May Publishing Notes

The buzz: Harper Perennial will publish Evan Fallenberg's When We Danced on Water, a novel which spans more than fifty years in the life of a famed ballet dancer, whose talent saved him from the Nazis, and the relationship he begins with a middle-aged woman from his local café in Tel Aviv, whose own past in the Israeli military echoes his struggles.

STARbooks Press has released Rising Starz, a new set of porn-star interview by Owen Keehnen which features Bruno Bond, Colin Steele, Johnny Gunn, Logan Mccree, Ross Hurston , Skye Woods, Ty Lebeouf, and others.

Edmund White's Paris in the Eighties, a follow-up to City Boy, recounting the writer's life and the cultural scene in 1980s Paris, where White worked at American Vogue and befriended everyone from Yves Saint-Laurent to Michel Foucault, while the AIDS epidemic swept New York and eventually brought tragedy to his own life abroad, will be published by Bloomsbury.

Lethe Press has released Tales My Body Told Me, a new novel by Wayne Courtois, about a 45-year-old gay man who finds himself in a “reparative therapy” program for homosexuals.

The Stoker award-winning anthology Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet, edited by Vince Liguono and Chad Helder, is now available from the InsightOut book club.

Rebel Satori Press has released Contraband, a new novel by Charlie Vazquez, set in an underground near-future America where dissidents and “lunars” seek refuge from the smoldering ruins of a nation plagued by a deadly civil war and revolution. The Press’s QueerMojo imprint has also published If Jesus Were Gay & other poems by Emanuel Xavier this month.

Doubleday will publish Bruce Duffy's Disaster Was My God, based on the colorful and untidy life of Arthur Rimbaud, the poet who set French literature on its ear with his revolutionary verse (and his proto-punk antics) before the age of twenty, only to forsake literature for a career dealing arms in Abyssinia.

Next spring Clarkson Potter will publish Thom Filicia's Hammered, both a memoir of the renovation of Thom's dream house on Lake Skaneateles in central New York state, and a how-to for interested renovators and design aficionados.

The University of Wisconsin Press has just released Travels in a Gay Nation: Portraits of LGBTQ Americans by Philip Gambone, a collection of interviews with gay activists and artists, including David Sedaris, George Takei, Barney Frank, and Tammy Baldwin.

Random House will publish Seth Rudetsky's Surviving Sophomore Year, the tale of a boy who, at 15, decides to do the impossible: lose weight, become popular, and get his first kiss.

Paul G. Bens will be donating second-quarter royalties from his novel Kelland to SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a non-profit support group for women and men wounded by religious authority figures.

Beltway Poetry Quarterly has released its Spring 2010 issue, a series of essays documenting literary organizations in the greater Washington DC region. Of special interest are contributions from Julie R. Enzer on The Furies, Martin G. Murray on the Washington Friends of Walt Whitman, and Danielle Evennou on mothertongue. More details at http://www.beltwaypoetry.com/.

Frank Anthony Polito's Facebook fan page for his novel Band Fags was taken down by and then reinstated. After much speculation as to why the page had been taken down, an administrator from the social-networking site wrote to Polito that the page was deleted "erroneously."

Among the entries to name Patti LuPone's upcoming memoir were A Little Touch of Star Quality; I, Eva and Being LuPone. The winner: Patti LuPone: A Memoir, submitted by Precilla Ng of Toronto.

Perry Brass has been blogging about "Lost Gay New York" for Queer New York at http://queernewyorkblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/qny-welcomes-new-voice-perry-brass.html.

Riverdale High, the comic book home of Archie, Veronica, Betty, and Jughead, has a new gay student, Kevin Keller.

Rufus Wainwright is composing an evening with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra based on Shakespeare's sonnets.

Alan Cumming has withdrawn from the long-delayed Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark because of a scheduling conflict.

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are writing a Broadway musical called The Book of Mormon, expected to open on Broadway next March.

Playwright Terrence McNally and Tom Kirdahy were married in Washington. The Tony-winning playwright, 71, and lawyer, 46, tied the knot on the banks of the Potomac near the Kennedy Center, which is running a series of McNally's plays.

The Signature Theater Company will present The Illusion, Tony Kushner’s adaptation of L’Illusion Comique by Pierre Corneille, in the spring of 2011. The play, about a lawyer in search of his son and a magician who conjures up visions of the lost child, joins Signature’s previously announced repertory productions of Angels in America, planned for the fall, and the New York debut of The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures, which it is producing with the Public Theater next spring. The season will also feature a reading series of Mr. Kushner’s other plays.

The Lambda Literary Awards Reading in Chicago will be Tuesday May 4 at 7 pm at the Gerber Hart Library. Other Lambda Literary readings will be May 10 at 7 pm at Skylight Books in Los Angeles and May 15 at the Saints & Sinners Festival in New Orleans.

