keeping you up to date concerning the queerthology project

Monday, June 26, 2006

A Fascinating Review in The Huntsville Times

The Huntsville Times:
"I picked up the book only to pass along to a friend who's interested in these issues. I was not going to read it. I thought I had nothing more to learn on the subject. I was wrong..."

"... it is not a book about sex, but about defining yourself in a hostile world."

posted by Billy @ 10:25 AM  0 comments

What is Queerthology?

Queerthology is about giving voice to the youth of our LGBTQ community.

We have complied The Full Spectrum: A New Generation of Writing About the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Other Identities, an anthology of personal nonfiction by young authors (ages 13 to 23) about today’s queer teen/youth experience.

Published by Knopf, a division of Random House Children’s Books, it will be in stores the summer of 2006. All royalties will go to GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), a national education organization ensuring safe schools for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. GLSEN envisions a future in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.

We received just under 300 submissions from all over, including 38 states, as well as Canada, England, Ireland, Israel, Norway, and the Philippines, and have selected about 40 pieces that we feel best fit out needs and the needs of teens in America. The diverse body of submissions made it possible to compile an anthology that will represent all of us.

It used to be that queer teens were fighting to find a single voice. Now we each have our own voices – and finally someone has given us a place to tell our stories in order to show what gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender/questioning life is really like now. So that other people – both queer and straight – can know.

Who is Queerthology?

David Levithan is the author of several books for young readers including Boy Meets Boy, The Realm of Possibility, and Are We There Yet?, all of which were named Best Books for Young Adults by the American Library Association, as well as Marly's Ghost, illustrated by Brian Selznick, and Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist, which he co-wrote with Rachel Cohn. He has also received a number of honors, including a Lambda Literary Award. His most recent novel, Wide Awake, will find its way into stores September of 2006. Visit him online at davidlevithan.com.

Billy Merrell is the author of Talking in the Dark, a poetry memoir published by Scholastic in 2003. He has since worked toward a Masters in Fine Arts for Poetry from Columbia University in New York, where he has been interning at The Academy of American Poets. Visit him online at myspace, check out his website at talkinginthedark.com, or browse his blog at talkinginthedark.blogspot

Courtney Gillette is a quirky school teacher who believes in poetry, being queer, the innate awesome-ness of ten year olds, and mango-flavored anything. She received her BA from NYU in Individualized Studies. Her writing has appeared in The Gallatin Review, Vernacular, and Word For It, among others. Hailing from small town Pennsylvania, she currently lives and teaches in New York, where she can be found riding the subway, reading comic books, or playing skee ball on Coney Island. She is 23. You can drop her a line at courtney.gillette@gmail.com.

Gabe Bloomfield was born in 1990. He spends most of his time at school, home, and hanging out with friends. He is currently concentrating mainly on playwriting: his play "Snow is Falling" (also about gay people) won first place in Philadelphia Young Playwrights' playwriting festival and was produced by the Philadelphia Theater Company. He also occasionally writes about straight people. In addition to his writing duties, he plays piano in a cabaret-rock duo known as "The Specks", which is currently in the process of recording its first album, the rock opera "Songs About Lennie" (and yes, Lennie is gay). He lives in Philadelphia.

Eugenides Fico is 20 and currently studying Literature and Gender Studies as an undergraduate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Confident after having been published in a "real" book, Gen's next big project is a senior thesis, focusing on a different social conception of gender than the one we currently have. Still unsure of how life should turn out, post-graduation plans will most likely include graduate school (focusing on gender within literature), followed by a career in teaching.

Benjamin Zumsteg just graduated from DePaul University in Chicago, so he has lots of free time on his hands. In said free time, he is training for the Chicago Marathon and is carrying on an antagonistic relationship with his dirty dishes.

Danny Zaccagnino is the creator and performer of the one man show, "Condemned in the Classroom." This original show deals with violence and discrimination towards gay youth in the public school system. His performance piece has given Danny the opportunity to perform all over the US and a chance to speak at High schools to raise awareness about homophobia in schools. Danny was also an active planner for the UN's first ever Global Youth Summit. A native New Yorker and graduate of SUNY Purchase College he is currently pursing his acting career in LA.

Adam Boehmer grew up in the South studying Creative Writing at the University of Central Florida. His favorite part of the day is the early evening, and as of late, has been writing a lot about dirty mittens found in the snow. He currently resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan where he teaches and performs Traditional Jazz Dance.

