The Lesbian Edition

- this issue sponsored by - The Haworth Press/ Harrington Park Press Southern Tier Editions Alice Street Editions & Haworth Positronic Press

Call this the issue that wouldn’t quit! Every time we were ready to wrap, there would be another news story we couldn’t resist. So this issue is long on books and rich in news. To keep it manageable, we’ll send the news first as #13, followed by the books, as issue #14 a few days later.
Features include the rebirth of Spinsters Ink, a rant about conservatives’ reactions to the news that Abraham Lincoln wasn't straight, and a round-up of book-related travel opportunities.

Yours in spreading the words,
Carol

Books To Watch Out For

It should be a very, um, interesting book and interesting to see where Cheney draws the lines as she ends her silence. In making the announcement Matalin said that Cheney was barred from discussing her personal life while working as a top aide on her father's 2000 and 2004 campaigns but that the memoir will give her an opportunity to speak her mind. Cheney’s statement said "The first time I campaigned with my father, I was 8 years old... I've been involved with campaigns as a family member, a staffer and, though I certainly never intended it, as a political target for the other side.” Ouch! Don’t look for wildly progressive politics.

Is Dick Cheney lining up to run for President in 2008? If so, getting Mary’s “gay story” out of the way well before the election is probably his best bet.

Look for the book in 2006.

Dorothy Allison is finishing a new book, working title: She Who – or maybe Sanctuary. It focuses on three women - Cassie, a twenty-three-year-old who survived a nearly fatal assault in a parking garage in San Francisco, her mother Barbara, who became an anti-violence activist after her daughter's attack, and Margaret, a sixty-year-old ex-nun who runs a goat farm on the California coast. Stay tuned!

Lesbian Publishing in Taiwan

“Our books focus on various issues of lesbianism,” she told the Taipei Times. “Sex only makes up a small part and is touched on only slightly. Since the contents contain nothing restricted, we will not label the books nor have them sealed.”

The article also reported that she launched the press in 2000 “Without any resources or knowing any writers,” after looking for lesbian books and finding only a church publication saying that homosexuality is a sin... “Volunteers staffed her booth since she cannot afford to hire employees. She makes around US$300 a month and is in debt to the tune of US$9,500, but she is not worried about the future. Lin said she would publish at least 100 books before she would even consider giving up.”

If your Chinese is up to speed, learn more about Must Muster at http://www.2her.com.tw/.

Spinsters Re-Inked by Bella Connection

The word a couple of months ago was that Spinsters was closing, but the press has found a new home and champion in Bella Books’ co-owner Linda Hill. Spinsters had been for sale for some time when then-owner Sharon Silvas and Hovis Publishing Company decided, in the face of Sharon’s failing health, to close the press late in 2004. Hill is part of a small group that is taking on the Spinsters name and logo and its remaindered inventory.

Hill & company plan to continue in the Spinsters tradition of publishing works by both lesbians and non-lesbians that address significant issues in women’s lives from a feminist perspective – books that name crucial issues and encourage change and growth. They have announced plans to release at least six new Spinsters titles in 2005 with a mix that includes mysteries, nonfiction, and women’s fiction.

Rights to books previously published by Spinsters have reverted to the authors, and authors were offered the option of taking royalty payment in books (at 40% discount plus shipping). The remaining copies of books went to Hill’s consortium and will continue to be available from Spinsters. Hill reports that she is in negotiation with a number of Spinsters Ink authors and that some may continue to publish under the auspices of the new company.

Spinsters and Bella will remain separate entities, and Hill will work actively with both houses. Both will continue to publish in their own traditions, with minimal overlap between the two. The reincarnated Spinsters, for example, will not publish lesbian romances. But it will benefit from access to Bella’s infrastructures: warehousing, production, and marketing and distribution channels.

