Book Buzz #27: March 2011
Author: John Morgan Wilson
March 1, 2011
To celebrate National Poetry Month in April, Rebel Satori Press joins forces with NYC’s El Museo del Barrio to publish Me No Habla With Acento: Contemporary Latino Poetry. The anthology includes poems by a number of out Latino poets, including Rigoberto Gonzalez, Luzma Umpierre, A.B. Lugo and Emanuel Xavier, who also edited. [Source]
Another out poet, Lambda Literary Award winner Ellen Bass, will be featured on the cover of the March/April issue of American Poetry Review. Even better, look inside for ten of Ellen’s poems. [Source]
Congratulations to Erin Dutton, Fran Heckrotte and Ali Vali, recipients of the 2011 Alice B. Medal, given annually to living writers whose careers have been distinguished by consistently well-written stories about lesbians. 2011 Lavender Certificates for outstanding first or early novels went to Amy Briant, Nat Burns, Gina Noelle Daggett, D. Jackson Leigh, Kristin Marra and Amy Dawson Robertson. [Source]
RADAR Productions, the SF-based queer literary arts non-profit, has announced the schedule for Sister Spit Next Generation’s 5th annual North American Tour, featuring seven out authors and performance artists, covering a wide spectrum of sexual identities: Myriam Gurba, Ali Liebegott, Amos Mac, MariNaomi, Blake Nelson, Kirk Read, and Michelle Tea. [Source]
Alex Beecroft, Heidi Cullinan, and Erastes, were featured in “What Women Want: Gay Romance Novels” a timely Valentine’s Day article in Canada’s Globe and Mail about the growing popularity of gay romance. [Source]
Meanwhile, Erastes has produced a book trailer for her new novel, Mere Mortals, which Lethe will publish next month. [YouTube]
Gay romance novelist, Kyell Gold, is a finalist in the Author category for Twitter’s Shorty Award, which honors “the best producers of short real-time content.” Nominated in the Charity category was The Trevor Project, whose mission is to stem suicide among LGBTQ youth. Neil Patrick Harris and Chris Colfer were among those nominated in the Actor group. Winners will be announced March 28. [Source]
More romance: Rainbow Romance Writers has posted a full list of winners and runners-up in seven categories in its 2010 Rainbow Awards for Excellence competition. After a final round of judging, an overall winner will be announced in early April. [Source]
MyLesbianRadio.com has awarded a 2010 Golden Kitty to Bella Books as best lesbian publisher. You can hear it all on the award show podcast. Meanwhile, Bella has revamped its website to accommodate readers in multiple ebook formats as well as traditional print-only readers, and launched a new blog for Bella Books and sister press, Spinsters Ink. [Source]
Claudia Allen, author of Hannah Free, was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame during its 20th anniversary of recognizing professional achievements of lesbians and gay men in the Windy City. Hannah Free, an exploration of the lifelong relationship between two women, was adapted into a film starring Sharon Gless and is still in print from Bella Books. [Source]
The Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans reports a record number of entries in this year’s LGBTQ short fiction and playwriting competitions. The festival has posted the finalists here. Winners to be announced soon.
GLAAD has launched its People of Color Media Training Institute, created for people of color who are LGBT or LGBT allies, it aims to develop participants “in the areas of framing and messaging for on-camera and radio interviews.” [Source]
Debut novelist Sara Marx has launched a new web site cafe featuring “appetizers” of her collaboration with producer Linda Andersson (next month’s InSight of the Seer, based on Andersson’s web series) and of her solo entrees to be published by Bella Books.
Novelist and web designer Andrew Beierle has completely revamped the Chelsea Station Editions site. Andrew’s Design Serrano, which recently relocated from New York to Running Springs, California, specializes in web sites for authors and publishers.
In related news, Chelsea Station Editions recently reissued The March, Walter Holland’s novel about a group of friends impacted by AIDS, originally published in 1996. CSE has also acquired For the Ferryman, a new memoir from Charles Silverstein, co-author of The Joy of Gay Sex, for publication later this year. Also forthcoming is The Third Buddha by CST publisher Jameson Currier, set in Afghanistan post 9/11. [Source]
You can view a video for Devil’s Rock, the latest lesbian-themed novel from Gerri Hill, on The Bella Books YouTube channel. [Source]
University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNCA) hosts its bi-annual Queer Studies Conference March 31-April 2, which will include keynote speakers Sassafras Lowrey and writer-activist Eli Claire. To cap off the conference on April 2 (a Saturday), Malaprop’s Bookstore and Café and owner Emoke B’Racz will host a group reading/Q&A with Cynn Chadwick, Fay Jacobs, Bett Norris, Jeff Mann and Tom Mendicino. [Source]
Lammy winner Lee Thomas scored a positive review in Publishers Weekly for his gay-themed historical thriller, The German (Lethe Press), due out later this month.”The supernatural element of the story is decidedly understated, but the novel’s overall thematic power and narrative eloquence are wrenching.” [Source]
Lesbian author (and new mother) Kate Christie has created a YouTube channel with trailers for her three novels and their distinctive settings, including her most recent release Leaving L.A. (Bella Books).
