Reginald M. Harris Wins the Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize
Author: Vanesa Evers
July 5, 2012
Do you know how to navigate your autogeography? Reginald M. Harris does! In his forthcoming collection Autogeography, Harris explores “self” and “earth writing” in his personal life, through his culture of being an African American and his sexual identity as a gay man. This manuscript, which was awarded the Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize, is to be released in 2013.
Publishers ignoring lesbian writers? Take a look at an article posted in the Washington Blade by Julie R. Enszer, who is a writer, activist, contributor of reviews for Lambda Literary and served on a judge panel for this year’s Lambda Literary Awards. In this article, Enszer writes about a major issue in the publishing industry; lesbian writers are overlooked by mainstream publishers. She explores the need for mainstream publishers to pick up lesbian fiction and other books written by lesbian writers. This lack of attention is not only harmful to authors, but also to the community who want to read about their lives in novels. Along with challenging the mainstream publishing industry, Enszer seems to also be challenging lesbian writers as well, “too often, lesbian characters are circumscribed to banal narratives about coming out.” Continue reading the rest of the article and see what you think, are lesbian writers being ignored by mainstream publishers?
After the unfortunate news of several queer bookstores closing nationwide, it was great news to hear about the opening of The Bureau of General Services – Queer Division. This store is planned to open late 2012 in East Village or the Lower East Side in New York City. Check out this link and take the survey, as they want to know what you want in a queer bookstore, whether or not you live in or out of New York City, take the survey!