Spinsters was founded in upstate New York by Maureen Brady and Judith McDaniel in 1978 to publish feminist books. In 1982 it moved to San Francisco where Sherry Thomas took up publishing operation. In 1986 the press merged with Aunt Lute Books (which Joan Pinkvoss had recently moved to San Francisco from Iowa City) and became Spinsters/Aunt Lute Book Company. The presses separated again in 1990 as the Aunt Lute Foundation became a separate, non-profit publishing house. Spinsters Ink moved to Minnesota in 1992 where it thrived under the care of Joan Drury and the team she assembled in Minneapolis and Duluth. In 2001, after almost a decade of stability, the press was sold to Hovis Publishing in Denver, where it was managed, primarily, by Sharon Silvas despite various ownership changes and financial difficulties. Under Silvas’ tenure the press published new titles by Sally Miller Gearhart (The Kanshou and The Magister, and reprinted The Wanderground) and Anita Mason (Angel, The Racket, The Yellow Cathedral).

Sharon Silvas, who had owned Spinsters since 2003, was facing serious health issues and, having been unable to sell the press, formally closed her incarnation of Spinsters at the end of 2004. She continues to publish Colorado Woman Newsas a web magazine at http://www.coloradowoman.com/.

BTWOF Interview: Linda Hill on the Spinsters Ink/Bella Connection

What kind of books are you looking for? When will Spinsters start accepting submissions?
  We’re already accepting manuscripts. So far we don’t have specific submission guidelines, but we expect to have details like that complete and available on the Spinsters website before too long.

In terms of nonfiction, the door is wide open. We’re looking for relevant, informative manuscripts that address current events, health and well-being, or have significant biographical or historical relevance for women.

What titles do you have lined up for Spinsters? When will the first books be coming? Can you say anything about other titles in the works?
  Fortunately at Bella, we receive quite a number of queries and manuscripts each day. From that pool, we have accepted manuscripts from three authors for Spinsters so far. We’re in the middle of contract negotiations with two and so we can’t announce those titles quite yet.

The first author and titles that the new Spinsters Ink will launch is Jennifer L. Jordan. Her last novel, Commitment to Die, is a Lammy nominee this year from Bean Pole Books. Spinsters will pick up Commitment to Die and will soon be publishing the rest of the books in the Kristin Ashe mystery series. Jennifer is an exceptional writer, and we’re thrilled that she has come on board to help us launch the new Spinsters mystery line.

How will Spinsters benefit from Bella’s infrastructure?
  The good news for Spinsters (and now I’m back to wearing my Bella hat) is that we already have a strong infrastructure in place and Spinsters will be able to share many of the resources that would normally take a new publishing house months to develop and put into place. We already have a fine production staff of editors, proofers, typesetters and cover designers. We already have a large warehouse staffed with capable people who pride themselves on exceptional customer service. We already have existing distribution and marketing channels that will simply pick up the Spinsters line in a way that will ultimately become transparent.

Spinsters can share all of these resources that should allow it to hit the ground running. That doesn’t mean we won’t be expanding, though. We’re actively looking to add to our production staff as well as the staff in our warehouse and offices to handle the additional work that another press will bring.

How will this expansion affect Bella?
  The addition of Spinsters will not alter or reduce Bella’s production schedule or our commitment to produce the same type of popular fiction that has made Bella so successful thus far.

That said, we suffer from what I’m sure many houses suffer from – too much to do and not enough staff to do it all. So the biggest change overall will be in staffing. There will be new opportunities for others to take on different roles within the organization.

How much of Spinsters’ remaindered inventory did you buy?
  We picked up the majority of the remaindered inventory from Spinsters, although we haven’t yet taken physical possession of it. At this point it’s uncertain what we’ll be able to make available to bookstores. Many of the rights reverted back to the authors. We are just beginning to contact the individual authors and are hopeful that we will be able to work with some toward keeping their work with us. It’s always a difficult situation when something like this happens and, unfortunately, it’s the authors who often suffer the brunt of it all. We hope to remedy that as much as possible.

In what other directions is the consortium expanding?
  Oh my! I don’t think we have enough space or time here! We’re growing and expanding in all kinds of ways.

In December of last year we absorbed the inventory from Rising Tide Press. Unfortunately, over time many of these titles will have to be remaindered. But the good news is that we’ve already brought a couple of the Rising Tide authors over to Bella, and we expect more to follow. We’re hopeful that over time we’ll develop long-term relationships with a number of the old RTP authors and with their readers as well.

