New in December: Anne Ishii, Graham Kolbeins, Esther Newton, Leonard Bernstein, and James Baldwin

Author: Edit Team

December 9, 2014

New month, new books! December is upon us, and so are a slew of new and noteworthy LGBT books.

This month, Fantagraphics Books offers a detailed overview of Japanese gay manga with the expansive compendium Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It, edited by Anne Ishii & Graham Kolbeins.

From Fantagraphics:

Big, burly, lascivious, and soft around the edges: welcome to the hyper-masculine world of Japanese gay manga. Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It is the first English-language anthology of its kind: an in-depth introduction to nine of the most exciting comic artists making work for a gay male audience in Japan. Jiraiya, Seizoh Ebisubashi and Kazuhide Ichikawa are three of the irresistibly seductive, internationally renowned artists featured in Massive, as well as Gengoroh Tagame, the subject of The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: Master of Gay Erotic Manga. Get to know each of these artists intimately, through candid interviews, photography, context-providing essays, illustrations and manga. Massive also includes the groundbreaking, titillating work of gay manga luminaries Takeshi Matsu, Fumi Miyabi, Inu Yoshi, Gai Mizuki and comic essayist Kumada Poohsuke.

Melville Books is publishing James Baldwin: The Last Interview: and other Conversations, the never before released “unexpurgated” last interview of author James Baldwin.

“I was not born to be what someone said I was. I was not born to be defined by someone else, but by myself, and myself only.” When, in the fall of 1987, the poet Quincy Troupe traveled to the south of France to interview James Baldwin, Baldwin’s brother David told him to ask Baldwin about everything—Baldwin was critically ill and David knew that this might be the writer’s last chance to speak at length about his life and work.

The result is one of the most eloquent and revelatory interviews of Baldwin’s career, a conversation that ranges widely over such topics as his childhood in Harlem, his close friendship with Miles Davis, his relationship with writers like Toni Morrison and Richard Wright, his years in France, and his ever-incisive thoughts on the history of race relations and the African-American experience.

In The Language of Hoofbeats (Lake Union Publishing), bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde explores the makeshift bonds that often go into creating families and communities.

From the bestselling author of Pay It Forward comes a story of the heartbreak and healing power of family. New to a small town, Jackie and Paula envision a quiet life for their kids: a young adopted son and two teenage foster children, including the troubled Star. However, they quickly butt heads with their neighbor, Clementine, who disapproves of their lifestyle and is incensed when Star befriends her spirited horse, Comet. Haunted by past tragedy and unable to properly care for Comet, Clem nevertheless resents the bond Star soon shares with the horse. When Star disappears with Comet, the neighbors are thrown together—far too close together. But as the search for the pair wears on, both families must learn to put aside their animosity and confront the choices they’ve made and the scars they carry. Plumbing the depths of regret and forgiveness, The Language of Hoofbeats explores the strange alchemy that transforms a group of people into a family.

Yale University Press is releasing the collected letters of musician Leonard Bernstein. Edited by Nigel Simeone, The Leonard Bernstein Letters provides new insight into the iconic conductor and composer’s life.

Leonard Bernstein was a charismatic and versatile musician—a brilliant conductor who attained international super-star status, and a gifted composer of Broadway musicals (West Side Story), symphonies (Age of Anxiety), choral works (Chichester Psalms), film scores (On the Waterfront), and much more. Bernstein was also an enthusiastic letter writer, and this book is the first to present a wide-ranging selection of his correspondence. The letters have been selected for the insights they offer into the passions of his life—musical and personal—and the extravagant scope of his musical and extra-musical activities.Bernstein’s letters tell much about this complex man, his collaborators, his mentors, and others close to him. His galaxy of correspondents encompassed, among others, Aaron Copland,Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins, Thornton Wilder, Boris Pasternak, Bette Davis, Adolph Green, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and family members including his wife Felicia and his sister Shirley. The majority of these letters have never been published before. They have been carefully chosen to demonstrate the breadth of Bernstein’s musical interests, his constant struggle to find the time to compose, his turbulent and complex sexuality, his political activities, and his endless capacity for hard work. Beyond all this, these writings provide a glimpse of the man behind the legends: his humanity, warmth, volatility, intellectual brilliance, wonderful eye for descriptive detail, and humor.

This month, Duke University Press is reprinting Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America’s First Gay and Lesbian Town by Esther Newton. Originally published in 1995, the book is a detailed historical accounting of the Long Island gay and lesbian vacation spot.

