Brontez Purnell (born July 2, 1982)[1] is an American writer, musician, dancer, and director based out of Oakland, California.

[2][3] He is the author of several award-winning books, including Since I Laid My Burden Down (2017),[4] 100 Boyfriends (2022), which won a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction,[5] and the punk zine Fag School.

[7] His great-grandfather, "Hard Rock" Charlie Malone, an accomplished bottleneck guitarist who played the Chitlin' Circuit from Chattanooga to Chicago in the 1930s, was the father of the musician J.J.

[14] When asked to describe the album, he said that "I [...] allowed myself to just be a pretty Black boy making a pop record—and like, why the fuck shouldn’t I?

[18] On June 1, 2021, he was named a winner of the Jim Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prize from the Lambda Literary Foundation.