Probably the biggest area of expansion will be in distribution. Over the past year, I’ve spent quite a lot of time talking with a number of small press publishers, and I’ve heard the same sentiment echoed from each and every one of them. Everyone seems to suffer from poor distribution and representation in the independent bookstores and also at the big chains. There’s also a complaint of a lack of cohesive foreign and direct sales.

We decided to see if we could partner with some of the other presses to find a solution to benefit each of us. As a result, we’ve begun to develop unique relationships with both publishers and wholesalers. We’ve formed a new company, Bella Distribution, that we believe will provide promotional and distribution services to publishers that just didn’t have access to those services in the past.

Specifically, Bella Distribution plans to provide marketing and product to individuals, bookstores, and wholesalers world-wide. We plan to leverage the relationships and distribution channels we already have in place to help gain more exposure for our small press partners.

I should be clear that the publishers we’ll be distributing are in no way owned or acquired by us. They are wholly separate publishers. We expect that this new model will be one of cooperative use of common resources in an effort to broaden the market for everyone.

We’re already making titles from other publishers available to bookstores and individuals. One way we’re doing this is through the introduction of Bella’s Bookshelf (currently on our website) where we highlight and promote specific titles from publishers with whom we’ve partnered.

The first publisher with whom we’ve partnered is Bold Strokes Books, which publishes the prolific – and best-selling author – Radclyffe. Len Barot, president of Bold Strokes, has graciously worked with us as we go through growing pains and work out some of the kinks in the process.

The response from other publishers has been quite good and we already have a waiting list of publishers who are interested in partnering with us as well. Realistically, though, I don’t expect that we’ll take on more publishers before June of this year. That should give us enough time to correct any issues we identify and to have our plans fully developed.

So is the Bella Consortium (or whatever we should call it) really going to take over the entire lesbian publishing industry?
  You’ve heard that rumor too? Ha! I’ve heard grumblings from some areas that Bella is ‘gobbling up publishers’ left and right. Of course that’s not how I see it at all! We have never gone out looking for houses that might be closing or looking to relinquish their inventory. So far we’ve been in the very fortunate position of being able to help out some of our fellow publishers when we’ve been contacted. In the case of Rising Tide and Spinsters – even though the situations are quite different – our goal has been to give the existing authors a new home where they can feel part of a family, where they know their work will be welcome, and where they will be respected. And frankly, where they know their royalties will be paid! In the case of Spinsters, we have every intention of keeping and growing the long-standing tradition of the press.

We’re fortunate. Barbara Grier and Donna McBride created a foundation and passed a legacy on to us for which I feel a tremendous gratitude, and a certain responsibility. They have mentored us and given us a blueprint that seems to be working just fine. I am often reminded that things could be a whole lot harder for us, particularly as I see the struggles that others are going through.

The truth is that all of us absolutely love what we’re doing. We want to work with others as much as possible toward our goals – which seem far more common than they are different. In recent months I’ve been asked a lot about how it is that we can work so hard to promote a competitor. That seems so ridiculous to me. Our growing relationship with other publishers is an entirely reciprocal process. We believe that by helping to introduce books from other publishers to our readers, we’re seriously growing the reader pool. Bringing together loyal readers and a diverse array of authors benefits every publisher and author involved.

We have so many customers who have read every single one of our books, who call everyday, asking us to please recommend another book to them. They don’t care if we published it or not – they just trust us enough to point them toward another good book and another good story. We’re just determined to make sure they always have one waiting.

Abe Liked Boys

As if we’re to believe this, “Oh really, so what?” non-response to the book.

Or the, “Well, he wasn’t really gay – ‘gay’ didn’t exist back then” response.

Or (and this is my favorite) the “Well, men coming against other men’s thighs was just a good, clean way for men who weren’t married to get sexual release” response.

