Independent Press Award
2024 winner
The Queen of Gay Street
Esther Mollica
In New York, the party never stops and love’s always just around the corner. At least, that’s what queer journalist Esther Mollica told herself when she quit her job during the 2008 recession and moved three thousand miles away to become New York City’s first blogger on lesbian dating. Her hometown brought her nothing but heartache, and none more devastating than learning that the love of her life was secretly married to a man. On the other hand, New York, with its brazen, sadistic wiles, promised something more than just another walk of shame.
What it really delivered was the woman who became Esther’s hardest subject to write about: her editor. Soon, their tempestuous relationship turned into something as twisted and trauma-inducing as it was intoxicating. And even the haze of all-girl nightlife glamor at the height of pre-pandemic New York couldn’t help Esther hide from the truth: about their dysfunction, about her past, and about the life she longed for in the city she loved.
Gritty, dazzling, heartfelt, and hilarious, The Queen of Gay Street is a personal window into the queer dating scene and a promise that those in search of true love will find their own happily ever after.