The 22nd Annual Lambda Literary Awards will be held May 27th, 2010 at the School of Visual Arts Theater in New York City. General Admission tickets to the Lammy Awards Ceremony, including pre-Awards reception, are $100. Tickets are available through the foundation's Web site: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/.

Book launch for Lucy Jane Bledsoe’s The Big Bang Symphony is Thursday, May 6 at 7:00 pm at Diesel Books, 5433 College Ave, Oakland, CA.

Bears in the Wild, a new bearotica anthology edited by R. Jackson, will have a book signing featuring Jackson and contributor Jeff Mann during Summer Bear Week in Provincetown, Saturday, July 17th, 11:00am - 12:00 noon, 200 Commercial St, Provincetown, MA 02657.

Several bloggers have noted that fashion designer Marc Jacobs is apparently opening a bookstore in the West Village in New York City, in the longtime former site of the Biography Book Shop. The store is rumored to be called Book Marc and would be his sixth store in the area but first as a bookstore. The Biography Book Shop moved about eight blocks south on Bleecker Street last year and is now called Bookbook.

Wilton Manors, Florida, has a new GLBT bookstore -- grand opening was April 16 for The Book Nook at 2207 Wilton Drive for owner Alan Fisher. For more information please visit http://www.booknookwm.com/.

Amazon.com made a $25,000 grant to the Lambda Literary Foundation for its Writers' Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices. The retreat is scheduled to be held August 8th through August 15th, 2010 at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. This year’s faculty includes Nicola Griffith, Ellery Washington, and Ellen Bass.

Gaylaxicon 2010 in Montreal has been canceled due to a breakdown in hotel negotiations. Gaylaxicon 2011 is scheduled for April 29 - May 1 2011 in Atlanta, GA.

Cleis Press is celebrating its 30th year in business this year. The press, SexIs magazine, and EdenFantasys are teaming to launch an online book club. Each month, the club will feature reviews of Cleis titles by members of EdenFantasys' online community. Participating authors include Rachel Kramer Bussel and editor Alison Tyler. Discussions are planned on the best sex writing of 2010, the best women's erotica of 2010, and other subjects. Books featured in the club will be for sale on EdenFantasys's Web site, and in SexIs. Membership in the club is free.

Monster Girl Media, a Latina-run, female-centered activist press emphasizing fiction and stories about individuals who don't have to "behave" to fit in, started by Erika Lopez and Kamala Lopez, is now distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution:

Marshall Moore is in the process of starting a publishing company in Hong Kong: Signal 8 Press.

Kudos: Anthony Bidulka’s novel Aloha, Candy Hearts, is a nominee for the Arthur Ellis Crime Writers Award for Best Crime Novel.

Among the finalists for this year’s Locus Awards, presented at the Science Fiction Awards Weekend in Seattle WA, June 25-27, 2010, is “It Takes Two” by Nicola Griffith in the Best Novelette category. Griffith also scored a Hugo nomination for the story.

Guests of honor at the recent Outlantacon included authors Cecilia Tan, Dariek Scott, Lee Martindale, and Greg Herren.

Among the nominees for the Shirley Jackson Awards, for outstanding achievement in literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic, are: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters for Best Novel, and “The Witnesses are Gone” for Best Novella by Joel Lane.

Among the recent Guggenheim fellows announced were performance artist Holly Hughes and author Monique Truong.

TLA has released the winners of its Gaybie awards: Among the winners are Best Gay Fiction: Diva, Las Vegas by Rob Rosen, Best Gay Non-Fiction: The Meaning of Matthew by Judy Sheppard; Best Photo Book: The Big Penis Book by Dian Hanson; Best Gay Mystery: Straight Lies by Rob Byrnes, Best Gay Comic: The Initiation #2: Higher Sex Education; and Best Erotica: Eight Inches by Sean Wolf. Awards also went to Jane Lynch and Chris Colfer of Glee and Gus Van Sant of Milk.

The winner of the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival Playwriting Contest is St. Louisian Jerry Rabushka for his play Brushup Ten. The winner of the Festival’s First Annual Short Fiction Contest is Wayne Lee Gay of Denton, Texas for his story “Ondine.” Runners-up are Danny Bracco of San Francisco for “Dancing Pink Roses” and James Driggers of Asheville, NC for “Jesus Is My BFF.” The winning stories, along with new stories by a few of the best names in GLBT literature, have been collected into an anthology, Saints & Sinners 2010: New Fiction from the Festival, by QueerMojo, an imprint of Rebel Satori Press. A book release party featuring readings by the winners and others will be held on Thursday, May 13 as a fundraiser for the festival.

The James Duggins Mid-Career Author Award recipients are Lee Lynch and Noel Alumit.

Arsenal Pulp Press has been shortlisted for the Small Press Publisher of the Year Libris Award by the Canadian Booksellers Association. Winners will be announced at CBA's Libris Awards ceremony in Toronto on May 29.