Of course it doesn’t matter that Lincoln was gay (or bisexual), or that he had sex with men, or that all the people he loved most were men (except, perhaps, to his chronically unhappy wife, to whom it undoubtedly mattered greatly). What is the homophobic right going to do, go back in time and repeal the Emancipation Proclamation? Lose the Civil War? (“Oh, Abraham Lincoln was gay?! Well, in that case, let’s just divide this country into the Industrial North and the Southern Agrarian States, return the Louisiana Purchase to France and the Southwest and all of California to Mexico and blow this whole westward expansion/manifest destiny/global power thing and get back to an America untainted by homosexuals living their lives!”) Not hardly! (But maybe not such a bad idea, given this country’s dominance in the global village.)

But this silence from the people who led the stampede to impeach Clinton for having a sex life outside of marriage? Why is it that they want to talk about Clinton's sex life but not Lincoln's?

It’s not Lincoln’s sexuality that matters – it’s the silence that matters. And the hypocrisy.

Would today’s Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell military expel President and Commander in Chief Abraham Lincoln from its ranks? (And how did we get from “coming against another man’s thighs is just a good clean way for men to get sexual release” during “his” war to immediate discharge during ours?)

Will the military, in the face of this national hero’s sexuality, update its policy to “mutual masturbation is fine for parties of both (all) sexualities, but penetration-without-a-license-is-grounds-for-discharge”? – And then discharge all the soldiers, regardless of sexual orientation, from Massachusetts as a preventative? Will Bush’s Pentagon refuse to go to war with soldiers from Canada and any European nations that allow gays to marry or fight in their armies?

Can we demand that every homophobe who enjoyed Lincoln’s Birthday or President’s Day school holidays as a kid (or as an adult) now return to school for an equal number of hours of gay-inclusive history lessons?

And what are the black churches currently being courted by the Religious Right as part of its anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment campaign going to do with the fact that The Great Emancipator was on the Down Low?

How many zillion pages of text have been devoted to Lincoln’s life and impact on our country without mentioning this one small matter of how he stood “outside the box” and how that standing may have influenced his ability to comprehend the complexities of his time? How many children make it through school without learning about a single gay hero while hearing “queer” as an epitaph on the playground every single day?

Those are the silences that need to end. CA Tripp’s The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln takes us several steps in that direction. $27, Free Press.

One Faygeleh Has Been Removed From This Story

Apparently the publishers of the Dick and Jane readers can’t. BTWOF’s sources reveal that Pearson Education is suing Little, Brown and Company over the publication of Yiddish With Dick and Jane for suggesting that their innocent childhood characters could grow up to commit adultery, live in the closet, and some third abomination which escapes me at the moment... And that’s after Little, Brown deleted the word “faygeleh” from the primer, on the advice of some of the more conservative reviewers.

Not to panic: “Faygelah” was to be included in the sequel. But the sequel’s chances of getting published, we’re told, melted with the lawsuit. The lawsuit hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell – satire does have it’s constitutional protections – but if it squelches the sequel, it will have done its tacky job even without the legal win.

But the gay themes are still there: Sally has a mustache and teaches Transgressive Feminist Ceramics in Berkeley, and Dick’s golf buddy swings both ways, giving Sally a chance to explain a few things to Dick... $14.95, Little, Brown.

VidLits for Dick and Jane

And, not only is it fun, it’s been a very effective marketing campaign. The VidLit team sends out email about each new vidlet, but the real buzz comes from people forwarding them on to friends because, well, they’re fun. Dick and Jane’s weekly sales doubled (or tripled, depending on who you talk to) when the vidlet was released – and the video had been viewed a mere (as of January) two million times. Now that’s a marketing campaign! I’m dreaming of one for Books To Watch Out For. If you know anyone with some cash to throw at such a project, send them my way!

Jane Rule Sighting

Atwood: Not Made in the USofA

Bookstore News

Denver’s 20-year-old institution The Book Garden has new owners, Debbie Trunkenbolz and Crystal Hamilton. Store founder Kasha Songer has moved into real estate full-time. Both of the new owners are longtime customers of the bookstore and Hamilton, to complete the circle, comes from a real estate background. They’ve renamed the store Sisters Books: A Women’s Book & Gift Store. Check it out at: www.sistersbooksonline.com.

