February Publishing Notes

The buzz: Harper will publish George Michael’s “no-holds barred” autobiography in the fall of 2009. Rosie O’Donnell is rumored to be at work on a one-woman show. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel has been appointed an adjunct professor and the chairwoman of the playwriting department at Yale School of Drama. Author, comedian, and daytime TV host Ellen DeGeneres ousted talk show queen Oprah Winfrey as the U.S.'s favorite television personality in a poll released in January. Among the recent films showcased at Sundance was an adaptation of Michael Cabon’s The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. Logo will air a prequel series to the play and movie Sordid Lives this fall The series will include guest appearances by Leslie Jordan, Margaret Cho, and others. Editor-in-chief Will Schwalbe has left Hyperion to pursue the next chapter in his career. This fall City Lights will publish So Many Ways to Sleep Badly, a new novel by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. Susie Bright is headed on a farewell tour for Best American Erotica. Details can be found at http://booktour.com/author/susie_bright and http://www.bestamericanerotica.com/. Susie is also writing a memoir and has signed on to edit two new anthologies for Chronicle Books. The Sex Workers Art Show tour is going to 38 cities in 41 days in January and February. The full schedule can be found at http://sexworkersartshow.com/tourschedule.html and http://sexworkersartshow.com/newbook.html. Also featured at the show will be a new anthology of sex worker writings, Working Sex: Sex Workers Write About a Changing Industry, edited by Annie Oakley, and featuring work by several of the show’s performers, as well as Eileen Myles, Bruce LaBruce, Nomy Lamm, and Michelle Tea.

Kudos: The winners of the 2008 Stonewall Book Awards are: The Barbara Gittings Book Award in Literature to Ellis Avery for The Tea House Fire, and The Israel Fishman Book Award for Nonfiction to Mark Doty for Dog Years: A Memoir. The 2008 honor books in literature are: Bow Grip by Ivan E. Coyote, Dark Reflections by Samuel R. Delany, The IHOP Papers by Ali Liebegott, and The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt. The honor books in non-fiction are: Grand Surprise: The Journals of Leo Lerman by Leo Lerman and Stephen Pascal, Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums, Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers by Cris Beam, and Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice by Janet Malcolm. The Alice B. Reader’s Appreciation Awards given annually to living writers for career achievement of distinguished stories about lesbians were presented to: Kim Baldwin, Ann Bannon, Cate Culpepper, Lauren Wright Douglas, Jennifer L. Jordan, Val McDermid, Joanna Russ, and Therese Szymanski. Vintage by Steve Berman has made the long list for the Andrew Norton Award given to young adult novels of speculative fiction. GLAAD does not present book awards, but the GLAAD Media Awards include categories for comic books and theater. The nominations in the Comic Book category of the GLAAD Media Awards went to: American Virgin by Steven T. Seagle, The Boys by Garth Ennis, Midnighter by Garth Ennis, Brian K. Vaughan, Christos Gage, Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, and Keith Giffin, The Outsiders by Judd Winick, Greg Rucka, and Tony Bedard, and Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore. Theater nominees for LA Theater are: Act A Lady by Jordan Harrison, Anything by Tim McNeil, Avenue Q, book by Jeff Whitty, music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, Havana Bourgeois by Carlos Lacamara, and The Long Christmas Ride Home by Paula Vogel. For New York Theater – Broadway & Off–Broadway: 100 Saints You Should Know by Kate Fodor, All That I Will Ever Be by Alan Ball, The Beebo Brinker Chronicles by Kate Moira Ryan and Linda S. Chapman, Some Men by Terrence McNally, and Speech & Debate by Stephen Karam. For Off–Off Broadway: 1001 Beds by Tim Miller, BASH’d: A Gay Rap Opera by Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow, music by Aaron Macri, I Google Myself by Jason Schafer, Yank! book and lyrics by David Zellnik, music by Joseph Zellnik, The Young Ladies Of by Taylor Mac. San Francisco’s Theater Rhinoceros will receive a special recognition.

Open Calls: White Crane Institute in collaboration with Phil Willkie has established the biennial White Crane/James White Poetry Prize for Gay male poets. Mark Doty will be the judge for the first year. The award will be presented in spring 2009 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the White Crane Journal. A prize of $1,000, publication by White Crane Books, and five author copies will be given annually for a book-length poetry collection. Submit 48 to 80 pages of poetry with a $25 entry fee, postmarked by October 30, 2008. Visit the White Crane web site (http://www.gaywisdom.org/) for complete guidelines. For further information, write info@jameswhitepoetryprize.org.