Manuel Betancourt

Manuel Betancourt is a queer Colombian writer who currently lives in West Hollywood, California.

He’s a contributing editor at Film Quarterly, where he publishes his column, “Cineando,” all about Latin American cinema, and a regular contributor to Electric Literature, where he focuses on book-to-film adaptations. His personal essay column (“Movie-Made Gay,” published in Catapult) tackles the films and pop culture that have shaped his identity as a gay man. His work has been featured in The New York Times, BuzzFeed Reader, The Los Angeles Times, Film Comment, Esquire, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Review of Books and Vice, among others. He’s the former Film & TV editor at Remezcla.

Manuel is the author of Judy at Carnegie Hall (Bloomsbury Press, 2020), a 33 1/3 book on the cultural impact of the iconic 1961 Grammy award-winning double album that looks at Judy Garland’s place in the gay pantheon and examines her storied legacy through her most famous concert recording.

He’s one of the writers of Chad Sell’s critically acclaimed and Eisner Award-nominated graphic novel The Cardboard Kingdom (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2018). A New York Times Summer Pick, the middle-grade title was named one of the best books of the year by Kirkus Reviews (starred review) and the New York Public Library. Its sequel, The Cardboard Kingdom: Roar of the Beast (Knopf Books for Young Readers) comes out in 2021.

Manuel is a member of GALECA, The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, as well as a founding member of LEJA, Latino Entertainment Journalists Association. In 2019 he was selected to be the Writer in Residence at the Sundance Institute’s Documentary and Story Edit Lab.

Manuel holds a doctorate degree in English Literatures from Rutgers University.