Lauren Rile Smith currently lives in Pennsylvania

L. Canale prefers going by the names ‘Lourdi’ or ‘Lo’. She currently lives in New Jersey and enjoys making fancy coffee at a bookstore cafe. Her favorite color is red and if she’s not working or...well, writing, she’s either just daydreaming or talking to herself. She has had the same best friends for nearly 15 years and thinks that’s pretty cool. It’s also cool when her favorite bands put their albums out on vinyl. That’s fun.

If you enjoyed reading her journal in The Full Spectrum, maybe you’d enjoy some catching up on http://journals.student.com/journal/phunny_lo. You can also visit her at www.myspace.com/lourdi or email her at yeeeahLo@cs.com.

Jack Lienke was born and raised in Oklahoma City, OK. He now lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Alexzander Colin Rasmussen has lived in Boston for the past two years. You can him online at http://ftm-boi.tripod.com/ftmboizcom/ or at http://defiantboi.theblogaddict.com/. He would like to thank Andrea Razi for her amazing support. “You really encouraged and supported my writing,” he says. “You’re why I am where I am.”

Kat Wilson currently lives in Portland, Oregon.

Christopher Wilcox was born in 1981 and currently lives in Bradley, Illinois with his boyfriend and cat, Lilly. Christopher enjoys music and is an organist/pianist for two Catholic churches. He hopes to get back to school this fall for music performance. Christopher will participate in Braking the Cycle in September, riding 275 miles in 3 days from Gettysburg to Manhattan in an attempt to raise money for the LGBT Community Center in New York. Check him out on myspace or email him at fireguy_5@yahoo.com.

J.J. Deogracias was born in 1981 and currently lives in Toronto. He graduated in 2004 from the University of Toronto at Mississauga where he studied Forensic Science, Psychology, and Professional Writing. His first collection of stories, Dear Mum, I have something to tell you is now available from Life Rattle Press. His most recent title is Lost in Transition. You can email him at j.j.deogracias@gmail.com.

Alex Weissman is originally from Philadelphia, but currently lives in the Boston area where he works at Gay Men's Domestic Violence Project. He just recently ate his second hamburger in approximately ten years, and feels slightly nauseated. He hopes that will pass soon. After it does pass, Alex plans to attend graduate school for American Studies. You can often find him reminiscing about his days as Peaches the Dragon, Burry the Shrimp, and as the Bridge Troll. You can email him at arweissman@gmail.com.

Isaac Oliver is a 22- year-old playwright living in New York City. His plays include Obituary or Notes Towards Big Ideas Like Grief; Slim, Dancing Joy; Some Kind Of Anarchy; Long Dirty Jokes; Mornings After; and the book for Easter Rising, with music and lyrics by Michael Arden. Readings of his work have been heard at Joe's Pub at the Public Theatre, the Lucille Lortel Theatre, Stella Adler Studios, and Pulse Ensemble Theatre. A graduate of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, he is honored and thrilled to be included in The Full Spectrum.

Isaac blogs at hewholaughs.blogspot. You can email him at isaacoliver@gmail.com.

Laura Heston was born in 1983 and currently resides in Amherst, Massachusetts. She recently graduated from the University of Florida with academic interests in psychology, criminology, and women’s studies. Working on a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, she does not intend on becoming a full-time poet, though she secretly considers it a solid Plan B. If it so happens that researching gender, sexuality, sex workers, and social movements improves the quality and scope of her poetry she will not complain and neither should you. She has been significantly influenced by the work of Jeannette Winterson, which should make for some very interesting journal articles and poems alike. Despite the impression given by her poem in The Full Spectrum, she has very loving and accepting parents that want nothing but for her to be happy and to grow her hair back out. Finally, she owes a great deal of thanks to Sommer Gray, Leslie Wakefield, and Billy Merrell who have seen many of her poems evolve into their current forms while always providing more support than criticism.

Born and raised in Watertown, South Dakota, Travis Stanton studied English and Theater at Augustana College, where he founded a non-profit organization for young gay men looking to come out in high school. In 2001, Travis wrote and directed "Family Graffiti," a one-act play about the relationships between gay men and their mothers. After college, Travis directed Vaudeville shows for Kentucky-based Christopher Alan Productions, served as Managing Editor of Minneapolis-based Lavender Magazine, and was recently named Editor of EXHIBITOR Magazine, based in Rochester, MN. Also an award-winning speaker and speechwriter, Travis has received numerous Publishing Excellence Awards from the Minnesota Magazine and Publications Association. When he's not working, playing with his baby nephew Sean, or napping with his cat Dolce, Travis dreams of publishing his children's books The Adventures of Goose & Donkey, and If I Were an Anteater.

