Source: Gay City News, Advocate
Gay literati were the stars in LA on May 29th as 20th Annual Lambda Literary Awards -- affectionately known as the "Lammys" -- were held on in what is likely America's gayest two square miles -- West Hollywood.
Twenty-one books received awards. Highlights include the LGBT anthology First Person Queer, edited by Richard Labonte and Lawrence Schimel (Arsenal Pulp Press) and The IHOP Papers, by Ali Leibegott (Carroll & Graf) in the category of Women's Fiction. The award represents double triumph for Leibegott, who received a Publishing Triangle book award only a few weeks earlier.
Simon Sheppard, whose book Homosex won last night’s honor for best LGBT erotica, reminded the crowd that this wasn't a typical Hollywood awards ceremony. After the customary words of gratitude to his editor and publisher, he casually added, “this is for every man who sucks cock.”
The esteemed novelist Katherine V. Forrest, who received the night’s first standing ovation also inserted a few well-timed phallic jokes as she handed a purple baton to Christopher Rice, the new president of the award night's sponsor, Lambda Literary Foundation.
Rice was described by Gay City News book reviewer Michael T. Luongo as "the blond, eternally youthful ... son of Anne Rice, and an accomplished novelist in his own right."
Changes in the publishing world at large and in its LGBT niche were on the minds of many. Gay City News points out that some of the publishers whose books were rewarded have either gone out of business or have seen major changes in ownership.
"It's a challenge," Rice said, adding, "There are tough questions only writers can answer. A literary organization like us can really step up" in the new publishing environment to benefit gay writers.
New York's Gay City News notes that the ceremony held on the West Coast was another sign of change. Lambda Literary Foundation, the group behind the ceremony, will remain in Los Angeles. LLF was headquartered in New York the past several years and moved this year along with Charles Flowers, its executive director, to a new West Coast home.
The celluloid and paper worlds joined forces during the weekend as handsome Mario Lopez, who has often played gay on TV and in film, joined several other authors who held book singings. Lopez was promoting his Rodale publishing workout book Knockout Fitness.
The In Memoriam video presentation, highlighting the lives of LGBT writers and activists who have died in the last 20 years, including Susan Sontag, Barbara Gittings, and Allen Ginsberg, moved more than one person taking the stage. Lambda executive director Charles Flowers choked back tears as he said, “I never cry when I watch the In Memoriam reel at the Oscars. This is how much books mean to me.”
Writing a column about the ceremony for the Bilerico Project, novelist Patricia Nell Warren highlighted that section:
Last night at the Lammies, for me, the defining moment was the "In Memoriam" slide show - a presentation of photographs of all LGBT authors who died during the awards' 20 years of history. The presentation was inspired by that memoriam done at the Oscars every year. Photos ran the gamut from world-famous, notorious and well-known to lesser-known.
But author head-shots don't look anything like airbrushed Hollywood head-shots. Seeing them all together, in a single documentary presentation, was overwhelming - those honest faces untouched by the plastic surgeon. They had wrinkles and scars and moles. There were a few funny hats, and strange-looking dresses, and startling hairstyles. All their eyes had that look of hard experience, hard work, the fierce will to tell the story against all odds. In some cases, their faces showed the ravages of advancing illness. Few of those women and men could be called "stunning" or "handsome." Yet their collective legacy is massive.
LA's gay literary quotient over the weekend was fueled by more than just the Lammys. A number of gay and lesbian authors had signings or held readings, including Linda Villarosa, with her new Kensington novel Passing for Black. Michael Thomas Ford, who won a Lammy for Men's Romance, for his book Changing Tides, also signed at the Kensington display.
On Saturday, New Yorker Sarah Schulman read from her classic 1995 novel "Rat Bohemia" at A Different Light in the heart of West Hollywood. The following day, after the closing of Book Expo, Pen USA hosted a queer literature panel in a private home. The quintessentially Southern California panel was a sunset hour poolside chat and an open dialogue with an audience of about 35 people. Moderated by radio host Michael Silverblatt, panelists included Schulman, Flowers, the novelist Joseph Olshan, and literary agent Mitchell Waters.
The Advocate's Rachel Dowd pointed out that the awards ceremony missed its deadline, just like most writers do.
In her opening remarks, Teresa DeCrescenzo, the host committee chair, promised that the whole show would be wrapped up "sometime before 9:30." It didn't quite make it, but, when the ceremony ended at 10 pm, no one seemed to notice that DeCrescenzo’s cutoff time had come and gone, Dowd writes.
As the sun finally set and the cool LA air descended around the pool, bringing with it the smell of azaleas and eucalyptus, Flowers said of the Lambda Literary Foundation, "Turning 20, we're more relevant than when we started." Back then, he said, "it was about the invisibility of our people. Now it's about the invisibility of our books."
Flowers added that film and television have been the new methods by which gay people have become visible in America, seemingly replacing books. Still, he added, "the foundation of this is the printed word."
Full article: Gay Lit Goes Left Coast | Gay City News
The LGBT Literati | The Advocate