The Finalists in each category for the 2010 Golden Crown Literary Society Awards for lesbian literature have all been posted on the Web site at http://www.goldencrown.org/site/index.php/awards-awards/2010shortlist. Winners will be announced at the Golden Crown Literary Conference in Orlando June 5, 2010.

The Lambda Literary Foundation has named Larry Kramer and Kate Clinton as this year's recipients of its Pioneer Award, to be presented at the Lambda Literary Awards Ceremony on May 27th, 2010 in New York City.

Among the nominees for the Lucille Lortel Awards, which honors off-Broadway's best shows are The Pride (with six nominations), The Temperamentals, Yank! A WWII Love Story and A Boy and his Soul.

The winners of the Publishing Triangle literary awards are: Lesbian nonfiction: American Romances by Rebecca Brown; Gay nonfiction: The Greeks and Greek Love by James Davidson; Lesbian poetry: Zero at the Bone by Stacie Cassarino; Gay poetry: Poems of the Black Object by Ronaldo V. Wilson; Debut fiction: The Bigness of the World by Lori Ostlund; LGBT fiction: The Hour Between by Sebastian Stuart.

On the longlist of works eligible for the Frank O’Connor Short Story Award are Gentleman’s Relish by Patrick Gale, More of This World or Maybe Another by Barb Johson, The Bigness of the World by Lori Ostlund, and The Haunted Heart and Other Tales by Jameson Currier.

On the shortlist for the 2010 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing for fiction are: The Bigness of the World by Lori Ostlund, Sugarless by James Magruder, and The Torturer's Wife by Thomas Glave.

Winners of the 2009 Lesbian Fiction Readers Choice Awards are: Favorite Lesbian Fiction Writer: Ali Vali, Crystal Michallet-Romero, Gerri Hill, Georgia Beers, Melissa Good, and Radclyffe. Favorite Lesbian Fiction Anthology/Story Collection: Best Lesbian Love Stories 2010 edited by Simone Thorne, Outsiders by L Ames/G Beers/JD Glass/S Meagher/S Smith, Romantic Interludes 2: Secrets edited by Radclyffe/S Seaman, Ultimate Lesbian Erotica 2009 edited by Nicole Foster, Year's Best Lesbian Fiction 2008 edited by Fran Walker. Favorite Lesbian Fiction Romance: Battle Scars by Meghan O'Brien, Breaking the Ice by Kim Baldwin, Sanctuary by I. Beacham, Secrets of the Stone by Radclyffe, The Veil of Sorrow by Crystal Michallet-Romero. Favorite Lesbian Fiction Erotica: Lesbian Cowboys Erotic Adventures edited by S Green/R Valencia, Night's Kiss: Lesbian Erotica by Catherine Lundoff. Favorite Lesbian Fiction Mystery: Death of a Dying Man by J.M. Redman, From Hell to Breakfast by Joan Opyr, The Scorpion by Gerri Hill, The Times That Bind by Andi Marquette, Thief of Always by K Baldwin/X Alexiou. Favorite Lesbian Fiction Adventure: Footsteps by Mickey Minner, Justice for All by Radclyffe, Renegade by Cheyne Curry, Stranded by Blayne Cooper, and Thief of Always by K Baldwin/X Alexiou. Favorite Lesbian Fiction Speculative Fiction/Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Barking at the Moon by Nene Adams, Goldenseal by Gill McKnight, Iron Rose Bleeding by Anne Azel, Second Nature by Jae, The High Priest and The Idol by Jane Fletcher. Favorite Lesbian Fiction Humor/Comedy: From Hell to Breakfast by Joan Opyr, The Middle of Somewhere by Clifford Henderson, The Seduction of Moxie by Colette Moody, Winds of Heaven by Kate Sweeney. Favorite Lesbian Fiction General: Beggar of Love by Lee Lynch, Footsteps by Mickey Minner, The Children of Mother Glory by C.M. Harris, The Middle of Somewhere by Clifford Henderson, The Times That Bind by Andi Marquette. Favorite Lesbian Fiction Historical: Fireweed by Micky Minner, Kicker’s Journey by Lois Cloarec Hart, The Children of Mother Glory by C.M. Harris, The Sublime and Spirited Voyage of Original Sin by Colette Moody.

Open Calls: Seven Kitchens Press is accepting submission for the third annual Robin Becker Chapbook Prize for an original, unpublished poetry manuscript in English by a Lesbian, Gay. Bisexual, Transgendered or Queer writer. Submission deadline is May 15, 2010. For more details visit: http://sevenkitchens.blogspot.com/.

The Atlanta Queer Lit Fest is accepting entries for its Broadside Contest. Deadline is July 15th. The winner will receive $200 and 100 copies and a keynote reading invite at the festival. C. Dale Young will judge. Poetry, prose, hybrid genres all welcome, 250 word maximum. $5 per entry, max 5 entries. For more details visit http://www.atlqueerlitfest.com/.