Dylan Forest currently lives in Washington.

Jovencio de la Paz currently lives in Chicago.

Justin Levesque currently lives in Maine.

Joshua Dalton was born in 1989 and lives near Dallas, Texas. His work will also appear in Userlands: New Fiction from the Blogging Underground, edited by Dennis Cooper.

Alison Young was born in 1985 and received a BA in International Relations from Mary Baldwin College. She is about to move from her home in North Carolina to Melbourne, Australia, to pursue a Master's degree in International Relations at Deakin University and to see her girlfriend of two years, Kitty (who happens to be the focus of her story in the anthology). It will be the first time the two see each other in person. After Ali finishes grad school, she hopes to work for the US Foreign Service as a consular officer.

Evin Hunter is an 18-year-old gay transguy. He currently goes to boarding school in Putney, Vermont, but will be home in the Philadelphia suburbs this summer. In the fall, he will be attending Reed College in Portland, Oregon. After being a dyke for a year, he transitioned from female to male over the last two years, and he is post transition, starting hormones and having top surgery in June 2005. Other than writing, his interests include playing the oboe, mountain biking, road biking, snowboarding, and skateboarding. He is very involved in the trans community, both on the internet and in real life. You can check out his website at http://www.nbtsc.org/~huntershadow or email him at evinhunter@gmail.com.

Laci Lee Adams currently lives in Denver, Colorado.

Kaitlyn Tierney Duggan almost always leaves the lights on in her car, and is forced to walk a lot. She doesn't mind. In fact, she is beginning to suspect that she is doing it on purpose. Kaitlyn once happened across an article about phantom limb syndrome and realized halfway through that the article was actually describing how she felt about New York City in exact detail. Which is perhaps why she currently lives in Bangor, Maine. Kaitlyn has lived in 5 cities in the last 4 years, and is forced to move around a lot, but she doesn't mind. She is beginning to suspect she is doing it on purpose. You can email her at kt_proximity@hotmail.com.

Eric Knudsen doesn't like to talk about himself, but will make an exception for this exciting book. He pursues a degree in journalism and social welfare at the University of Connecticut, where he is known to raise hell from time to time. As an aspiring journalist, "I am the eyes to see and the voice to speak the injustice and wrongdoings in this world," said Eric. He considers himself an agent of change and actively fights discrimination and oppression on all levels, focusing especially on issues related to racism, patriarchy, and homophobia. He is a recently trained advocate for survivors of sexual assault and sexual abuse. Don't be fooled: Eric is far from perfect and doesn't take himself too seriously.

JoSelle Vanderhooft's poetry and short fiction has appeared or will soon appear in such publications as Star*Line, Cabinet des Fees, Mythic Delirium, Sybil's Garage, Reflection's Edge, Byzarium, Goblin Fruit, Jabberwocky, Mythic and The Seventh Quarry. Her first chap book, 10,000 Several Doors, was released as an e-book from Cat's Eye Publishing on Christmas Day, 2005. It will be available in print Summer, 2006. Desert Songs, a chap book of poetry about life in Utah with illustrations by Erzebet YellowBoy will also be released by Cross Cultural Communications sometime this year. Additionally, she is the Pedestal Magazine's Senior Reviewer and co-editor of the forthcoming magazine Crow's Nest. She lives in Salt Lake City.

Anthony Rella currently lives in Chicago.

Zara Iris is a spoken word artist. She currently lives in Pennsylvania.

Jesse Alick is a poet, playwright, actor and Zen master. Born and raised a Buddhist high in the mountains of Montana, he began writing poetry at the age of 6 and short plays at the age of 14. He skipped grades and, like a good child genius, wrote short skits and plays for a number of theatre companies while growing up and moved to New York City when he was barely 17. Jesse currently works as the Associate Artistic Director for Subjective Theatre Company who produced his New York City debut in 2003 with the production of his full-length play “Sleep Awake”. Jesse also works as the Associate Producer for Smokin Word Productions, who published his book of poetry, How to Reach a State of No Wind in Just Under a Year, also in 2003. Most recently, Smokin Word produced Jesse's one act play at Cherry Lane in the 2005 Downtown Urban Theatre Festival. Other work by Jesse has been published in the monthly publication The Errorist, and in a number of Brooklyn-based newspapers . Jesse has had readings of his work at locations that include Manhattan Theatre Club, Blue Heron, Museum of the City of New York, Bowery Poetry Club, The Poetry Café (UK) and Hip Heaven (UK). A former board member for Body Positive, Jesse currently sits on the executive board for LID.

