Thursday, July 01, 2010

July Publishing Notes

The buzz: Holt will publish Bill Goldstein's The World Broke in Two, a literary history of the year 1922 focusing on the intertwined lives of Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster, and T.S. Eliot.

Little Brown will publish agent Bill Clegg's second book, 90 Days, a memoir exploring his "blurry post-rehab days."

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has signed a biography of Barbra Streisand to be written by William Mann and to be called Hello, Gorgeous, set for fall 2012.

Actor Mark Ruffalo mentioned in an interview on MTV that he would play Ned Weeks in a film adaptation of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, to be directed by Glee’s Ryan Murphy.

Jeffrey Beam’s new book, Gospel Earth, a "big book of little poems" is now available from Skysill Press, England. http://skysillpress.blogspot.com/.

Abingdon Press will publish in 2012 Christa Allan's Edge of Grace, about a Christian woman hiding her own secrets while learning to love and accept her gay brother rather than judge him, and the turmoil it causes amongst her friends, family and church.

This fall Chelsea Station Editions will publish David Pratt’s debut novel, Bob the Book, a satirical romance of book meets book and boy finds boy.

In August Poppy Books will begin publishing books based on Fox's musical comedy series Glee, starting with The Beginning, revealing the stories behind Rachel, Kurt, Finn and others before Mr. Schuester took over the Glee Club.

Lost Library contributor and short story writer Michael Graves has published a new short story, "Fort Knox," in the summer issue of Jack magazine.

Dark Scribe Press will publish Chad Helder’s collection of poetry and prose titled The Vampire Bridegroom. The title piece first appeared in the magazine Icarus. Helder and co-editor Vince Liaguno are also planning a sequel to their Stoker-award winning anthology of gay-themed horror stories, Unspeakable Horror.

The summer issue of Icarus, a magazine devoted to gay speculative fiction, features stories by Hal Duncan, Julian Lopez, and Alex Jeffers.

Lethe has published its 2010 edition of Wilde Stories: The Year’s Best Gay Speculative Fiction ,which features short stories by Richard Bowes, Joel Lane, Simon Sheppard, Tom Cardamone, and Alex Jeffers.

This summer Lethe will publish Hot Off the Presses, a new novel by Elliot Mackle, and this fall will release A Twist of Grimm: Erotic Fairy Tales for Gay Men by William Holden.

Next fall Grand Central will publish Ellen DeGeneres's as yet untitled memoir.

Word continues to arrive on the financial dilemmas of Alyson and that the publisher has stopped paying royalties to several authors.

David McConnell and Carla Trujillo have joined the Board of Trustees of the Lambda Literary Foundation.

India's first online gay bookstore has launched. Based in Malad, the store is called http://www.queer-ink.com/ and has been started by Fiji-Indian Shobhna Kumar.

“Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg,” is currently on exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC through September 16, 2010. Ginsberg started taking photographs as a young man, in the 1940s, and kept doing so through 1963, when his camera was left behind on a trip to India.

The newly established Over the Rainbow Committee of the GLBT Round Table of the American Library Association will create an annual bibliography of titles of interest to adult readers that reflect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ) experiences. The first ALA Over the Rainbow Books list will be announced in January 2011. The new Committee is an outgrowth of the Rainbow List Committee that launched in 2008 with the aim of creating such a bibliography for readers under 18 years of age. For more information, visit: http://alaovertherainbow.wordpress.com/.

Kudos: The Queer Foundation Scholarship Recipients for 2010–11 are Brandon Lambert of Aurora, OH, and Jesus Zuniga of San Jose, CA. Each student will each receive a $1,000 scholarship for studies at the college or university of their choice. For more information visit http://queerfoundation.org/.

Open calls: The St. Sebastian Review, an LGBTQ Christian literary magazine, is seeking submissions of poetry, fiction, nonfiction essays, and visual art from among the LGBTQ Christian community and its allies. Topics of sexuality and faith are welcome, though they are certainly not required. For submission guidelines please visit: www.stsebastianreview.com/Submissions.html.

The Rainbow Romance Writers, the LGBT chapter of Romance Writers of America, is accepting submissions for their first annual Rainbow Awards of Excellence (RAES), which recognize the best in published LGBT romance. The contest is open to all authors published in novel or novella length romantic fiction during the 2009 publishing year as long as the story in question has an LGBT romance as its focus and fits within one of our seven categories. Contemporary; Paranormal; Romantic Suspense; Historical; Sci-fi/Fantasy; short/novella (10,000-20,000 words). All entries must be submitted electronically and will be accepted beginning June 1 2010 through August 31, 2010. The entry fee is $15 and is payable through Paypal. Entrants need not be members of either Rainbow Romance Writers or RWA. Further questions can be directed to contest coordinator, Sara Bell at: wavyscribe @ aol . com.For more information, or to submit an entry, please visit the Web site at http://www.rainbowromancewriters.com/2010/04/contest-2010-rainbow-romance-award-for-excellence-in-romantic-fiction/.

The Laurents/Hatcher Foundation has established a new annual playwriting award, providing $50,000 to an emerging writer and an additional $100,000 toward the production costs for mounting the recipient’s play. The foundation was established by director, playwright and librettist Arthur Laurents and Tom Hatcher, his partner. The first award will be presented March 15, 2011.

The Saints and Sinners Literary Festival is now accepting entries to their Short Fiction Contest, which will be judged by author John Berendt. Original, unpublished short stories between 5,000 and 7,000 words with GLBT content on the broad theme of Saints and Sinners. The contest is open to authors at all stages of their careers and to stories in all genres. Deadline: November 1, 2010 Contest website: http://sasfest.org/category/competitions Download entry form and mail entry to: Saints and Sinners Literary Festival Fiction Contest, 938 Lafayette St., Suite 514, New Orleans, LA 70113

The Saints and Sinners Literary Festival in association with the Marigny Theatre Corporation and the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival is now taking submissions for their 5th annual Playwright’s Competition. Previously produced plays will be considered as long as they have not been produced in the greater New Orleans area. Characters should be kept to a minimum—preferably 5 or under. Staging should be simple or adaptable to a small stage. Deadline: December 31, 2010 Contest website: http://sasfest.org/fifth-annual-playwrights-competition. Download entry form and mail entry to: Saints and Sinners Literary Festival, 938 Lafayette St., Suite 514, New Orleans, LA 70113

Mary, a literary magazine published quarterly, is currently seeking submissions for both its print and Web publications. Submissions are welcomed in prose, poetry, or essay format. The journal’s mission is to showcase queer/gay writings of artistic merit. Submissions should not be any longer than 5,000 words, and can be submitted electronically at maryliterary@gmail.com. Writers whose work is accepted will be awarded a small honorarium.

Passages: American novelist and memoirist Donald Windham died May 31, 2010. He was 89 years old. Windham was known for his close friendships with Tennessee Williams, Paul Cadmus, Lincoln Kirsten, and Truman Capote. His novels include the The Dog Star (1950), The Hero Continues (1960), Two People (1965), and Tanaquil (1972). Lost Friendships, a memoir of his friendship with Capote and Williams, was published in 1987.