From Poetry to Prose & Back   1:00-2:15     Renaissance Room A
Lesléa Newman is the author of more than 60 books including the novel In Every Laugh a Tear, the short story collection A Letter to Harvey Milk, the poetry collection Nobody’s Mother, the novels-in-verse Still Life with Buddy, and October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard, and the children’s books Donovan’s Big Day, The Boy Who Cried Fabulous, and Heather Has Two Mommies. Nine of her books have been Lambda Literary Award finalists. A past poet laureate of Northampton, MA, she is a faculty member of Spalding University’s brief-residency MFA in Writing program.

Alfred Corn’s tenth book of poems, titled Tables, appeared in January with Press53.  He has also published a novel, titled Part of His Story and two collections of essays. A second novel, Miranda’s Book, is scheduled for publication in the U.K. next year. He has received the Guggenheim fellowship, the NEA, an Award in Literature from the Academy of Arts and Letters, and one from the Academy of American Poets. He has taught at Yale, Columbia, and UCLA. Pentameters Theatre in London staged his play Lowell’s Bedlam in the spring of 2011. In 2012, he was a Visiting Fellow of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, preparing a translation of Rilke’s Duino Elegies and returned as a Life Fellow in 2013.

Trebor Healey  Recipient of the 2004 Ferro-Grumley and Violet Quill awards for his first novel, Through It Came Bright Colors (Harrington Park Press), Trebor Healey is the author of a collection of poems, Sweet Son of Pan, (Suspect Thoughts, 2006), as well as a short story collection, A Perfect Scar & Other Stories (Harrington Park Press, 2007).  He co-edited (with Marci Blackman) Beyond Definition: New Writing from Gay and Lesbian San Francisco (Manic D Press, 1994) and co-edited (with Amie M. Evans) Queer & Catholic (Routledge, 2008). His novels Faun (Lethe Press) and A Horse Named Sorrow (University of Wisconsin Press) were released in October.  treborhealey.com

Rigoberto González is the author of thirteen books of poetry and prose, and the editor of Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing. He is the recipient of Guggenheim and NEA fellowships, winner of the American Book Award, The Poetry Center Book Award, The Shelley Memorial Award of The Poetry Society of America, and a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts. He is contributing editor for Poets & Writers Magazine, on the executive board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle, and is associate professor of English at Rutgers-Newark, the State University of New Jersey.

Perry Brass, the author of The Manly Art of Seduction, has published 16 books including two books of poetry. His latest book, King of Angels, is a finalist for a Ferro-Grumley Award for Gay and Lesbian Fiction; he has also had over 70 poems set to music by numerous composers including Chris DeBlasio, Ricky Ian Gordon, and Gerald Busby. 
….—panel moderator

New Trans Fiction   1:00-2:15    Renaissance Room C
Imogen Binnie is the author of the zines The Fact That It’s Funny Doesn’t Make It A Joke and Stereotype Threat. She is currently a monthly contributor to Maximum Rocknroll and has previously written for Aorta Magazine, The Skinny, and PrettyQueer.com. She writes about books at keepyourbridgesburning.com and performs in the queer doom metal band Correspondences. Her first novel, Nevada, has just been released from Topside Press.

Terence Diamond is a playwright, journalist, and short story editor whose work has been listed in Gay and Lesbian American Plays. He is formerly an assistant professor of English at Long Island University and a member of the Dramatists Guild. Terence teaches grant writing to artists at 3rd Ward Education in Brooklyn, contributes to PrettyQueer.com and Curve Magazine. Terence worked on the novel Big Pink Meat, from which his story is excerpted, at the PAF residency in France.

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.” Ryka appears in the recent trans documentaries Diagnosing Difference and Riot Acts, as well as the anthologies Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation (Seal Press), and Transfeminist Perspectives (Temple University). Ryka has an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University and is the recipient of a University Award from the Academy of American Poets. Her chapbook, Sometimes Too Hot the Eye of Heaven Shines, won the RADAR’s 2010 Eli Coppola Chapbook Contest. Her first full-length volume, Seasonal Velocities, was released this year by Trans-Genre Press, the first press operated by and for trans people in the United States. Ryka was the inaugural performer for San Francisco’s first ever Transgender Stage at San Francisco Pride 2005, and has performed in venues including the San Francisco Pride Main Stage, the Columbus National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival, the National Queer Arts Festival, Ladyfest South, Atlanta Pride, UCLA’s OutCRY, Santa Cruz Pride, and Emory University’s Pride Week. Ryka was keynote speaker at UC Santa Barbara’s 2005 Pride Week, GenderFusions 2008 at Columbia College, and UW Madison’s Trans Awareness Week 2009. She is a professor of English at Santa Monica College.