Caspian Gray currently lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Danny Thanh Nguyen is a humorist, short story writer, and co-creator of the literary trash character DJ Berkley: The Worst Spoken Word Artist In The World. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in various publications, including Salt Hill, Hyphen Magazine, and Lodestar Quarterly. He is a founding member of the Vietnamese Artist Collective with which he edited the forthcoming anthology As Is. He also co-edited Walk Like A Warrior: A Young Man’s Survival Guide for the San Francisco non-profit Health Initiatives for Youth, where he has taught writing and zine-making workshops for Bay Area youth.

Danny will be turning 23 when he uproots from San Francisco to begin his MFA program in fiction at Indiana University this 2006. He is working on Engrish Lessons, a collection of essays and short stories.

Joel de Vera Moncada currently lives in Berkeley, California.

Ella Pye is 23, 5'6", 160, and wears a size 8 shoe. Her blood type is O, but she is not quite sure if she is negative or positive. She drives a red car and hates eggs. Her favorite Beatle is John.

Jesse Bernstein currently works as a Country Analyst for the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. Jesse researches and writes about displaced populations in eastern and central Africa and advocates for their rights with the United Nations, local and national government institutions, and western donor governments. His work also involves supporting local civil society groups in their response to conflict and displacement. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in June 2004, Jesse traveled to Uganda where he worked for a local human rights organization where he contributed, through interviewing refugees and displaced persons, to a number of working papers on displacement and conflict in Uganda. Jesse has also worked with refugee populations in various capacities in New York, Cape Town and Cairo and has published two papers on urban refugees as well as a number of opinion pieces on the conflict in northern Uganda. You can email him at jessebernstein@hotmail.com.

Grover Wehman is a poet and performance artist living in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has appeared in various magazines including Hip Mama, PUSH, and Full as well as in the anthologies Becoming: Young Ideas on Gender, Identity, and Sexuality, and Up All Night: Real Live Lesbian Sex Stories. Her one-butch-play "Train Scars and Skin Hopping" premiered at the 2003 Transgendered Theatre Festival in New York City. In May 2005 she released Postmarked, a CD collection of spoken word pieces and performance poetry (happily for sale by e-mail). You can listen to or read samples of her work at grover.byregion.net. Grover has made the transition from white-bread to quinoa. She hates bootstraps but can’t seem to unhook her fingers from them. Mostly she loves manipulating heavy objects, trees, and intense conversation. She is quickly approaching her 24th year in the world. groverspeak.com.

Stefanie Chapin Davis was born on October 29, 1989 and currently resides in South Hadley MA. Stefanie is a 16-year-old sophomore at the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, MA. She is bilingual in German and English and has lived in Hamburg, Germany. She enjoys traveling and has been to eight different countries so far. Her most recent trip was to Ireland in March of 2006. She is a passionate writer of all forms and has been recognized for her poems, many of which have been chosen for publication. Stefanie was also part of Hartford Stage’s Write On! playwriting competition for which she wrote part of a play which was read by professional actors, to launch their playing reading festival in the fall of 2005. For fun Stefanie enjoys running, reading, horseback riding and playing on her Junior Varsity softball team.

Matthew Mayo was born in 1985 in Connecticut. A former creative writing student of Bennington College in Vermont, Matthew enjoys spending time with friends and watching movies, as well as hanging out at local coffee houses. That is, of course, when he is not either working or attending classes at the University of Montevallo, where he is currently working on his Bachelor's in Political Science and Creative Writing. He is currently at work on his first full length fiction novel, titled Day Before Yesterday, a story about two gay teens struggling to grow up in a place that won’t accept their existence, as well as putting the final touches on his first volume of lyric essays, The River, from which “That Night“ is excerpted. Visit his Myspace to learn more about him, or send him an email at lamayo@sbcglobal.net. Matthew currently resides in Montevallo Alabama, with his roommates Chris and Abby, and their pet fish, Frank.

Tyrell Pough currently lives in New York City.

Robert Brittain currently lives in Oregon.