Felice Picano has launched a website, timed to the publication of two books: his new memoir, True Stories: Portraits from My Past (Chelsea Station Editions), and an anthology, Ambientes: New Queer Latino Writing from University of Wisconsin Press, co-edited with Lázaro Lima.
Novelist Amy Dawson Robertson (Miles to Go) was among the featured writers at last month’s International Thriller Roundtable, held by the International Thriller Writers Association. [Source]
The Side Door, a novel by Jan Donley, was included on OUT-FM’s picks of 2010 in their annual wrap-up of notable LGBTQ books, film and music. The broadcast is free and the reviewer’s comments begin at the 40-minute mark. Source
Celebrating Tennessee Williams’ 100th birthday March 26, Jack Fritscher has posted related essays from Playbill (originally published in 2001) and Modern Drama (1970), along with his 1967 dissertation Love and Death in Tennessee Williams. [Source]
With Her Body, a collection of “sex, shape-changing, and longing” by six-time LLA winner Nicola Griffith is now available as an ebook for Kindle or DRM-free. Originally published in 2004, With Her Body is still available in print and ebook editions from Seattle’s Aqueduct Press. Watch this video interpretation of one of the stories with music. [Source]
Reviewing in the January issue of Echo, Bob Lind awarded five stars to The Shakespeare Conspiracy (AuthorHouse), a gay-themed historical novel by Ted Bacino. The review also appears on a Yahoo Group, Our Bookshelf, which Ted moderates. [Source]
Robbi McCoy has created book trailers for several of her novels, including her most recent release Something to Believe, which also got a rave review by Teresa DeCrescenzo in The Lesbian News February issue. [Source]
Amy Briant has produced a trailer for her fiction debut, the lesbian romance-mystery-ghost thriller Shadow Point, which features her own piano composition and performance as accompaniment. [Source]
Armistead Maupin was the featured author on February 27 to open gay week at Melbourne, Australia’s Wheeler Centre, the centrepiece of the UNESCO City of Literature Initiative. [Source]
Charlie Cochrane’s gay historical romantic mystery, All Lessons Learned (Samhain Publishing) scored five stars at Reviews by Jessewave. [Source]
Gina Daggett‘s debut novel Jukebox got glowing reviews in Lesbian News and Xtra! and About.com interviewed her. For more on Jukebox, go to Gina’s blog. [Source]
Jon Marans’ The Temperamentals, about the relationship of Harry Hay and Rudi Gernreich and the historic founding of the Mattachine Society, will be the final production in the Blank Theatre Company‘s 2010-2011 season in Los Angeles, running April 9 – May 22. The play has also been released in trade paperback by Chelsea Station Editions. [Source]
Medieval mystery writer Jeri Westerson, writing as Haley Walsh, just signed with MLR Press for the second Skyler Foxe Mystery, Foxe Hunt, to be released this fall. The series, which debuted last year, features a hunky young high school teacher turned sleuth.
Daniel Allen Cox’s Krakow Melt (Arsenal Pulp Press), an incendiary novel about two pyromaniacs who fight homophobia in Krakow, will be translated into Turkish and released as part of an underground literature series by Istanbul-based publisher Altikirkbes. The series will also include a book by Lydia Lunch.
The prolific Claire McNab is on quite a reissue jag with Bella Books beginning this month, with the reprinting of her first Carol Ashton mystery, Lessons in Murder and the entire series—seventeen in all—to follow. Bella will also be reprinting Claire’s Denise Cleever mysteries.
LLA winner KG MacGregor will be the keynote speaker at the 2011 Golden Crown Literary Society Convention June 9-12. Previous keynoters include other LLA winners Katherine V. Forrest, JM Redmann, Ellen Hart and Karin Kallmaker. [Source]
Terry Angel Mason has an audio link up for Love Won’t Let Me Be Silent, his book dealing with LGBT individuals in prison. [Source]
D Jordan Redhawk has sold her paranormal “Books of the Sanguire” to Bella Books. The initial volume, The Strange Path, will be released in early 2012. Redhawk is well-known in the Xenaverse as the author of Tiopa Ki Lakota. [Source]
Jody Seay’s Back Page radio interview with Henry Alley about his novel, Precincts of Light (Inkwater Press), which revolves around the 1992 Measure 9 crisis in Oregon, may be now be viewed online. [Source]
Finally: I’ve become a regular contributor to West Hollywood Patch, part of AOL’s network of online Patch community newspapers nationwide. Among my interviews so far: novelist Tomas Mournian and poet Steven Reigns, both WeHo residents. If you are a WeHo resident or have a strong connection to the city (a recent book with a strong WeHo element, for example), you might tip me at jmwwriter@aol.com.
That’s all the Book Buzz for now. So, go read a book!
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