Book Buzz: August 2010
Author: John Morgan Wilson
July 30, 2010
Three out gay writers are among the 13 “long list” nominees for the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction: Brit Emma Donoghue for Room, South African Damon Galgut for In a Strange Room, and Aussie Christos Tsiolkas for The Slap. Emma was a joint winner of the 2008 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction for her novel The Sealed Letter and recently published a nonfiction book, Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature. The Man Booker Prize winner will be announced Oct. 12 and will receive $80,000. For details, click here.
Bella Books editorial director Karin Kallmaker has posted three extensive blogs dealing with the growing issue of piracy and its effects on lesbian writers and small presses in general. Here’s the link.
A number of writers are among The Equality Forum’s 2010 GLBT History Month Icons, including Leslie Feinberg, E. Lynn Harris, Kiyoshi Kuromiya, Jalal al-Din Rumi, David Sedaris, Maurice Sendak and Emanuel Xavier. Each day in October one of the 31 honorees will be featured on the GLBT History Month website with a video, biography, images and other resources. To see the entire icon list, click here. Emanuel gets double exposure this month — as the cover story in the August issue of A&U magazine.
Poet Mary Meriam has introduced Lavender Review, a biannual e-zine dedicated to poetry and art by, about, and for lesbians, including whatever might appeal to a lesbian readership. Here’s the link.
Rob Williams’ screenplay The Mystic Chord, based on the Jim Tushinski novel Van Allen’s Ecstasy shared the New Draft screenwriting competition award at this year’s NewFest: The New York LGBT Film Festival. Williams plans to produce and direct The Mystic Chord through his Guest House Films, which has produced several gay-themed movies. The co-winner was Vampire Strippers Must Die! by Keith Hartmann.
Kristin Marra’s novel Wind and Bones (Bold Strokes Books) has been awarded the 2010 Sapphic Readers’ Award by the Sapphic Reading Group of Austin, Texas. (Criteria include “original storyline, believable plot, well-developed characters, superior writing style, and quality entertainment.”)
Danforth Prince, president and CEO of Blood Moon Productions, has posted his offbeat “documentary” on Book Expo 2010 for free viewing. Blood Moon is known for its salacious books on Hollywood history and scandals as well as its annual review compilation, Guide to Gay & Lesbian Film.
Mary Griggs, a longtime bookseller and member of the Golden Crown Board of Directors, has joined the ranks of the authors she has supported so well. Bella Books has acquired her debut novel, Unbroken Circle, a lesbian romance about an ex-convict returning home to rebuild her life. Look for it next year.
The Golden Crown Literary Society has just published its August newsletter, Golden Crown News, a special issue filled with photos and reminiscences of the organization’s June conference in Orlando. Go to www.goldencrown.org and click on Golden Crown Newsletter. If you have ideas for the newsletter or want a PDF copy, email Nat Burns, director of marketing and promotions, at nat.burns@goldencrown.org.
Earlier this year, Jameson Currier (The Haunted Heart and Other Tales) compiled and printed “Ghost Stories by Gay Authors,” a chronological listing of gay-themed ghost stories written by gay men, which he used as a handout at Book Expo. He’s now made it available in pdf form on his author’s blog.
Paula Martinac, author of the Lambda-Award-winning novel Out of Time, will have her short play “All Mapped Out” produced during Week 2 (Oct. 6-9) of the 2010 EstroGenius Festival at Manhattan Theatre Source. The comedy features a lesbian couple and an errant GPS tracking system. Following the festival, the play will be published in The Book of EstroGenius 2010. Details here.
Steve Pride continues to interview LGBTQ activists and authors on the venerable radio magazine IMRU (“I am, are you?”). It airs on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and streams here.
The Lambda Literary Foundation has announced the guest faculty for its 2010 Writers’ Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices, taking place August 8-15 at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles: Kelly Eskridge, who writes fiction, essays, and screenplays; Joseph Marich Jr., author and founder and president of Marich Media; Felice Picano, a pioneering gay publisher who has written poetry, fiction, memoirs, non-fiction, plays and scripts; and Carla Trujillo, fiction writer, editor, and educator.
Elisa Rolle has opened a page to promote the Rainbow Awards, for which submissions are now open. For guidelines, click here. For submissions, click here.
Lesléa Newman’s poem, “Poem for Two Dogs Hanged in Salem, 1692” was named the second runner up in the Solstice Journal Literary Contest. To read Lesléa’s poem, click here.
Writer and editor Brooks Peters covers vintage gay literature on his blog, An Open Book. Recent articles have profiled Clarence Lewis Miller, aka, Jay Little, author of the ground-breaking ‘50s gay novel, Maybe, Tomorrow; Spud Johnson’s revelatory diaries of his wild days in Taos; Syrie Maugham’s “mariage blanc” with Somerset Maugham; the life and times of porn author Phil Andros (Samuel Steward); and the late gay actor Ray Stricklyn and his autobiography, Angels & Demons.
The Erotic Readers & Writers Association (ERWA) has posted a rave review for Freak Parade, the latest erotica from Marilyn Jaye Lewis. Meanwhile, La Musardine in Paris is planning to re-issue the French language edition of Marilyn’s 1999 classic, Neptune & Surf, a collection of three erotic novellas — hetero, lesbian, and hetero with gay male elements — that’s still in print in English.
Kathleen Warnock reports that TOSOS, NYC’s long-running GLBT theater, returns to the New York Fringe Festival this month with The Five Lesbian Brothers’ The Secretaries, directed by artistic director Mark Finley. Various dates through August are scheduled beginning August 20. Details here.
