news clippings about Birdy, Roland recalls his childhood in the ’60s and his friendship with Birdy until the pair became estranged when Birdy left in pursuit of stardom. But now, is Birdy’s imminent return to town a chance for the two of them to finally come to terms with their glorious yet troubled past?

A nostalgic and poignant novel about hero worship, heartbreak, and queer survival, An Evening with Birdy O’Day will remind you that you can never go home again—even if you never left it in the first place.

GREG KEARNEY is the author of Mommy Daddy Baby and the playwright of 555-555-5555, The Betty Dean Fanzine, Cancun, and The Cry Sisters. His most recent book, Pretty, won the 2012 ReLit Award in the Short Fiction category. He is the former resident humor columnist for Xtra!Magazine and lives in Toronto, Ontario.

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Sky Gilbert is a writer, director, and drag queen extraordinaire. He was co-founder and artistic director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (North Americaâ??s largest gay and lesbian theatre) for 18 years. His hit plays include The Dressing Gown, Drag Queens on Trial, Play Murder, The Emotionalists, and the Dora Mavor Moore Award-winning The Whoreâ??s Revenge. His first three novels: Guilty (1998), St. Stephenâ??s, (1999) and I Am Kasper Klotz (2001) were critically acclaimed. ECW Press published Skyâ??s first collection of poetry, Digressions of a Naked Party Girl, in 1998, and his theatre memoir, Ejaculations from the Charm Factory, in 2000. His second book of collected poems, Temptations for a Juvenile Delinquent, was published by ECW in 2003. He was recently the recipient of the Margo Bindhardt Award (from the Toronto Arts Foundation), the Silver Ticket Award (from the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts), and the ReLit Award (for his fourth novel, An English Gentleman), and also recently received a PhD from the University of Toronto. By day, Sky holds a University Research Chair in Drama and Creative Writing at the University of Guelph.

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“Nobody does razor-witted tenderness like Greg Kearney. Bluntly incisive, endearing, and uproarious, An Evening with Birdy O’Day dazzled and delighted me. This book is a love bomb, and Roland and his mom are my heroes.” — Jessica Westhead, author of Avalanche