Beard in Boystown: Kelly Lundquist’s Wild, Honest Journey from Heartbreak to Queer Awakening

When Kelly Lundquist tells the story of her first marriage, she’s not the victim — she’s the punchline. “The night before my first husband got outed to me, I was in Chicago’s Boystown dressed up as Liza Minnelli for Halloween,” she laughs. It’s the kind of story that sounds like fiction — equal parts tragic, funny, and profoundly human — but in Lundquist’s striking debut memoir, Beard, it’s all real.

Two decades after her divorce from Devin, Lundquist revisits the complicated truth behind their marriage and the “beard” trope — the straight woman unknowingly married to a gay man — that’s been played for laughs in pop culture for generations. But Beard goes deeper than punchlines. It’s a meditation on intimacy, identity, and the blurred lines between love and performance.

Lundquist captures the intimacy of ordinary moments — midnight pad Thai runs, tenderness in Ralph Lauren sheets, Blockbuster movie nights — and juxtaposes them with the quiet ache of a relationship built on secrets. As she begins a PhD in queer theory, she also begins to piece together her own past, reconciling love with truth, humor with heartbreak.

Chicago isn’t just the backdrop — it’s a character. Boystown in the early 2000s pulses with life, color, and contradiction. It’s where Lundquist found her chosen family, and where the threads of her marriage began to unravel. For Chicago readers, Beard feels deeply local — haunted by late-night drag shows, streetlights flickering over Clark Street, and the sound of laughter echoing through the bars long after last call.

In conversation, Lundquist speaks candidly about betrayal and forgiveness, about her brother’s coming out, and about how love — real love — evolves beyond expectation. She’s lived through shame, shock, and the slow process of rebuilding trust, both in others and in herself.

Beard isn’t just a memoir; it’s a manifesto for self-discovery, queer visibility, and the messiness of modern love. With wit and warmth, Lundquist reminds us that even the punchline can reclaim the mic.

BOOK LAUNCH IN CHICAGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Thursday, October 30, 2025

• 6:30 PM  7:30 PM

RoscoeBooks

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