Novelist · Playwright · Publisher

Drew
Cushing

San Francisco & Norfolk, CT

Writer of literary fiction and plays, publisher of Bent Boy Books, and author of Vassar Boy — a rollicking romp through sophomore year at Vassar College, Fall 1985.

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Vassar
Boy
Drew Cushing
A Novel

Coming Soon

Drew Cushing
About

A life in words

The bastard son of New Narrative and Language Poetry, Drew Cushing is a novelist, playwright, and publisher based in San Francisco, CA and Norfolk, CT. His writing has a delicious way of disturbing others.

His writing has appeared in The Fabulist, ZYZZYVA, Cathay, Laundry Pen, Dodie Bellamy’s Nars Orgasm Zine, The Marjorie Wood Gallery, Second Floor Projects, 580 Split and other publications. His plays have been produced across the country, from New York to San Francisco to Providence.

At San Francisco State University he studied with an extraordinary constellation of writers including Aaron Shurin, Robert Gluck, Dodie Bellamy, Camille Roy, and Brigid Mullen — figures whose influence on Bay Area literary culture has been profound and lasting.

Drew holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State and an AB in Dramatic Literature from Vassar College. He is a graduate of Trinity Repertory Company and Conservatory, where he learned Viewpoints from Anne Bogart. He publishes his own work and the work of others under the imprint Bent Boy Books.

MFA · San Francisco State Vassar College Trinity Rep Conservatory New Narrative Bent Boy Books
Vassar
Boy
Drew Cushing
A Novel
The Novel

Vassar Boy

Vassar Boy is a fictional account of life at Vassar College in the 1980s — specifically, the academic year of 1985–1986. Introduced by the author in the first person, the story is then told in the third person. In good New Narrative tradition, the novel features a character named Drew, and includes other actual names used fictionally. All other character names bear no resemblance to any people at Vassar College during this time and are entirely fictional in nature — as is Drew and the entire book.

Genre Literary Fiction
Setting Vassar College, 1985–86
Length 60,000 Words
Status Forthcoming
About the Book

Fall 1985

My second year at Vassar, they moved up the start of classes to Labor Day. Every year before, classes had been scheduled to allow us all to enjoy the last long weekend of the summer properly ensconced by the shore or in the country. We were outraged of course but despite shared boasts and threats of arriving late, we all obediently arrived on time. The consequences — lost slots in full classes, missed syllabi, and most importantly the social setback of missing the pre-class parties — were more than we were willing to risk. And so we returned for our second year, new fabulous furnishings for our rooms, chic outfits and tall tales from the summer in tow.

Unlike our first year, there was no three day orientation (subsequently curtailed due to some new arrivals never making it from the parties to classes), and so we were invited to arrive no earlier than Friday and no later than Sunday. By Saturday afternoon we were all back and unpacked, furniture re-installed, mini-fridges and liquor cabinets stocked. Saturday evening the official party in the Aula and unofficial party in the Mug were packed. Seasoned sophomores, we made sure to get our Mug bracelets early (so we could skip the line later) and duck out to the Aula around ten to be sure we weren’t missing anything.

Ford was my best friend at Vassar. I’m not exactly sure how or why we became best friends but somehow, somewhere amidst the chaos of our first year we found in each other exactly what we each needed in a friend; social standing, acid wit, and the ability to drink all night and still arrive on time to our morning classes.

Handsome, beautiful really but I didn’t see it then, well bred — or well brought up, I think dogs are well bred — faultlessly polite when he was on his good behavior, exceptionally well dressed, smart, talented and with plenty of money. Ford was admired, desired and resented all at once and I loved him for it.

Ford was a connoisseur of consumables. Ford knew quality, insisted on the best and almost never paid retail. A consummate bargain hunter, Ford flew to London for a Burberry sale and bought two overcoats and half a dozen other plaid things just so he could say he saved more on his bounty than the airfare cost. We love airfare wars. With his mother he stalked the weekend auctions in the Smoky Mountains, bidding on the perfect items for the well furnished dorm room. Just before returning for the semester he made a quick trip to Montreal to pick up über expensive cognac duty free and cartons of cigarettes.

Ford’s smart social observations precisely dissecting his peers to reveal their every flaw with great humor are what first attracted me to him. Ford wasn’t richer than all of his classmates — in fact his trust fund was modest in comparison to some. But while others had to wait, making do on a generous allowance, for a future magic birthday, 21 or god forbid 25! — Ford had gotten his money at 18 direct from his dear old Auntie. And so it was his to spend as he chose. It was how he paid for Vassar when Da refused to pay for “some damn Northern Sissy School.” Ford spent freely if not carelessly, knowing that at 21 he would get a great deal more from Mummy so long as he graduated.

