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Jim Provenzano

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Jim Provenzano
Provenzano in 2015
Provenzano in 2015

Jim Provenzano is an American author, playwright, and editor with the Bay Area Reporter.

Early life and career

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Provenzano graduated from Ashland High School in Ashland, Ohio.[1] As a student at Kent State University, he performed in a stage production of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap[2] and the title role in a 1981 production of The Who's musical Tommy.[3] After transferring to Ohio State University in 1981, he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance in 1985.[4]

He directed productions of the Sam Shepard plays Cowboy Mouth and Action.[5] In 1987 he was a dancer with the Bill Cratty Dance Theater[6] and performed at The Yard on Martha's Vineyard.[7] In 1988, he directed a New Jersey production of William M. Hoffman's AIDS drama As Is.[5] In 1989, with Nick Jouriles, he performed his dance work "Held Up" at the Dance Theater Workshop's Fresh Tracks series.[8]

Later career

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Provenzano moved to San Francisco in 1992 to become an assistant editor for the Bay Area Reporter, an LGBTQ community newspaper. In 1996 Bay Area Reporter editor Mike Salinas asked him to write a column covering the LGBT athletics community. The column, titled "Sports Complex", was published weekly until 2006. It was internationally syndicated from 2004 to 2006 and covered the California AIDSRide, the Gay Games and Outgames, interviews with, and articles about, gay and lesbian athletes. Provenzano returned as an editor with the Bay Area Reporter in September 2006. In 2010, he co-created and became editor of BARtab, the Reporters (initially monthly, then weekly) LGBT nightlife guide. In 2020, he was promoted to Arts & Entertainment Editor at the Bay Area Reporter.[9][independent source needed]

Provenzano's novel PINS (1999) is about gay high school wrestlers. A review in The Advocate praised Provenzano's humor and "swift and flexible style".[10] Provenzano adapted PINS for the stage, and it premiered at New Conservatory Theatre Center in 2002.[11] Reviewing the play for the San Francisco Chronicle, critic Robert Hurwitt wrote that "Provenzano doesn't succeed in pinning his subject dramatically, but he wrestles with his themes thoughtfully and, for the most part, to entertaining effect."[12] A Chicago staging took place in 2006.[13][14] In 2005, Provenzano helped produce an exhibit for the GLBT Historical Society on gay and lesbian athletics.[15]

His novel Every Time I Think of You won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Romance in 2012.[16][17] The Lambda Literary review called it "a moving and satisfying read".[18] Message of Love was selected as a Lambda Literary Award finalist in 2015.[19]

In 2018, he published Now I'm Here. Set mostly in rural Ohio in the 1970s and 1980s, it focuses on a gay piano prodigy who gains fame for his piano solo version of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," and his relationship with the son of a pumpkin farmer.[20][21] In 2020 he released Finding Tulsa, the faux-memoir of gay film director Stan Grozniak, who reconnects with his teenage crush from a 1970s summer theatre production of the musical Gypsy.[22]

Some of Provenzano's papers, including materials from his work at OutWeek and Hunt, his activism with ACT UP and Queer Nation, and the Sporting Life exhibit, are held at the Online Archive of California.[23]

Personal life

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Provenzano is openly gay.[24] He lives in San Francisco.[25]

Works

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Fiction

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  • PINS (1999)
  • Monkey Suits (2003)
  • Cyclizen (2007)
  • Every Time I Think of You (2011)
  • Message of Love (2014)
  • Forty Wild Crushes: stories (2016)
  • Now I'm Here (2018)
  • Finding Tulsa (2020)
  • Lessons in Teenage Biology, a novella (2024)[26]

Plays

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  • PINS (2002, adapted from his novel)
  • Bootless Cries (1998)
  • Under the River (1988)

References

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  1. ↑ Robinson, Amelia (1999-12-13). "First novel tackles bigotry". Mansfield News Journal. p. B1. Retrieved 2026-06-28.
  2. ↑ Shaw, Thomas G. (1979-09-28). "Stump Theatre hosts Christie's 'Mousetrap'". Daily Kent Stater. Vol. LIII, no. 16.
  3. ↑ Blum, Michelle (1981-08-20). "Tommy has a clear message". The Summer Kent Stater. Vol. II, no. 15.
  4. ↑ "Alumni News and Updates". Department of Dance. Ohio State University. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  5. 1 2 "As Is portrays a tragedy of AIDS". The Jersey Journal. 1989-02-24. p. 14. Retrieved 2026-06-28.
  6. ↑ Kisselgoff, Anna (1987-04-18). "THE DANCE: BILL CRATTY TROUPE AT 92D STREET Y". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  7. ↑ Kisselgoff, Anna (1987-09-19). "The Dance: Experiments By the Yard". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  8. ↑ Anderson, Jack (1989-12-16). "Review/Dance; On Confronting Adversity". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  9. ↑ Provenzano, Jim. "Go West: How the B.A.R. brought me to California and halfway around the world, twice". Bay Area Reporter. Retrieved 2026-06-23.
  10. ↑ Weir, John (1999-12-21). "Wrestling with sexuality: Provenzano takes on wrestling and the closet in high school". The Advocate (801): 74. ProQuest 215754046.
  11. ↑ Hurwitt, Robert (2002-08-26). "Grappling with gay attraction / Diffuse 'PINS' takes on homophobia in sports". SFGATE. Retrieved 2026-06-28.
  12. ↑ Hurwitt, Robert (2002-08-26). "Grappling with gay attraction". San Francisco Chronicle. p. D3. Retrieved 2026-06-28.
  13. ↑ "Pins at Bailiwick Chicago". Theatre in Chicago. Retrieved 2026-06-28.
  14. ↑ Thompson, Zac (2006-06-22). "Pins". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2026-06-28.
  15. ↑ Chapin, Dwight (2005-04-02). "Exhibit shows how gays have shaped sports". SFGate. Retrieved 2026-06-23.
  16. ↑ "24th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced in New York". Lambda Literary. June 2012. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  17. ↑ Smart, Dick (2012-07-24). "Jim Provenzano: Muscle Memory". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2014-06-01. Retrieved 2026-06-28.
  18. ↑ Smart, Dick (2012-04-25). "Book Lovers: April". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2012-05-04. Retrieved 2026-06-28.
  19. ↑ "The 27th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists". Lambda Literary. 2015-03-04. Retrieved 2026-06-28.
  20. ↑ "Jim Provenzano has arrived in Now I'm Here". Los Angeles Blade. 2018-10-03. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  21. ↑ Gladstone, Jim (2018-09-17). "'Now I'm Here' a novel inspired by Queen's music". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 2026-06-28.
  22. ↑ "Finding Tulsa review". Art & Understanding. 2021-01-08. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  23. ↑ "Provenzano (Jim) Papers, 1989-2006". Online Archive of California. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  24. ↑ Threads
  25. ↑ Instagram
  26. ↑ SF Public Library
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