Adam Lowe has completed a monthly residency mentoring emerging writers at the I Love West Leeds Festival in the UK. Some of the commissioned work can be seen here. Adam was also a participating writer at PoetCasting.co.uk; you can hear him reading some of his poetry here. (FYI, Adam is also the features editor of Bent, editor-in-chief of Polluto.com and publisher/editor of Dog Horn Publishing.
Multi-Lambda Award winner Ellen Hart is serving as publicity chair on the national board of Sisters in Crime, the pioneering nonprofit that supports female crime writers but is open to all. Among the organization’s major projects is its 2010 Publishing Summit Report, based on extensive research into the state of publishing and book promotion in the digital age. Ellen feels it would be particularly useful to LGBT authors, although it is only available to members. For more on this group, click here.
As the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, Northern California NPR affiliate KCHO-FM interviewed Paul Harris about his book, Diary From the Dome, Reflections on Fear and Privilege During Katrina, his personal account of being trapped in the New Orleans Superdome during Southern Decadence. To hear the podcast, click here. Paul also has a new video trailer for his book on YouTube.
Bold Strokes Books has announced several acquisitions: Karis Walsh’s new romance, Harmony; Jeffrey Ricker’s new novel, Detours; and Russ Gregory’s new mystery, Blue. All are scheduled for release next year.
Internet radio host Robert Jaquay recently interviewed author Amy Dawson Robertson (Miles to Go). The podcast is available here.
Arsenal Pulp Press has a new address: #101-211 East Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6A 1Z6. Phone, fax, and email remain the same. Also, Arsenal has changed its sales and distribution arrangements in Canada. Check with Arsenal for details.
Bella Book) is reissuing Jean Stewart’s award-winning science-fiction series with book one, Return to Isis. The entire series will be available in print and e-book, culminating with a new installment, Gift of Isis. To see how the original books looked, click here.
More Bella news: Bella has acquired the rights to Nova Scotia resident Nadine LaPierre’s debut thriller-romance series featuring a lesbian member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The first installment, The Slayer, will be released next year.
The current issue of Dark Scribe has high praise for Rick R. Reed’s The Blue Moon Café, including this: “Reed brilliantly pours much of society’s lingering hatred and bigotry toward gays into the werewolf metaphor, giving lycanthrope fiction a refreshing spin…” Read the entire review here.
Daniel Curzon wants Book Buzzers to know that he 1) is alive and well; 2) is working on a new novel; and 3) now has a page on the Red Room site (“Where the Writers Are”). To see what he’s up to, click here.
Kate Christie has created a book trailer for her debut novel Solstice (Bella Books) that features its Seattle setting and lesbian coming-of-age story.
Jack Fritscher, founding editor of Drummer magazine, has launched a “GLBTHistorySF” channel at Youtube, with Loren Berthelsen of Leatherati.com conducting an oral history interview with Jack about his book Gay San Francisco (Palm Drive Publishing, 2008). The three-part documentary, “Drummer: The History of San Francisco’s Longest-Running Gay Magazine 1975-1999,” can be viewed here.
Kim Baldwin has revamped her website and included new photos taken by the team at Dog Ear Audio, where she recently recorded her IPPY Silver Award-winning, lesbian adventure novel Breaking the Ice (Bold Strokes Books).
Rebel Satori Press will reissue Trebor Healey’s poetry collection, Sweet Son of Pan, originally published by Suspect Thoughts Press. Look for it this month.
A&M Books publisher and essayist Fay Jacobs is putting the finishing touches on For Frying Out Loud – Rehoboth Beach Diary, the third in her trilogy of Rehoboth essays. Candy Parker, publisher of Gay E-Zine (gay-e-magazine.com) interviewed Fay about the new book and other topics in Gay’s July issue.
Two Boys, a short film written and directed by Victor Bumbalo, was screened at the recent Action on Film Festival in Pasadena, California. Victor’s play, “What Are Tuesdays Like?”, has been published by Broadway Play Publishing.
James Cihlar reviewed Ted Mooney’s The Same River Twice and Jim Knipfel’s These Children Who Come at You with Knives in the July 18 issue of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Jennifer K. Sweeney’s How to Live on Bread and Music for Coldfront Magazine. Meanwhile, his new chapbook, Metaphysical Bailout, is just out from Pudding House Press.
Perry Brass has filed another installment in his “Lost Gay New York” blog series. The new one recalls Sundays in the city, “back when you didn’t spend most of the day with FaceBook friends.” Here’s the link.
Finally: On Sunday, September 26, I’ll join a number of LGBTQ writers and groups, including the Lambda Literary Foundation, as we participate in the 9th Annual West Hollywood Book Fair. A partial list includes Archbishop Carl Bean, Butchlalis de Panochtitlan, Ryka Aoki de la Cruz, Morty Diamond, Mark Doty, Larry Duplechan, Jeri Estes, Michael Kearns, Cheryl Klein, Bronwyn Maudlin, M. Padilla, Christopher Rice, Eduardo Santiago, Rev. Neil Thomas, Tony Valenzuela, Max Wolf Valerio, and Terry Wolverton. Book Fair hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in West Hollywood Park. More than 300 authors will be involved and more than 20,000 visitors are expected. Perhaps we’ll see you there.
That’s all the Book Buzz for now. So, go read a book!
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Book Buzz is a monthly column of news and noteworthy tidbits from the LGBT writing and publishing community. Book release announcements (pub dates) will continue to be covered elsewhere while Book Buzz looks for a different “angle” – an award, milestone, notable reissue, film deal, rave review, event of national interest, etc. Submit your brief item to John Morgan Wilson at jmwwriter@aol.com. No attachments please.
