About John Marszalek

John F. Marszalek III is the author of Coming Out of the Magnolia Closet: Same-Sex Couples in Mississippi (2020, University Press of Mississippi), named the 2020 Digital Book World Best Nonfiction Book and Best Book Published by a University Press. John is a National Certified Counselor and Licensed Professional Counselor in Mississippi. He has been a counselor educator for over 20 years and is currently clinical faculty of the online clinical mental health counseling program at Southern New Hampshire University. He received his PhD in counselor education at Mississippi State University. Before moving back to Mississippi, John lived in Buffalo, NY, Washington, DC, Fort Lauderdale, FL, and New Orleans, LA. John lives with his husband in Starkville, Mississippi.

John Marszalek III is a host of the podcast Queer Voices on the LGBTQ+ Channel of the New Books Network.

John's website

NBN Episodes hosted by John:

John D'Emilio, "Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood: Coming of Age in the Sixties" (Duke UP, 2022)

October 12, 2022

Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood

John D'Emilio
Hosted by John Marszalek

In this episode of the Queer Voices podcast, John Marszalek interviews author John D’Emilio, one of the leading historians of his generation and a pio…

Baker A. Rogers, "King of Hearts: Drag Kings in the American South" (Rutgers UP, 2021)

January 31, 2022

King of Hearts

Baker A. Rogers
Hosted by John Marszalek

In this episode of the Queer Voices of the South podcast, John Marszalek interviews author Baker A. Rogers about their research on drag kings in the S…

Queer Voices of the South: The Year In Review (2021)

December 31, 2021

Queer Voices of the South

Morris Ardoin and John Marszelek
Hosted by John Marszalek

In this episode of Queer Voices of the South, co-hosts Morris Ardoin and John Marszalek look back at the books and authors they covered in 2021. Janu…

Richard Harrold, "My Buddha Is Pink: Buddhism from a LGBTQI Perspective" (Sumeru Press, 2019)

November 16, 2021

My Buddha Is Pink

Richard Harrold
Hosted by John Marszalek

Welcome to the Queer Voices of the South podcast on the New Books Network. In this episode, host John Marszalek interviews Richard Harrold about his b…

Elizabeth McCain, "A Lesbian Belle Tells: OUTrageous Southern Stories of Family, Loss, and Love" (Crystal Heart Imprints, 2020)

October 18, 2021

A Lesbian Belle Tells

Elizabeth McCain
Hosted by John Marszalek

Settle back for a wild ride through a Southern lesbian's life of soul-searching, rule-breaking, and truth-telling. This belle's kind of coming out was…

Gregory Bourke, "Gay, Catholic, and American: My Legal Battle for Marriage Equality and Inclusion" (U Notre Dame Press, 2021)

August 27, 2021

Gay, Catholic, and American

Gregory Bourke
Hosted by John Marszalek

Catholic Greg Bourke's profoundly moving memoir about growing up gay and overcoming discrimination in the battle for same-sex marriage in the US. In t…

Josephine Donovan, "The Lexington Six: Lesbian and Gay Resistance in 1970s America" (U Massachusetts Press, 2020)

June 25, 2021

The Lexington Six

Josephine Donovan
Hosted by John Marszalek

On September 23, 1970, a group of antiwar activists staged a robbery at a bank in Massachusetts, during which a police officer was killed. While the t…

Stacee L. Reicherzer, "The Healing Otherness Handbook: Overcome the Trauma of Identity-Based Bullying and Find Power in Your Difference" (New Harbinger, 2021)

May 14, 2021

The Healing Otherness Handbook

Stacee L. Reicherzer
Hosted by John Marszalek

In The Healing Otherness Handbook: Overcome the Trauma of Identity-Based Bullying and Find Power in Your Difference (New Harbinger, 2021), Stacee Reic…

Steven Capsuto, "Alternate Channels: Queer Images on 20th-Century TV" (2020)

April 23, 2021

Alternate Channels

Steven Capsuto
Hosted by John Marszalek

Steven Capsuto's book Alternate Channels: Queer Images on 20th-Century TV (2020) explores the fight for lesbian and gay visibility on 20th-century Ame…

Matt Brim, "Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University" (Duke UP, 2020)

April 2, 2021

Poor Queer Studies

Matt Brim
Hosted by John Marszalek

In Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University (Duke UP, 2020), Matt Brim shifts queer studies away from its familiar sites of elite edu…

Derritt Mason, "Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture" (UP of Mississippi, 2020)

March 10, 2021

Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture

Derritt Mason
Hosted by John Marszalek

Young adult literature featuring LGBTQ+ characters is booming. In the 1980s and 1990s, only a handful of such titles were published every year. Recent…

Francisco J. Galarte, "Brown Trans Figurations: Rethinking Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Chicanx/Latinx Studies" (U Texas Press, 2021)

March 5, 2021

Brown Trans Figurations

Francisco J. Galarte
Hosted by John Marszalek

Within queer, transgender, and Latinx and Chicanx cultural politics, brown transgender narratives are frequently silenced and erased. Brown trans subj…

GerShun Avilez, "Black Queer Freedom: Spaces of Injury and Paths of Desire" (U Illinois Press, 2020)

January 26, 2021

Black Queer Freedom

GerShun Avilez
Hosted by John Marszalek

Whether engaged in same-sex desire or gender nonconformity, black queer individuals live with being perceived as a threat while simultaneously being s…

Ashon T. Crawley, "The Lonely Letters" (Duke UP, 2020)

December 22, 2020

The Lonely Letters

Ashon T. Crawley
Hosted by John Marszalek

In The Lonely Letters (Duke UP, 2020), A tells Moth: “Writing about and thinking with joy is what sustains me, daily. It nourishes me. I do not write …

Tom Rastrelli, "Confessions of a Gay Priest: A Memoir of Sex, Love, Abuse, and Scandal in the Catholic Seminary" (U Iowa Press, 2020)

November 30, 2020

Confessions of a Gay Priest

Tom Rastrelli
Hosted by John Marszalek

Tom Rastrelli is a survivor of clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse who then became a priest in the early days of the Catholic Church’s ongoing scandals. C…

Robert Fieseler, "Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation" (Liveright, 2018)

October 30, 2020

Tinderbox

Robert Fieseler
Hosted by John Marszalek

An essential work of American civil rights history, Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation (Liveright…

Morris Ardoin, "Stone Motel: Memoirs of a Cajun Boy" (UP of Mississippi, 2020)

October 19, 2020

Stone Motel

Morris Ardoin
Hosted by John Marszalek

In the summers of the early 1970s, Morris Ardoin and his siblings helped run their family's roadside motel in a hot, buggy, bayou town in Cajun Louisi…