Michael Quinn
  • About
  • Book Reviews Quinn on Books Gay Sensibility
  • Critical Influences
  • Script Doctor
  • Personal & Reported Essays
  • Interviews
  • Contact

Michael Quinn

  • About/
  • Cultural Criticism/
    • Book Reviews
    • Quinn on Books
    • Gay Sensibility
  • Critical Influences/
  • Script Doctor/
  • Personal & Reported Essays/
  • Interviews/
  • Contact/
Book Collage Photo Credit Michael Quinn.JPG

Michael Quinn

Critical Influences

Michael Quinn

  • About/
  • Cultural Criticism/
    • Book Reviews
    • Quinn on Books
    • Gay Sensibility
  • Critical Influences/
  • Script Doctor/
  • Personal & Reported Essays/
  • Interviews/
  • Contact/

Books shape us. Identity defines us. Culture connects us.

Critical Influences explores how these forces intersect—through a gay lens.

In this ongoing series of personal essays, interviews, and cultural reflections, I trace the experiences, people, and creative works that have shaped my thinking as a critic and storyteller.

These are stories about the stories that shape us.


July 07, 2025

Hauser at Radio City Music Hall: I Came for My Partner, I Stayed for the Feeling

July 07, 2025/ Michael Quinn
Hauser at Radio City Music Hall: I Came for My Partner, I Stayed for the Feeling

What started as a campy date night turned into something unexpectedly joyful—and strangely moving.

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July 07, 2025/ Michael Quinn/ Comment
critical influences, cultural criticism, music, performance, camp, LGBTQ+
LGBTQ, Pride Month, Hauser, Radio City Music Hall, classical crossover, concert review, queer aesthetics, performance, camp, cello, YouTube music, romantic spectacle, cultural criticism, Critical Influences
June 02, 2025

The Quiet Persistence of Poet Spencer Reece

June 02, 2025/ Michael Quinn
The Quiet Persistence of Poet Spencer Reece

Hundreds of rejections later, he sold something. That poem changed his life.

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June 02, 2025/ Michael Quinn/
LGBTQ+, literary criticism, reading & identity, writing life
LGBTQ, Literary Criticism, Reading & Identity, Writing Life, Pride, Pride Month, Poet, Poetry, Spencer Reece, The Secret Gospel of Mark, Seven Stories Press, Brooks Brothers, Writing Advice

Critical Influences photo credit: Michael Quinn

© 2018-2025 Michael Quinn