Booking Your Travel

The Golden Crown Literary Society is a newish organization to support lesbian literature that’s grown out of the über-Xena, publish-it-yourself, and print-on-demand lesbian writing communities and an emerging generation of more lesbian publishing companies. In any case, the first GCLS Convention (for publishers, authors, readers, supporters and fans) will feature panels, seminars, and workshops focused on encouraging and advancing the art of publishing. The conference, which will be held in June in New Orleans, will also host the Golden Crown Literary Awards.

Karen Kallmaker is the keynote speaker. Look for workshops featuring Lori Lake, Radclyffe, KG MacGregor, Robin Alexander, Lynn Ames, Jessica Casavant, Jean Stewart, Verda Foster, Kathy Smith, and Cathy LeNoir as well as editors Judith P. Stelbaum, Stacia Seaman, Shelley Thrasher, and the odd lawyer and private eye to advise writers on their particular professions...
Dates: June 24-26.
More about GCLS at http://www.gclscon.com.
Conference details: http://www.gclscon.com/Schedule.htm.

Each issue we ask a different bookseller what they’re reading... This issue we checked in with the InsightOut Book Club to see what the gals were picking up there:

Writing Wanted

Sinister Wisdom editor Frances Day has issued a call for material for an issue on Lesbian Mothers and Grandmothers. Guest editor of this issue will be Merry Gangemi. Deadline: May 1. Contact Merry at 985 East Hill Road, Marshfield, VT 05658, or email mgangemi@sover.net.

Raymond Lucazk (Eyes of Desire: A Deaf Gay & Lesbian Reader) is seeking true stories, short fiction, stage plays, poetry, essays, and interviews about the deaf and signing GLBT experience in English or ASL (on VHS or DVD) for Eyes of Desire 2: A Deaf GLBT Reader. Deadline: August 31, 2005. www.raymondluczak.com/eod2 for details or email eod@raymondluczak.com.

Looking for Lesbians
Editor Don Weise has three lesbian titles in the pipeline at Carroll & Graf (Kate Clinton’s What the L?, Marcia Gallo’s history of the Daughters of Bilitis, and Cheryl Clarke’s Days of Good Looks) and wants more. In an interview with Richard Labonte in the current issue of BTWOF: The Gay Men’s Edition Don elaborates on a shortage of lesbian projects:
“Sadly, I’ve received almost no lesbian-themed submissions from agents. I’d absolutely love to see more lesbian history and biography in particular... I’m also looking for young lesbian writers, fiction in particular and with an edge whenever possible.”
See Books To Watch Out For: The Gay Men's Edition #14 to read the interview about Don's publishing career at Cleis and what he’s doing now at Carroll and Graf.

Awards

National Book Critics Circle Awards
Marilynne Robinson won the fiction prize for Gilead. The poetry prize went to Adrienne Rich for The School Among the Ruins.

The Alice B’s
This year’s Alice B. Medal winners are Sarah Dreher, Katherine V. Forrest and Ellen Hart.
The award is given annually to writers whose careers are distinguished by consistently well-written stories about lesbians. The award was funded by an anonymous donor for the purpose of thanking writers for their contribution to the lesbian community, culture, and identity. The prize includes the Medal, a lapel pin, and $500. Last year’s recipients were Peggy J. Herring, Karin Kallmaker, and Radclyffe.

Violet Quill
This year’s Violet Quill Award went to Through It Came Bright Colors by Trebor Healey. The Award is for new voices and is sponsored by InsightOut Book Club and carries a $1000 prize. The shortlisted titles were: Naughty Little Secrets by Mary Wilbon, Half-Life by Aaron Krach, Van Allen's Ecstasy by Jim Tushinski, Father's Day by Philip Galanes, and The View from Stalin's Head by Aaron Hamburger.

