Works by
Jim Van Buskirk
(Writer)

Gay by the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area (1996) by Jim Van Buskirk and Susan Stryker
A fabulous montage of word and image, this is the first book ever to chronicle the origin and evolution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender culture in the San Francisco Bay Area. Capturing the international center of the gay experience as never before, and published to coincide with the opening of the Gay and Lesbian Center of the new main San Francisco Public Library—the only publicly funded archive of its kind in the world—Gay by the Bay contains over 200 full-color and black-and-white photographs of historical memorabilia, including correspondence, posters, buttons, and other artifacts. With anecdotes about Bay Area gay luminaries, past and present, and a foreword by acclaimed author Armistead Maupin, Gay by the Bay offers a scintillating look at a continually dynamic and evolving community.

Celluloid San Francisco: The Film Lover's Guide to Bay Area Movie Locations (2006) by Jim Van Buskirk and Will Shank
Exploring a city famous for its role in film settings and television backdrops, this book is a comprehensive guide to thousands of movie and television locations in the San Francisco Bay area. From the cement steps in Alta Plaza Park as featured in Barbra Streisand's What's Up, Doc? to the actual nightclub of Frank Sinatra's character in Pal Joey and the haunts of Don Johnson's Nash Bridges, this jaunty expedition around San Francisco and the surrounding bay explores an area featured in more than 1,500 movies. Easy-to-follow maps identify significant historical film sites, locations for classic and contemporary films, movie palaces, and production companies, making this travel guide a best bet for planning a tour of locales associated with Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock, as well as current film-makers such as George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, and Clint Eastwood.

Identity Envy: Wanting to Be Who We're Not (2007), Jim Tushinski and Jim Van Buskirk, eds.
Gay men and lesbians present humorous and hard-hitting accounts of the need to belong . . . somewhere.

Why would a lesbian raised in a Jewish home have a sudden desire to be a tough-talking Catholic girl? And why would a gay man travel to Ireland in a desperate attempt to escape his "hillbilly" roots? Identity Envy--Wanting to Be Who We're Not explores the connections gay men and lesbians have to religions, races, ethnicities, classes, families of origin, and genders not their own. This unique anthology takes both humorous and serious looks at the identities of others as queer writers explore their own identity envies in personal essays, memoirs, and other creative nonfiction.

Gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered, intersex, and other sexual minorities often feel marginalized by mainstream culture and have a need to belong somewhere, to claim a group as their own. This surprising book presents stories of identity envy that are humorous and hard-hitting, poignant and provocative, written with energy, wit, and candor by many of your favorite writers-and some exciting newcomers.

Love, Castro Street: Reflections of San Francisco (2007), Jim Van Buskirk and Katherine V. Forrest, eds.
Recognized as perhaps the world's most queer destination, San Francisco has a long, storied history of embracing-and influencing-gay and lesbian culture. Now, Elana Dykewomon, Jim Tushinski, K. M. Soehnlein, Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Michael Nava, Michelle Tea, and many others offer up essays and stories about why they love Castro Street.