Dramatis Personae

A Select List of Characters

Ford

Tall, fabulously thin with a wasp waist and perfectly proportioned features. Thick brown curly hair in need of regular visits to Sassoon for a taming cut. Rich enough with his own money from an aunt and even richer from his family’s successes in various genteel industries. A poor Southern farm boy when it helped, Ford had been thrown out of several prep schools and been forced to graduate from a Boston area last-chance school. He came to Vassar because Mummy had and Da hated the idea. By the time Ford came to Vassar, Da — who had transformed his father’s small delivery service into a nationwide fleet of trucks, then added air and ocean transit and real estate leverage across the country — had untold riches and power.

Mary Ann Kravitz
A.K.A. Makra

A good old fashioned Connecticut girl. A blonde when she was a little girl, she was now a blonde with a little help from a bottle. Makra and Drew had known each other for years — she’d actually gone to prep with Drew. At prep, Makra had seemed to Drew to be exotic and artistic. But Drew had mistaken Makra’s daring wardrobe (no Talbots in sight) for a kind of exotica. In fact Makra was just committing a basic form of rebellion aided by her hometown proximity to Manhattan. At Vassar, Makra kept the same look, which was not nearly as exotic amidst the various student style choices. Makra was extremely committed to her art and her vodka (Stoli, of course).

Jason

Cute in that tall plain preppy sort of way. Drew’s roommate freshman year — Drew was initially intrigued and then bored by Jason. Jason came from solid Connecticut stock, or at least had been adopted by solid Connecticut stock. He’s a committed preppy, insisting on plaids, plaids and more plaids. Drew swears he even coordinates his boxers with his sheets so as not to sleep in Blackwatch on Campbell or vice versa. Jason was perpetually polite and kind to a fault.

Nancy Jane Pruit
A.K.A. Prissy

An upstate New York girl. Way upstate. Prissy insisted she loved upstate and missed it terribly. Otherwise Prissy was a normal if excessively prudish girl.

Drew

A Connecticut boy with an impeccable lineage (Mayflower on one side and Charlemagne on the other), an unstoppable libido, a penchant for big old American cars and a talent for chameleon-like transformation.

Todd

A sexy Chicago boy whose hair changes colors at whim.

Sally

A South American heiress, Sally wants for nothing but the perfect body and eternal social success. She has no material wants. Her father Raul comes from a long line of Brazilian cacao growers — for her sweet sixteenth, Raul gave her one of the largest cacao plantations in Ilhéus, the cacao capital of Brazil. Ursula, Sally’s mother, a Swiss banking heiress, funnels funds to so many secret accounts she has stacks of red leather ledgers to keep track of them all.

Writing

Publications & Credits

Literary Journal
The Fabulist
Literary fiction and fabulism
Literary Journal
ZYZZYVA
San Francisco's premier literary journal of West Coast writers and artists
Literary Journal
Cathay
Fiction and poetry
Literary Journal
Laundry Pen
Fiction and creative nonfiction
Zine
Nars Orgasm Zine
A Covidian Cohort Writing from Dodie Bellamy's 2020 Workshops
Gallery Publication
The Marjorie Wood Gallery
Visual arts and literary publication
Exhibition Space
Second Floor Projects
San Francisco contemporary arts space
Literary Journal
580 Split
Mills College literary arts journal
Novel · Forthcoming
Vassar Boy
Literary fiction · 60,000 words · Currently seeking representation
Publishing

Bent Boy Books

BentBoyBooks publishes small books, single poems and other publications designed and produced by the BentBoys of San Francisco and Connecticut. BentBoyBooks bend genre, narrative and form to suit the particular and perfect taste of the BentBoyBooks editor and founder, Drew Cushing. BentBoyBooks are distributed in secret and mysterious ways to a select audience of glitterati, literati and denizens of the night (especially the night club).

This tiny erratic effort at publishing and shameless self promotion is the child of Drew Cushing, an obscure San Francisco experimental writer whose writing combines his love of Sex, San Francisco, and language.

BentBoyBooks are built by Drew & Ralph in their Alamo Square apartment and their Norfolk, Connecticut home. Visit us at bentboybooks.com.

Bent
Boy
Books
Get in Touch

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For literary inquiries, press, speaking, or general correspondence — I'd love to hear from you.