The Bureau is proud to host an evening of readings by ten of this year’s finalists for Lambda Literary Awards.
The following finalists will read:
Ryka Aoki (Seasonal Velocities, Transgender Nonfiction, a contributor to two other Lambda finalists: The Collection: Short Fiction From The Transgender Vanguard, edited by Tom Léger and Riley MacLeod, nominated for Transgender Fiction, and to Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies, edited by Anne Enke, nominated for Transgender Nonfiction);
Tom Cardamone (Green Thumb, LGBT Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror);
Red Durkin (contributor to The Collection);
Adam Halwitz (contributor to The Collection)
Stephen S. Mills (He Do the Gay Man in Different Voices, Gay Poetry);
Casey Plett (contributor to The Collection);
Carter Sickels (The Evening Hour, LGBT Debut Fiction, and contributor to The Collection);
Rae Spoon (First Spring Grass Fire, Transgender Fiction);
William Sterling Walker (Desire: Tales of New Orleans, LGBT Debut Fiction);
Barry Webster (The Lava in My Bones, Gay General Fiction).
Author biographies
Ryka Aoki is a writer, performer, and educator who has been honored by the California State Senate for her “extraordinary commitment to free speech and artistic expression, as well as the visibility and well-being of Transgender people.” She is the author of Seasonal Velocities (Trans-Genre Press, 2012). Her chapbook, Sometimes Too Hot the Eye of Heaven Shines (RADAR Publications) won the 2010 Eli Coppola Chapbook Contest. Ryka has as an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University and is the recipient of a University Award from the Academy of American Poets. She is a professor of English at Santa Monica College. www.rykaryka.com
Tom Cardamone‘s edgy weird fiction has earned him two spots as a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Publishers Weekly wrote of his novella, Green Thumb: “evocative prose and detailed settings to capture the hypnotic rhythms of the sea, then takes a darker, more erotic and psychedelic turn….” His newest book is Pacific Rimming from Chelsea Station Editions.
Red Durkin is the managing editor of PrettyQueer.com. She has toured with the Tranny Roadshow and is a member of the Fully Functional Cabaret. Her novel Ready, Amy, Fire, will be released by Topside Press in 2013.
Adam Halwitz is a student and writing tutor at Marlboro College (Marlboro, VT), and an occasional editor for the magazine Teen Ink. He’s very happy to be living in the Vermont woods, where he takes lots of night hikes and sees many stars. He likes monster mythology, deciduous trees, pedantry, and not discussing his trans status with cis people. “Power Out” is his first piece of published fiction.
Stephen S. Mills earned his MFA from Florida State University. His poems have appeared in The Antioch Review, The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide,PANK Literary Magazine, The New York Quarterly, The Los Angeles Review, Knockout, Poetic Voices Without Borders 2, Assaracus, and others. He is also the winner of the 2008 Gival Press Oscar Wilde Poetry Award. His first book, He Do the Gay Man in Different Voices, is out from Sibling Rivalry Press. He lives in Harlem. Website: https://www.stephensmills.com/
Casey Plett grew up a kid in Manitoba and a teenager in Oregon. She wrote a column on her first year of transitioning for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and has been published in Line Zero, Anomalous Press, and Cavalier Literary Couture. She is writing a book.
Carter Sickels is the author of the novel The Evening Hour (Bloomsbury, 2012). He has been awarded scholarships to Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the MacDowell Colony, and VCCA. Carter received his MFA in Fiction at Penn State and a MA in Folklore at UNC-Chapel Hill. He has taught creative writing classes at IPRC, Gotham Writers’ Workshop, and Hugo House. Carter lives in Portland, Oregon.
Photo: JJ Levine
Rae Spoon is a transgender musician/writer/workshop facilitator originally from Calgary, Canada. Rae has been nominated for a Polaris Prize, toured internationally, and released six solo albums. They were published in the Arsenal Pulp anthology Persistence and composed the instrumental score for the National Film Board film Dead Man. Rae will soon be the subject of a National Film Board documentary. Rae lives in Montreal.
Photo by Lenora Gim
William Sterling Walker’s collection of short stories, Desire: Tales of New Orleans, is a Lambda Literary finalist in Debut Fiction. His stories have been anthologized in Best American Gay Fiction 2 and the Lambda Award–winning Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction, after first appearing in modern words, Harrington Gay Men’s Fiction Quarterly, and The James White Review. His nonfiction account of coming out appeared in the anthology Boys Like Us: Gay Writers Tell Their Coming Out Stories. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from Brooklyn College. A native of New Orleans, he now resides in Brooklyn, with his spouse, the artist Jeffrey Dreiblatt.
Photo: Maxime Tremblay
Barry Webster‘s first book, The Sound of All Flesh (Porcupine’s Quill), won the ReLit Award for best short-story collection in 2005. In addition to the Lambda Literary Award, The Lava in My Bones was shortlisted for the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction. Originally from Toronto, he currently lives in East Montreal.
BGSQD
