Anyone who thinks that polymaths don't exist anymore probably hasn't met Brontez Purnell. The Oakland-based novelist, musician, dancer, filmmaker, zine maker — and overall 'pretty Black boy' extraordinaire (to quote his interview with Steve Lacy) — can now add 'poet' and 'memoirist' to the list. Ten Bridges I've Burnt follows Pernell’s 2022 Lambda-winning novel, 100 Boyfriends. His new work is a captivating verse memoir full of his signature blend of sorrow, wit, and sex: “The most high-risk / homosexual behaviour / I engage in / is / simply existing".
Careening from lyrical loving tributes to friends to searing excavations of inherited trauma, Ten Bridges I've Burnt is an uncompromising collection that explores thinking and working as a Black gay man across 20 years in the Bay, through dance studios, poetry conferences, bars, family houses, nighttime streets.
Purnell spoke to GAY TIMES about finding his style for Ten Bridges, looking for loneliness and self-love, and his expansive record collection.
You work across a large range of mediums and have three books out in the UK is your first poetry collection – a ‘memoir in verse’, as the blurb bills it. What brought you to poetry?
