June Publishing Notes

The buzz: Jocques LeClair, former manager of Lambda Rising, has opened Proud Bookstore in Rehoboth Beach on the Delaware shore. The store sells new and used books, cards, gifts, CDs, movies, and clothing. The bookstore is located at 149 Baltimore Ave., Rehoboth Beach, Del. 19971.

Latino writers Emanuel Xavier and Charlie Vázquez will be reading from their new books If Jesus Were Gay and Other Poems and Contraband on Thursday, June 24 at 7:00pm at Barnes & Noble, 2289 Broadway at 82nd Street in Manhattan.

The millionth copy of Steve Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower was printed this month. The 1999 Yong Adult novel is ranked third on the list of the American Library Association's most frequently challenged books.

This summer Lethe will publish the fourth book in Mark Abramson’s Beach Reading series, Snowman.

Little Brown will publish Aaron Hartzler’s first book for young adults, the memoir Rapture Practice, in the Spring of 2011.

In the fall of 2011, the University of Texas will publish Horror After 9/11, a critical anthology co-edited by Sam J. Miller.

In August, 2010, Cleis Press will publish Neil Plakcy's Skater Boys: Gay Erotic Stories, a collection of gay erotic short stories with a focus on young men who skateboard, and Sacchi Green's Lesbian Lust: Erotic Stories, a collection of short erotic lesbian stories. That month the Press will also publish Rachel Kramer Bussel's Orgasmic: Erotica for Women, a collection of short erotic stories with an emphasis on women experiencing different types of orgasms, and Passion: Erotic Romance for Women, a collection of erotic short stories with a focus on romance and passionate encounters. In September, Cleis will publish Violet Blue's Just Watch Me: Erotica for Women, a collection of short story erotic by and for women.

Next month Dreamspinner Press will publish Counterpoint: Dylan’s Story, Ruth Sims novel set in Europe in the late 1800s which revolves around the career and loves of classical musicians.

StarBooks Press recently published Cut Hand, a novel by Mark Wildyr, about the unorthodox love affair between a white youth on the American frontier and a young Indian warrior destined for the leadership of his tribe.

Musicians Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig are depicted as gay lovers and Hall and Oates as their Satanist neighbors in the new comic book Henry & Glenn Forever. The illustrating-writing team Igloo Tornado created the 64-page comic book.

Matilda Bernstein Sycamore’s first film, All That Sheltering Emptiness, made in collaboration with Gina Carducci, will be screened June 7 at NewFest: The New York LGBT Film Festival.

Kyle Patrick Alvarez will write and direct a film adaptation of the short story “C.O.G.” by David Sedaris, about the author’s apprenticeship with a Christian clockmaker that was included in his 1997 collection Naked.

British actor Matt Smith (also known as the eleventh ‘Dr. Who’) will play Christopher Isherwood in a London stage production based on Isherwood's memoir, Christopher And His Kind.

Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley, and Garrett Hedlund are expected to star in a big-screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road.

British actor Toby Regbo has been cast in the film adaptation of Peter Cameron’s young adult novel Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You.

Kudos: D. A. Powell won the 18th annual Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for Chronic.

Vestal McIntyre won the 2010 Grub Street Fiction Book Prize for his novel Lake Overturn.

Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Bernard Cooper, Michael Nava, Cecilia Tan, and Paul J. Willis were inducted into the Saints and Sinners Hall of Fame at the recent literary conference in New Orleans.

Val McDermid was presented with this year’s Crime Writers’ Association’s Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, honoring outstanding achievement in the field of crime writing.

Director Gregg Araki won the Cannes Film Festival's first Queer Palm award for his film Kaboom, about a bisexual film student.

A full list of the winners of the Lambda Literary awards can be found on the foundation web site http://www.lambdaliterary.org/.

The winners of the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Award in the GLBT category was Torn, by Amber Lehman. Finalists included Alphabet City: My So-Called Sitcom Life by Jon Paul Buchmeyer, Possessions by Carmen de Montefiores, She’s My Dad by Iolanthe Woulff, and Tomorrow May Be Too Late by Thomas Marino. Short Plays to Long Remember, which included gay and lesbian plays compiled and edited by Francine L. Trevens, was a finalist in the Anthology category.

Open Calls: The deadline is July 1, 2010 for the anthology Queer Girls in Class: Lesbian Teachers and Students Tell Their Classroom Stories, a collection of personal narratives (1,500–3,500 words) by lesbian teachers and students who speak about sexual identity and its effects on the teaching and learning process in the high school and university setting. For more information or to submit, e-mail: queergirlsanthology@gmail.com.

The deadline is June 27 for the 9th Gival Press Oscar Wilde Award for best previously unpublished poem in English that best relates GLBT life. There is a reading fee of $5 per poem submitted, any form, style, length. Gival Press, P.O. Box 3812, Arlington, VA 22203. For complete details, e-mail givalpress@yahoo.com or visit Web site: http://www.givalpress.com/.

Passages: John Stahle, editor and designer of the literary journal Ganymede, died of a heart attack in April, 2010. Several Ganymede contributors have set up a memorial page at: http://rememberingjohnstahle.com/. Stahle was also the author of I Was Like and His Glimmering World.

Peter Orlovsky, poet, dharma-maverick, and longtime companion of Allen Ginsberg, died May 30, 2010.