The Body and Its Dangers

Allen Barnett (1955-1991) was an American short story writer, activist, and AIDS educator whose sole collection, The Body and Its Dangers (1990), is regarded as a landmark depiction of gay life during the AIDS crisis, winning the Ferro-Grumley Award and Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction in 1991, along with a special citation from the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. Born near Joliet, Illinois, he studied at Loyola University Chicago and Columbia University, co-founded GLAAD, and worked as an educator for Gay Men's Health Crisis before dying of AIDS-related causes at age 36. Stories like "Philostorgy, Now Obscure" appeared in The New Yorker.