Christopher Rice, President
Christopher Rice is the author of three best selling novels and a regular columnist for The Advocate magazine. His first novel, A Density of Souls was published when the author was 22 years old, and to a landslide of media attention, most of it due to the fact that Christopher is the son of best-selling vampire novelist Anne Rice. A provocative tale of murder and betrayal among a group of well-to-do adolescents in the New Orleans Garden District, A Density of Souls was compared to the work of writers Brett Easton Ellis and Stephen King and became a New York Times best seller. Shortly thereafter, Christopher followed up with a second New York Times best selling thriller, The Snow Garden, a dark tale of infidelity and art history set on a New England college campus. (The Snow Garden received a Lambda Literary Award and was recently published in mass market paperback by Pocket Books.)
In 2001, then New York City Public Advocate Marc Green recognized Christopher as an outstanding leader in the gay and lesbian community. That same year, the Hetrick Martin Institute gave him their Emery Award for outstanding contributions made to gay and lesbian youth. Christopher served as the fiction editor for Genre magazine. After penning a guest column for The Advocate on the death of his father, the poet and painter Stan Rice, he was invited to become a regular columnist for the magazine. His column, Coastal Disturbances, offers a sometimes passionate, sometimes irreverent take on contemporary gay life. A native of California but a Southerner by blood, Christopher returned to the west coast four years ago. He is currently a visiting faculty member in the graduate writing program at Otis College of Art and Design. He lives in West Hollywood.
Linda Hill, Vice President
Linda Hill was first introduced to the publishing industry as a fan and avid reader of gay and lesbian fiction. In 1996 she authored Never Say Never, the first of five novels for Naiad Press.
After years of doing technical and business consulting for both Naiad and then Bella Books, Linda joined the ownership of Bella in 2003 and is now their President and CEO. Linda and Bella Books were honored in 2004 with the Lambda Literary Foundation ’s Independent Press Award.
In 2005, Linda became the owner of Spinsters Ink, and is now running the two publishing houses side by side. With the goal of helping other lesbian presses get their books into the hands of retailers and customers world-wide, Linda also launched Bella Distribution in 2005.
Teresa DeCrescenzo, Treasurer
Teresa DeCrescenzo is a graduate of USC School of Social Work (MSW, 1978), which honored her with its Most Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1991. After fifteen years on the staff of the Dorothy Kirby Center (including five years as Training Director), she founded GLASS (Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services) as the first milieu-based residential treatment program for gay and lesbian teens in the country. Today, GLASS has an annual budget in excess of ten million dollars, with a staff numbering more than 150, and a nearly seamless service delivery system for glbtq youth and their families.
DeCrescenzo received the NASW Social Worker of the Year award in 1990. Her work was further recognized by NASW in 1995, with the Koshland Award for Outstanding Administrator. In 2005, she was given the “Pioneer Award” by the Child Welfare League of America. In addition to her work as executive director of GLASS, DeCrescenzo is a faculty member at California State University, Northridge.
Judith A. Markowitz, Secretary
Judith A. Markowitz has a doctoral degree in linguistics (PhD, 1977) from Northwestern University and completed a post-doctoral program in women’s studies. She has published articles, taught university-level courses, and presented papers on dictionaries, semantics, gender and language, and culture and language. Her abiding interest in gender and language was also an impetus for writing The Gay Detective Novel (2005, McFarland).
Judith is recognized internationally as a leader in the computer-speech and biometric industries where she has served as an analyst and consultant for more than twenty years. In 2003, she was named one of the top ten leaders in speech technology. She’s frequently invited to speak and write on speech technologies and recently delivered the keynote speech at the National Centre for Biometric Studies Conference on Voice Authentication in Canberra, Australia. Judith is technology editor of Speech Technology Magazine; is a member of the editorial advisory board of the International Journal of Speech Technology; and has served as program chair of the speech industry’s premier conference, SpeechTEK.
Holly Bemiss
Holly Bemiss is an agent at the Susan Rabiner Literary Agency, where she represents a diverse group of authors.
She has over a decade of book industry experience, having begun her career as a bookseller at Barnes & Noble and then A Clean-Well Lighted Place for Books in San Francisco. Later, she assumed the position of manager at the legendary A Different Light Bookstore on Castro street. In 2003, she moved to New York to enter publishing and has since worked with a wide array of bestselling authors, holding publicity positions at Simon & Schuster, Perseus Books, and Houghton Mifflin, where she was the Assistant Director of Publicity.
Her advocacy in the LGBT community dates back to her undergraduate years at the Pennsylvania State University, where she served as the Co-Director of the Lesbian Gay and Bisexual Student Alliance. She participated in various committees, moderated educational panels, lead rallies, and spoke publicly on behalf of the gay community at Penn State.
She now lives with her partner in New York City.
Charles Q. Forester
Chuck Forester is passionate about advancing the rich diversity of civic life and culture in San Francisco and preserving the history and culture of the Gay and Lesbian community.
A native of Wausau, Wisconsin, he has lived in San Francisco since 1971. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College and a Master of City Planning degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Fine Arts from Vermont College.He served two years in the Peace Corps in Chile.
Chuck was the first out gay man in the SF Mayor’s Office, working for Joe Alioto in 1973. He later served as Liaison to the Gay & Lesbian Community with Dianne Feinstein. He was a Board Member of the Human Rights Campaign for eight years, three as its Co-Chair. He worked on capital campaigns for the New Main Library in San Francisco and KQED, the local public TV/radio station.He headed fundraising for the James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center, America’s first public archive for GLBT history and culture and again for its 10th Anniversary Exhibition which is on tour to 6 venues around the country.
Chuck has served on various local boards, The Kenyon Review, and ZYZZYVA. He is a Founding Governor of the City Club of San Francisco. Awards include the James C. Hormel Community Service Award in 1991, Outstanding Volunteer Fund-Raiser in Northern California in 1994, and the Gay and Lesbian Historical Society’s Man of the Year in 1999.
Forester lives with his partner Dr. John Cadle, a field biologist. His son Seth and granddaughter Taija live in Northern California. He’s writing poetry these days and loving it.
Katherine V. Forrest
Katherine V. Forrest, a recipient of
the Lambda Literary Foundation's Pioneer Award, is the
internationally known author of 15 works of fiction including
the lesbian classic, Curious Wine; the lesbian-feminist
utopian trilogy that began with Daughters of a Coral Dawn;
and the Kate Delafield mystery series which has won three
Lambda Literary Awards.
She has edited numerous anthologies,
and her stories, articles and reviews have appeared in
publications worldwide. She was senior editor at Naiad
Press for ten years, and continues to edit as well as to
teach classes in the craft of fiction. She lives with her
partner in San Francisco.
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