Esther Newton tells the story of Cherry Grove, the popular gay and lesbian resort community off of Long Island. Newton discusses the importance of camp, gay theater and the intersections of race, gender, class and sexuality in America’s first gay and lesbian town.

Poetry fans rejoice! This month sees the publication of [insert] Boy (YesYes Books), a new collection from poetry wunderkind Danez Smith.

As always, if we missed an author or book, or if you have a book coming out next month, please email us.

Fiction

Asher’s Shot by Elizabeth Wheeler, Bold Strokes Books
The Complicated Geography of Alice by Jules Vilmur, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Grace and Demion: A Fable for Victims of Biblical Intolerance by Mel White, Lethe Press
The Language of Hoofbeat s by Catherine Ryan Hyde, Lake Union Publishing
The Rise and Fall of Radiation Canary by Geonn Cannon, Supposed Crimes
Victims (Reprint) by Travis Jeppersen, ITNA Press

Nonfiction

Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America’s First Gay and Lesbian Town (Reprint) by Esther Newton, Duke University Press
Cooking with Bears by Angelo Sindaco and Andrea Signori, Drago
I Am Me Because My Little Dog Loves Me: LGBT Writers on Their Canine Companions edited by Gerry Gomez Pearlberg, Cleis Press
In Solidarity: Friendship, Family, and Activism Beyond Gay and Straight by Lynn Tillmann, Routledge
I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing: A Queer Film Classic by Julia Mendenhall, Arsenal Pulp Press
James Baldwin: The Last Interview: and other Conversations by James Baldwin with Quincy Troupe, Melville House
L.A. Plays Itself/Boys in the Sand: A Queer Film Classic: Queer Film Classics by Cindy Patton, Arsenal Pulp Press
Queer Insists by Michael O’Rourke, Dead Letter Office
Understanding and Teaching U.S. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History edited by Leila J. Rupp and Susan K. Freeman, University of Wisconsin Press

LGBT Studies

Arresting Dress Cross-Dressing, Law, and Fascination in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco by Clare Sears, Duke University Press Books
The Avowal of Difference: Queer Latino American Narratives by Ben Sifuentes-Jauregui, State University of New York Press
In the Life and in the Spirit Homoerotic Spirituality in African American Literature by Marlon Rachquel Moore, State University of New York Press
Interpreting LGBT History at Museums and Historic Sites by Susan Ferentinos, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Leo Bersani: Queer Theory and Beyond by Mikko Tuhkanen, State University of New York Press
The Porn Archives edited by Tim Dean, Steven Ruszczycky and David Squires, Duke University Press Books
The Sexuality of History: Modernity and the Sapphic, 1565-1830 by Susan S. Lanser, University of Chicago Press
Toni Morrison and the Queer Pleasure of Ghosts by Juda Bennett, State University of New York Press

Romance

The Chef’s Table by Lynn Charles, Interlude Press
Driving Lessons by Annameekee Hesik, Bold Strokes Books
Don’t Say Goodbye by Bridget Essex, CreateSpace
Jagged Little Scar by Micheala Lynn, Bella Books
Mountain Rescue: On The Edge by Sky Croft, Regal Crest Books
Rules of Revenge by AJ Quinn, Bold Strokes Books
The Romance Vote by Ali Vali, Bold Strokes Books
Small Time Secrets by Riley Scott Witt, Bella Books
Season’s Meetings by Amy Dunne, Bold Strokes Books
Senses by Jaime Clevenger, Bella Books
Time for Love by Rrrose Carbinela, Regal Crest Books
Venus in Love by Tina Michele, Bold Strokes Books

Erotica

The Big Book of Domination: Erotic Fantasies edited by D.L. King by Nicholas Scott, Cleis Press
Slave Boys by Winston Gieseke, Bruno Gmunder Verlag
Squeeze Pants: Tight and Titillating Homo Sex Stories by Dario Dalla Lasta, CreateSpace Independent Publishing

Speculative Fiction/Horror

Advance: Exodus-Book One by Gun Brooke, Bold Strokes Books
Blackthorn by Simon Hawk, Bold Strokes Books
Burn All ALike by Nene Adams, Bella Books
The Devil You Know by Marie Castle, Bella Books
Myth & Magic: Queer Fairy Tales edited Radclyffe & Stacia Seaman, Bold Strokes Books