Stonewall Awards 2005
The 2005 Barbara Gittings Book Award in Literature will be awarded to Colm Tóibín for The Master (Scribner). The other nominees were:
I Am My Own Wife: A Play by Doug Wright (Faber & Faber)
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (Bloomsbury)
Luna by Julie Anne Peters (Megan Tingley Books/Little, Brown)
The Seahorse Year by Stacey D’Erasmo (Houghton Mifflin)

The 2005 Israel Fishman Book Award for Nonfiction will go to Joan Roughgarden for Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and in People (University of California Press). The other nominees were:
Beyond Shame: Reclaiming the Abandoned History of Radical Gay Sexuality by Patrick Moore (Beacon Press)
Both: A Portrait in Two Parts by Douglas Crase (Pantheon)
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris (Little, Brown)
Warrior Poet: a Biography of Audre Lorde by Alexis DeVeaux (W.W. Norton)

The Stonewall Awards are sponsored by the GLBT Round Table of the American Library Association (ALA). They will be presented at the American Library Association meetings in June.

The Publishing Triangle Award Finalists Named
The Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction
Alexis De Veaux, Warrior Poet: A Life of Audre Lorde (W.W. Norton)
Alison Smith, Name All the Animals (Scribner)
Evelyn C. White, Alice Walker: A Life (W.W. Norton)

The Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction
David Carter, Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution (St. Martin’s Press)
David K. Johnson, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government (University of Chicago Press)
Graham Robb, Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century (W.W. Norton)

The Ferro-Grumley Award for Fiction: Women
Stacey D’Erasmo, A Seahorse Year (Houghton Mifflin)
Emma Donoghue, Life Mask (Harcourt)
Heather Lewis, Notice (Serpent's Tail)

The Ferro-Grumley Awards for Fiction: Men
Adam Berlin, Belmondo Style (St. Martin's Press)
Colm Tóibín, The Master (Scribner)
Jim Tushinski, Van Allen's Ecstasy (Southern Tier Editions/Harrington Park Press)

The Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry
Adrienne Rich, The School Among the Ruins (W.W. Norton)
Lee Ann Roripaugh, Year of the Snake (Southern Illinois University Press)
Maureen Seaton, Venus Examines Her Breast (Carnegie Mellon University Press)

The Publishing Triangle Award for Gay Male Poetry
Ron Mohring, Survivable World (Word Works)
Carl Phillips, The Rest of Love (Farrar Straus Giroux)
D. A. Powell, Cocktails (Graywolf)

The Publishing Triangle Awards will be presented May 10 in NYC along with the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Publishing Triangle Leadership Award, and playwrighting awards from the Robert Chesley Foundation.

Letters

I am assisting our local feminist bookstore, A Room of One's Own (Madison, WI), with their 30 year anniversary. They are hosting a silent auction to help raise money to create a fund to bring in more authors and artists (a la Women and Children First in Chicago). Do you have a "Books to Watch Out For" T-shirt, baseball cap, or the like you could donate to the auction...?? It would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for all your work on BTWOF–I not only enjoy it, I find it terrifically useful.
--Liz Dannenbaum
Thanks! We don’t yet have wearables, but we’re glad to donate a subscription to the auction. –Carol

Skirting the Amazon

Dear Friends,
In 2004, Amazon.com gave 61% of its political donations to Republicans! It seems strange to me that a bookseller should support the party of fundamentalists, creationists, book-banners and privacy-violators, but that is unfortunately the case. Click here for details: http://www.freenortheast.com/ltred.php.
--Katha Pollit
Actually Amazon.com is more of a big-box retailer than a bookseller. Meanwhile the megalith has devised a new strategy for maximizing profit – I mean “customer loyalty and market share” – It’s offering customers a chance to pay Amazon $79 upfront, in the form of a “membership fee,” to get “free” shipping. Now that might be a deal if Amazon.com didn’t already offer so many free-shipping deals. But, like the book discounts, you can expect those deals to disappear as the competition disappears and as people get used to paying these add-on fees. But you gotta respect the innovation: most bookstore memberships get the customers a discount on books, but Amazon is redefining “membership” to mean prepaying for shipping – a cost one doesn’t have to consider when shopping locally. Awesome! But there are plenty of responsible, lesbian, gay, feminist and other indie stores out there that give 0% of their income to anti-gay, anti-women Republicans and who actively build community, instead of destroying it. –Carol