Book Buzz #31: July 2011
Author: John Morgan Wilson
June 30, 2011
In response to the tragic suicides of bullied kids in 2010, authors Carrie Jones and Megan Kelley Hall asked authors of books for children and teens to share their experiences with hateful harassment. The result is Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories (HarperCollins), due out in hardcover this fall. The book has a Facebook page and you can hear a podcast of an author panel on the book at Book Expo America by clicking here. Some of the proceeds from Dear Bully will benefit Stomp Out Bullying, a national anti-bullying campaign.
On a similar note, all proceeds from Awake, an anthology of four novellas about teens dealing with their unconventional sexual identity, are being donated to The Trevor Project, the national nonprofit that provides vital services to LGBT young people. The contributors are noted YA authors Nancy Garden, Brian Katcher, Robin Reardon and Jordan Taylor. Awake is available online POD and via Kindle, and can be specially ordered in most bookstores.
Pioneering gay activist and author Elliot Tiber (Taking Woodstock, Palm Trees on the Hudson) has received a “Heart of the Rainbow Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Gay American Heroes Foundation (GAHF), the organization dedicated to preventing hate crimes.
Sarah Schulman and Dorothy Allison gave keynote addresses at the American Library Association’s GLBT Round Table in New Orleans on June 27, part of the 40th anniversary Stonewall Book Awards and Honors Brunch. Here’s the link to the list of the 2011 Stonewall Award winners.
The National Indie Excellence Book Awards has announced its 2011 winners in dozens of categories, including Gay & Lesbian & Transgender Fiction (Ron Fritsch, Promised Valley Rebellion) and Gay & Lesbian & Transgender Non-Fiction (Colleen Kelli, Fire in the Hole – A Year in the Life of the World’s Sorriest Stuntwoman). To see all the winners, click here.
This year’s Goldie winners from the Golden Crown Literary Society, which honors excellence in lesbian literature, are listed here.
To see the LGBT winners in this year’s ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards, click here.
The 2011 winners of the National Leather Association’s writing awards are on view here.
National Public Radio interviewed playwright Edward Albee about his controversial remarks decrying the “gay writer” label when he was honored with a Pioneer Award at the 23rd annual Lambda Literary Awards in May. NPR has posted a podcast of the interview here.
You can also view a video of Albee’s acceptance speech on the North Country Public Radio website.
The first annual OutWrite Book Fair in Washington DC, sponsored by the DC Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Center, will take place on August 6, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., at the DC Center, 1318 U Street NW. For exhibitor information, click here.
Johnny Diaz, out staff writer at Boston Globe Business, has optioned the dramatic rights to his first three novels, Boston Boys Club, Miami Manhunt, and Beantown Cubans to New York-based Open Road Integrated Media. Johnny’s latest novel is the just-published Take the Lead.
Gay-ebooks.com, the not-for-profit project of the Gay and Lesbian Digital Arts Association that promotes gay writing in Australia, has released And Then He Kissed Me, an eclectic short fiction collection featuring new work from Ward Lee, James May, Tim Miles, Brendan Lindsay, Barry Lowe, Shaun O’Dowd, Ian MacNeill, Alistair Sutton, Peter Mitchell, and Gary Dunne. Here’s the link. Don’t forget the sister site: www.lesbian-ebooks.com.au. All material is downloadable for free.
Also Down Under: “After Homosexual: The Legacy of Gay Liberation,” an international conference to be held at Melbourne’s La Trobe University February 2-4, will honor noted educator, author and activist Dennis Altman in recognition of the fortieth anniversary of the publication of his influential book Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation. For details, contact Mark Pendleton at m.pendleton@latrobe.edu.au.
Tom MacMaster, an aspiring novelist who triggered alarm among readers of the blog A Gay Girl in Damascus after his post claiming to be a Syrian-American lesbian detained during civil unrest in the Syrian capital, has admitted it was intended as fiction and issued a public apology. The alleged hoax was widely covered by the media last month, including this account in The New York Times.
Benoit Denizet Lewis asked 31 notable LGBT authors to select and discuss the five books they considered crucial reading for his survey piece, “The Best LGBT Books of All Time,” for The Good Men Project. You can read it here.
The National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association will hold its 2011 national convention and 8th Annual LGBT Media Summit in Philadelphia August 25-28. More than 300 are expected to participate in training sessions, issue-driven discussions, and networking events. Details here.
That’s all the Book Buzz for now. So, go read a book!
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