Here for It

Chapter 1

The Audacity

I am awake because everything is hilarious. And also terrifying. And also embarrassing.

Don t pick up the phone, I tell myself as I lie in bed on the first night of the Democratic National Convention, 2016. Go to sleep, my brain hisses, as I slip my hand out from beneath the sheet and unlock my phone. I open the Notes app and my bedroom is suddenly illuminated by garish, gray-blue light, like I m in a reboot of Poltergeist. Well, I think to myself, it s not like I have a choice now. I hitch myself up in bed and start to type. There is a joke emergency.

I don t realize it at the time, but I am entering a season of sleepless nights. It s the middle of July and I am three weeks into my new job as a person who contributes to this great democracy by making fun of politics online for money. It s immensely enjoyable but it does have the strange side effect of forcing me to know more about what s happening in the world, particularly in the political world, and as I said, that s hilarious and terrifying and deeply embarrassing. So, perfect for the internet. I ve never been a particularly internet-y person. I like a good meme like the rest of the youths, but I m never on the cutting edge of internet culture. Though I ve had a couple of lackluster blogs, I ve never been a blogger. I read television recaps on the legendary site Television Without Pity for years but never commented or engaged in any meaningful way beyond wishing that they d miraculously email me and ask me to join the team. I must admit I know what Tumblr is but every time I think I know how to search for something on it I am proven wrong. I am a consumer on the internet, a regular, a normal. And, suddenly, recently, a viral creator. Clearly, the internet is broken.

Four weeks earlier, I d come across a photo of President Obama, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, and Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto grinning as they strode down a red-carpeted walkway in bespoke

R. Eric Thomas is the bestselling author of Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and the YA novel Kings of B'more, a Stonewall Honor book. Both books were also featured as Read with Jenna book-club picks on Today. He is also a television writer (Apple TV+ s Dickinson, FX s Better Things), a Lambda Literary Award-winning playwright, and the long-running host of The Moth in Philadelphia. For four years, he was a senior staff writer at ELLE online, where he wrote the popular Eric Reads the News column.

If you re yearning for that laugh-out-loud on the subway, damn-I-left-my-book-at-home kind of read, look no further than R. Eric Thomas s Here for It. InStyle 

A quirky, funny, and deep meditation on being black and queer in America. Interview

This book was a lovely gift of hope and hysterical wit that kept me warm during the apocalypse. I laughed. I cried. I wish I would have written it myself. Jenny Lawson, New York Times bestselling author of You Are Here and Furiously Happy

Here for It is Thomas at his finest: funny, clever, thoughtful, and compelling. I m glad the world will not only get to experience more of Thomas s talent, but another much-needed story from another gay Black man in America. Michael Arceneaux, New York Times bestselling author of I Can t Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I ve Put My Faith in Beyoncé
 
A laugh-out-loud memoir that is strongly recommended for everyone. Library Journal (starred review)
 
With humor, candor, and some self-deprecation, Thomas, a playwright and Elle columnist, delivers a debut essay collection that explores his search for self, love, and stable employment. . . . Whether dealing with love, breakups, or other setbacks, Thomas is an affable narrator with a penchant for pop culture, funny quips, and charming humility. Publishers Weekly
 
Every book says on the jacket that it is a razor-sharp tour de force, but this one actually is a razor-sharp tour de force, with an enormous heart to boot. Please give yourself the gift of reading this book. Alexandra Petri, Washington Post columnist

Here For It is a blockbuster and R. Eric Thomas is a visionary. This collection moved me from laughter to tears and back to laughter again in the span of a single page. Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things

By turns