Colin Belcourt: Queer Shame, Self-Erasure, and Stop Cleaning Up Your Story

Gay men are experts at editing themselves. At work. In relationships. Inside the queer community itself. Colin Belcourt wrote a book about what gets cut out and why it needs to come back. The Blue Hour Gospel is a debut work of fiction built across multiple formats, created entirely by a queer team, and rooted in the parts of queer life most storytelling refuses to touch: shame, longing, self-erasure, and the pressure to become acceptable. Colin joins Rick to talk about what it took to write it, what he was afraid to include, and why the stories gay men keep polishing over are exactly the ones that need to be told. Key Takeaways:

• Why gay men keep erasing themselves even after coming out
• How conventional healing systems often fail marginalized communities
• What writing toward shame and longing instead of away from it actually requires
• Why Colin built the book across different formats and what that choice means
• The challenge of going fully public with personal truth in both writing and professional life
• Why authentic queer storytelling matters more right now than ever

About Colin

Colin Belcourt is a queer writer who grew up in Newmarket, Ontario and now lives just outside Ottawa. His work is emotional, nostalgic, and resistant to the cleaned-up stories people tell about identity, beauty, family, and belonging. He writes toward the parts of queer life that are too often polished over or pushed aside: shame, longing, self-erasure, desire, memory, and the pressure to become acceptable. Interested in queer writing that makes room for what is difficult, inconvenient, or unmarketable, he pushes at the edges of respectability and easy self-definition. The Blue Hour Gospel is his first book. He is currently working on his second, and also writes on Substack and appears on podcasts about queer life, writing, and the need for more honest cultural space.

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