Queer Ladies Literary Speed Dating, ‘When Literature Was Dangerous,’ Words Without Borders’ Pride Issue, and Other LGBT News
Author: Sarah Fonseca
June 13, 2014
Lately, in the arts:
In an era where the landscape of the publishing industry is rapidly changing, maintaining a career as a writer is more arduous than ever before. Many writers have taken to supporting one another with ‘stay lit’: Works that explore the ups and downs of being a writer, but encourage writers to stay in the profession. Anna North explores this new, meta literary trend in a New York Times opinion piece.
Continuing with the theme of “Issues Which Writers Face”: Steven G. Kellman has written a piece for The Chronicle Review on the extensive history of censorship in 20th century Western lit:
Roth was able to write freely—the sexually explicit Portnoy’s Complaint, published in 1969, is a case in point—because of a series of court decisions culminating in 1966. In that year, a 6-3 Supreme Court ruling that John Cleland’s 18th-centry novel Fanny Hill possessed “redeeming social value,” effectually put an end to the literary censorship that had been routine in the United States.
The international literary journal Words Without Borders is releasing its fifth issue featuring queer writing this June in celebration of Pride Month. Writers in this issue include Qiu Miaojin, Nao-Cola Yamazaki, and Rachid Boudjedra.
The 2nd annual Atlanta Zine Fest will be taking place Saturday, June 14 at the Erikson Clock Building. Free to attend, the conference will feature thirty unique vendors and panels on all things zine-related, from archiving to discussing death and dying within the medium.
Trebor Healey of Huffington Post sat down with publishing powercouple James Jenkins and Ryan Cagle to discuss the long-lost queer literature being preserved through their small press, Valancourt Books:
More recently, in late 2012, we discovered — to our surprise — that there was a ton of great literature from the 20th century, sometimes even as recent as the 1970s or 1980s, that was out of print and almost impossible to find in libraries or secondhand copies, so we’ve begun republishing a lot of neglected modern works.
If you’re looking for a time waster with purpose, texting the new phone number (669) 221-6251 will result into a bell hooks quotation automatically being sent to your phone.
And if you’re looking for a date in NYC, Queer Ladies Literary Speed Dating will be taking place June 24th at Housing Works Bookstore. Registration is $15 and includes a free drink ticket.
Until next week!
Image via Huffington Post
