Will Fellows, born in 1957, grew up on the family farm near Evansville, Wisconsin. After
completing undergraduate and graduate degrees at Cornell University, he returned to
Wisconsin. He was living in Madison when he began working on the Gay Farm Boys Project. From
1992 to 1993, he interviewed seventy-five gay men from farming backgrounds. Fellows selected
approximately half of the interviews for inclusion in a book and shaped the transcript
material into autobiographical narratives, consulting with the interview subjects throughout
the process to ensure authenticity. Farm Boys: Lives of Gay Men from the Rural Midwest was
published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 1996. It was a finalist for a Lambda
Literary Award in 1997. A play inspired by the book was written by Dean Gray and Amy Fox.
Farm Boys has been produced in New York (2004, Blue Heron Theatre), St. Paul (2006, Great
American History Theatre), and San Francisco (2007, New Conservatory Theatre). Will Fellows
and his life partner, Bronze Quinton, have been Milwaukee residents since 1994. A Passion to
Preserve: Gay Men as Keepers of Culture Paperback was a book by Milwaukee author Will
Fellows, published in 2005. The book focuses on gay men who labor to preserve history in the
towns they currently live in or grew up in, as well as their journeys in doing so. This
archival collection is the raw research material that was used in writing the book.