Savage Love

Savage Love is a syndicated sex-advice column by Dan Savage. The column appears weekly in several dozen newspapers, mainly free newspapers in the US and Canada, but also newspapers in Europe and Asia. It started in 1991 with the first issue of the Seattle weekly newspaper The Stranger.

Since October 2006, Savage has also recorded the Savage Lovecast, a weekly podcast version of the column, featuring telephone advice sessions. Podcasts are released every Tuesday.

Since 2002, he has written the column at Eppie Lederer's desk, which he, a "lifelong fan" of her Ann Landers column, bought at auction after the noted advice columnist died.

History

In 1991, Savage was living in Madison, Wisconsin, and working as a manager at a local video store that specialized in independent film titles. There, Savage befriended Tim Keck, co-founder of The Onion, who announced that he was moving to Seattle to help start an alternative weekly newspaper titled The Stranger. Savage "made the offhand comment that forever altered [his] life: 'Make sure your paper has an advice column—everybody claims to hate 'em, but everybody seems to read 'em'." Savage typed up a sample column, and to Savage's surprise Keck offered him the job.

Savage Love: Straight Answers from America's Most Popular Sex Columnist

Savage Love: Straight Answers from America's Most Popular Sex Columnist is a non-fiction book by sex columnist Dan Savage. It was first published in 1998 by Plume.

In Savage Love, the author recounts his early sexual education and experiences, as well as his initial impetus to begin a sex advice column of the same title as the book. Savage Love includes a collection of pieces from the author's column. The book received a favorable reception in reviews from Library Journal,Mademoiselle,POZ, and Gay and Lesbian Humanist.

Contents

In the introduction to Savage Love: Straight Answers from America's Most Popular Sex Columnist, the author gives the reader some background to his early sexual education and experiences. Savage recounts how he first decided to start his advice column in 1991, while employed as the night manager of a video store in Madison, Wisconsin. His friend Tim Keck joined him for a meal in Madison, on his way to Seattle, Washington to form a weekly publication, The Stranger. Savage stated to Keck that he could contribute a weekly advice column with the recommended title of "Hey, Faggot", and this was later modified to become "Savage Love".