Saints and Sinners Literary Festival for everyone interested in reading, writing and publishing

Posted by mcmontoy May 14, 2009 12:00PM

The Saints and Sinners Literary Festival holds its seventh annual gathering this weekend, headquartered at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel but with various locations throughout the French Quarter. The event — featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered readers, writers, publisher and friends — draws an international audience.

“This year we have people coming from Toronto and Montreal,” said director Paul Willis. “For some reason, there’s a strong contingent from Canada. But we also have people coming from England and Brussels. It validates the fact that there’s nothing else like it in the country. Oh, sure, some conferences might have a panel or a day of GLBT literature, but we are completely devoted to it.”

But, Willis says, “it’s really a festival for everyone. That panel on memoir is not just about writing gay memoir, it’s about writing any kind of memoir. That session about book contracts with Michael Gross from the Authors Guild — that’s not just for gay authors. It’s for any author.”

For the first time, the festival will include a publisher, Bold Strokes Publishing, headed by noted lesbian writer Radclyffe, who will offer aspiring writers a chance to submit a partial manuscript, read a page, and get a book contract. At a time when commercial publishing is facing enormous challenges, a small press like Bold Strokes is “able to expand and grow and keep moving forward,” Willis said.

One panel that’s sure to be entertaining celebrates the publication of “My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them,” with appearances by contributors C. Cleo Creech, Lewis De Simone, Peter Dube, Christopher Hennessy, Collin Kelley and editor Michael Montlack. Cher, anyone?

In addition to readings and workshops, the festival will honor the 2009 winners of the third annual Jim Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize, an unrestricted cash grant of $5,000. They are Elana Dykewomon and Michael Lowenthal. The winner of the third annual playwriting competition is New Orleans writer Michelle Embree, whose “Hand Over Fist,” will be staged tonight at 9 at Marigny Theater, $12 admission. And this year’s inductees into the Saints and Sinners Hall of Fame are Jim Duggins, Michael Thomas Ford, G. Winston James, Radclyffe and Jess Wells.

Book editor Susan Larson can be reached at slarson@timespicayune.com or at 504.826.3457 or nola.com/books.

It’s now been just over a month since my new book, and first book length fiction collection, SHAMING THE DEVIL: COLLECTED SHORT STORIES, was released from Top Pen Press. I couldn’t be happier with the responses I’ve received from readers who’ve referred to the book as “erotic,” “ravishing,” “disturbing” and even “magical.” I am humbled and outrageously happy for the respect this collection is receiving.

I recently began a book tour in support of the title that I’ve dubbed the “Bringing Sexual Back” tour. The first stop was the OutWrite Bookstore and Coffeehouse in Atlanta, GA. What a great venue! What a supportive town!

Over the next couple of weeks and months I’ll be in Oakland and Los Angeles, Ft. Lauderdale, New Orleans, New York, Austin, Washington, D.C. and more. Please check the Events and Author Tours page at Top Pen Press by clicking HERE in order to get the latest lowdown of where and when I will be.

I look forward to seeing folks.

G.

Come hear G. Winston James read from The Damaged Good and Voices Rising at In the Life Atlanta!

SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2008
10am — 12 noon

Fire & Ink Hosts the ITLA Literary Café
With Laurinda Brown (Highest Price for Passion), Michael Christopher (Unspeakable), G. Winston James (The Damaged Good; Voices Rising), E. Patrick Johnson (Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South—An Oral History) and Fiona Zedde (Hungry for It).

 
W Hotel Atlanta Midtown
188 14th St. NE
Atlanta, GA 30309