September Publishing Notes

The buzz: Haworth Press, the parent company of the GLBT imprint Harrington Park Press, has been purchased by Taylor & Francis, pending approval by regulatory authorities in the U.S. and Europe. According to a report from Shelf Awareness, most of the Harrington Park Press nonfiction will be published and distributed by Taylor & Francis, but all fiction titles and some trade titles will be divested to another publishing house. Publicity and advertising for the imprint’s new fiction titles have been temporarily suspended and some fiction titles in the publishing pipeline have been halted. You can find the Lambda Literary Foundation’s "In Memoriam" tribute to LGBT literary figures who died during the last 18 months now up on YouTube. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and illustrated by Henry Cole, is at the top of the American Library Association’s annual list of most challenged books by parents. The award-winning children’s book is based on the true story of two New York Zoo male penguins who raise a baby penguin. The 2008 edition of Best American Erotica will celebrate the series 15th anniversary and will also be Susie Bright’s last turn as editor. This fall, Susie will announce her new literary endeavor. Author Michael Luongo is teaching a travel writing class, the Global Traveler, this fall at NYU. Among the worthy new blogs that have been recently launched is Worth the Trip, about queer books for kids and teens. Atria will publish Thom Filicia Style: Inspired Ideas for Creating Rooms You’ll Love. The cast of Rikki Beadle-Blair’s play Stonewall, about the 1969 Stonewall riots, was nominated for a best ensemble award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Mike Jones, who authored the memoir I Had To Say Something, about his tryst with Ted Haggard, appeared in Porridge, a new play by Brian Bauman at the Boulder International Fringe Festival in August. Ganymede Arts in Washington, D.C. (formerly Actors Theater of Washington) will be performing David Brendan Hope’s new play The Loves of Mr. Lincoln, in October as part of their GLBT festival. Arch Brown’s Thorny Theater in Palm Springs has announced their new season. Among the plays being offered are: News Boy by Arch Brown, Who Killed Zachary Morgan? by Harriett Weise, The Goddess Tour by Carolyn Gage, 108 Waverly by Dan Clancy and Lynn Portas, Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill, The Bombay Trunk by Felice Picano, and Frank Lee, My Dear and Ships That Piss In the Night both by Arch Brown. And Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, two of the producing forces behind the film versions of Chicago and Hairspray, are planning to create a new television version of Peter Pan.

Scissors Uncut: Augusten Burroughs and St. Martin’s Press have agreed to change a characterization of Burroughs’s Running with Scissors in the author’s note from “memoir” to just “book,” as part of the settlement of a lawsuit filed by the Turcotte family. Burroughs will also alter the author’s note in the book to indicate: “I recognize that their memories of the events described in this book are different than my own. They are each fine, decent, and hard-working people. The book was not intended to hurt the family. Both my publisher and I regret any unintentional harm resulting from the publishing and marketing of Running with Scissors.” In a statement released by St. Martin’s Press, the publisher noted that the book could still be described as a “memoir” on the cover and elsewhere. Burroughs also said in the statement in part: “Running With Scissors is still called a memoir. It always has been a memoir, and the family expressly agreed that it will continue to be called one.... Not one word of the actual memoir itself has been changed or altered in any way. The text is exactly as I wrote it, intended it, and lived it.” He defended his work as “entirely accurate.” “I consider this [settlement] not only a personal victory but a victory for all memoirists,” Burroughs also stated. “I still maintain that the book is an entirely accurate memoir, and that it was not fictionalized or sensationalized in any way. I did not embellish or invent elements. We had a very strong case because I had the truth on my side.”

Kudos: Author Joe Keenan was named one of three finalists for the annual Thurber Prize for American Humor for his novel My Lucky Star. The winner will be announced in October. The Gold Crown Literary Society, a non-profit that supports authors, publishers and distributors of lesbian fiction, presented their awards at their third annual conference in Atlanta in June. Winners and photos are posted on their Web site. Nu Nu Yi, an author from Myanmar who writes under the name Inwa, was nominated along with 22 other authors from around Asia for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize, for her novel about a gay spirit medium, Smile as they bow; Laugh as they bow.

Open Calls: Editors Lawrence Schimel and Linda Alvarez are accepting submissions for the 2008 editions Best Gay Poetry and Best Lesbian Poetry, to be published by A Midsummer Night’s Press. Poems can have appeared in print or online magazines, journals, or anthologies first published in 2007; or from books or chapbooks first published in 2007, even if the poem was originally published previously in periodicals, so long as the poet has the right to reprint the poem. Submissions from individual poets or queries should be sent by e-mail in .doc format to one of the following addresses, as appropriate: BestGayPoetry@gmail.com or BestLesbianPoetry@gmail.com. Please title documents with the poet’s surname. Include contact information (both street and email address), bio, and previous publication history within the document, as documents will be read separately from the e-mails. Deadline is December 1, 2007. Books and journals for review can be sent to the attention of the appropriate editor at: A Midsummer Night’s Press, 16 West 36th Street, 2nd Floor, New York NY 10018. ** Editors Connie Griffin and David Hooks are seeking nonfiction for Coming Out in the South. Deadline is February 15, 2008. Submission guidelines can be found at http://www.comingoutinthesouth.com/. ** Editor Nicole Foster is looking for lesbian erotica for Wetter, to be published by Alyson in 2008. Submissions can be sent to alysonanthology@planetoutinc.com along with name and pseudonym, as well as contact info and a short bio. In the subject line, add the name of the anthology for which your story is intended. Deadline: Sept 15, 2007.