August Publishing Notes

The buzz: The Arcus Foundation has given more than $400,000 to the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, a California seminary, to help craft formal liturgies for the Episcopal Church to bless gay and lesbian relationships.

Philip Clark, Jaime Cortez, Judy Grahn, Philip Huang, Kevin Killian, Ali Liebegott, Matt Bernstein Sycamore, Kirk Read, and Michelle Tea will read from Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS on Thursday August 19, 2010 at 8 p.m. at Magnet, 4122 18th Street in the Castro in San Francisco.

There will be a benefit show for the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival on August 12 at 7 p.m. at Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta. The music line-up includes KenJ, Lucas Mire and Bucky Motter, plus keyboardists Andy Ditzler and Guyton Maurice, and the debut of Julia Carroll and Amy Lashley’s new band, Without a Net. The comedy line-up includes the host of comedy night at Eddie’s, Alyssa Barnett-Schott, plus Mindy Dawn Friedman and Vivian Alford, and Sanders Hulsey.

Bold Strokes Books will publish Jeffrey Ricker’s new novel, Detours in 2011.

STARbooks Press has released a new novel by Thom Nickels, Spore, a new anthology edited by Christopher Pierce, Men at Noon, Monsters at Midnight, and a new anthology edited by Eric Summers, Teammates.

Random House will publish David France’s Morning in America, a look at how AIDS went from a fatal plague to a mostly manageable medical condition as a result of the efforts of a small but fiercely dedicated group of citizen activists who took it upon themselves to master the science and confront the research establishment, pharmaceutical industry, and federal government.

Varsity Prints will publish Reece Wyman Manley’s All Gays Go To Heaven, a gay man’s reflection on past addictions and challenges overcome through a near death experience.

Stephen McCauley is at work on a seventh novel, tentatively titled My Pornographer. The author is also at work on a series of novels to be published under a penname.

Noel Ambery, along with more than 100 other authors, contributed to a remix of the old Horatio Alger rags-to-riches novel Joe’s Luck. The remix can be accessed here.

Amos Lassen is now one of the top 60 reviewers on Amazon.com.

Rebel Satori has released Chick Band, a behind the scenes rock band novel by Rakelle Valencia.

Author, activist and furniture designer Mitchell Gold and his husband, Tim Scofield were married June 19 in Des Moines, Iowa at the Des Moines Art Center.

Poet Ragan Fox will be a competitor on this year's Big Brother reality show.

Poet Bryan Borland has launched Sibling Rivalry Press which recently published Ganymede Unfinished -- A Tribute to John Stahle -- the final issue of the gay literary journal the late editor was at work on before he died earlier this year. The press has also published Fag Hag – A Scandalous Chapbook of Fabulously-Codependent Poetry, edited by Borland, featuring work by Stephen S. Mills, Jessie Carty, Patti Forehand, Ana Tun, Philip F. Clark, Leigh Binder, Val B. Russell, Joseph Harker, Tel, Elizabeth Stelling, Tau, Karen Schindler, Guy “Dhyan” Traiber, Sam Sanders, Gypsy, Victor Kondratas, Paul Andrew Russell, Loria Taylor, Sean Labrador y Manzano, Nicholas Y.B. Wong, Alana Smoot Samuelson, LaMar Johnson, and B.R. Belletryst.

Dark Scribe editor and publisher Vince Liaguno is chairing the Horror Writers Association Stoker Weekend 2011, June 16-19 on Long Island.

Author Robert Dunbar has launched a new press owned, Uninvited Books. Uninvited Books’ first title is a new novel by Greg F. Gifune called Gardens Of Night.

Fetish, a short film written by Charles Casillo which features the author and Joan Collins, will be part of a screening on August 15th at the New York City International Film Festival.

Rob Williams next project is The Mystic Chord, a film based on Jim Tushinksi’s novel Van Allen’s Ecstasy. The screenplay won the NewDraft screenwriting competition at NewFest 2010.

Open calls: Prism Comics is accepting submissions for the 2010 Queer Press Grant, with a deadline of September 15, 2010. The annual grant was established by Prism Comics to assist in the publication and promotion of LGBT comics. For guidelines, as well as for the application form, please go to prismcomics.org/grant. Questions about the grant can be directed to Justin Hall at justin@prismcomics.org.

Editor Richard Labonté is seeking short stories for the erotic anthology Daddies 2: Gay Erotic Fiction to be published by Cleis Press, Summer 2011. Max. word count 6,000 words. Deadline: Nov. 1, 2010. Submissions to: daddiestwo@gmail.com. Please put "Daddies 2" in the subject line and include a 50-word bio and a mailing address. Original stories preferred, though reprints will be considered.

Labonté is also seeking short stories for the erotic anthology Hot Jocks to be published by Cleis Press Spring 2011. Stories should have an athletic theme. Deadline is Sept. 1, 2010. Submissions to cleishotjocks@gmail.com. Please put "Hot Jocks" in the subject line, and include a 50-word bio and a mailing address. Original stories only.

Chelsea Station Editions is seeking original or previously published short stories for an anthology to be titled Tangled. Stories should focus on the complexities, freedoms, and foibles of gay dating, sex, friendships, lovers and other relationships. Preference will be give to delightfully plotted literary narratives with strong characters and locale. Maximum word count: 8,000. Submissions should be emailed as Word documents to chelseastation@yahoo.com. Please include legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), mailing address, e-mail address, and a fifty word or less bio. If story has been previously published, please also include publication details and confirmation that rights belong to author. Deadline is November 1, 2010.

RedBone Press and Vintage Entity Press are co-publishing the second edition of Carry the Word: A Bibliography of Black LGBTQ Books for early fall 2010. If you have or know of a black LGBTQ/SGL book published since 2007, or an upcoming book to be published in 2010 (*it must already have an ISBN assigned*), please email info@redbonepress.com.