SCHEDULE
Room: 1.77
12:30-12:50pm
MC: Cam Mesinger
JP Howard
Joe Quaderer
Mike Ward
1:00-1:20pm
MC: Annie Harper
Alysia Constantine
S.J. Martin
1:30-1:50pm
Bold Strokes Books Showcase
Eric Andrews-Katz
Ann Aptaker
RE Bailey
RJ Bardsley
Vanessa Clark
2:00-2:20pm
Featured Reader
Riki Wilchins
2:30-2:50pm
MC: Caroline Spaulding
Christina Olivares
Hans Hirschi
Brian Olsen
Jenny Johnson
Sarah Prager
3:00-3:20pm
Featured Reader
Nathaniel Frank
3:30-3:50pm
Featured Reader
Anastasia Higginbotham
4:00-4:20pm
Bold Strokes Books Showcase
Jean Copeland
Maggie Cummings
Daniel W. Kelly
Andrew J. Peters
M. Ullrich
4:30-4:50pm
MC: Joan Farnesa
Debra Hyde
Jeffrey Round
Marty Correia
Georgette Gouveia
5:00-5:20pm
Featured Reader
Sarah Schulman
5:30-6:00pm
Featured Readers
Shye Sales and Jason Schneiderman
Featured Readers
2:00pm: Riki Wilchins
The author of three books on gender theory, Riki has written on philanthropy for the Council on Foundations, GrantCraft, GuideStar and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.
Her writing and research on gender have been published in periodicals like The Village Voice, GLQ, Research on Adolescence, and Social Text as well as anthologies like Contemporary Debates in the Sociology of Education, Gender Violence, Feminist Frontiers, Language Awareness, Negotiating Ethical Challenges in Youth Research, Out at Work, Women on Women III, and The Encyclopedia of Identity.
Riki has conducted trainings for such institutions as the White House, CDC, Office on Women’s Health, and Office on Adolescent Health and philanthropic networks like Philanthropy NY, Jewish Women’s Fund Network, Women Donors Network, Women’s Funding Network, and Women Moving Millions.
She is currently working on a book on gender transformative philanthropy. Riki’s work has been profiled in The New York Times; TIME Magazine selected her one of “100 Civic Innovators for the 21st Century.”
3:00pm: Nathaniel Frank
Awakening: How Gays and Lesbians Brought Marriage Equality to America
Dr. Nathaniel Frank is an award-winning historian and one of the LGBT movement’s most respected scholars. He is author of the critically acclaimed Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America, which won the American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award for non-fiction, and helped move the Pentagon to end its ban on gay and lesbian service. A long-time consultant to the LGBT movement and frequent contributor to Slate, he is currently the director of the What We Know Project at Columbia Law School, an online platform that publicizes academic research on vital LGBT public policy debates. He has appeared on the “Daily Show,” the “Rachel Maddow Show” and many others, and in addition to Slate, his publications and commentary have appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, Washington Post, The Atlantic, American Prospect, Huffington Post, The New Republic, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Newsday and Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit his website at www.nathanielfrank.com.
About the book:
Awakening: How Gays and Lesbians Brought Marriage Equality to America (Harvard University Press) is the much-anticipated new history of the marriage equality movement, based on unprecedented access to the most influential movement leaders and grassroots activists from the brilliant legal strategists and major funders to plaintiffs like Edie Windsor to direct-action protesters inspired by the successful tactics of AIDS activism. Written by one of the LGBT movement’s most respected historians—and a movement insider—the book tells the dramatic story of how a once-despised minority achieved a stunning civil rights victory through persistence, strategic prowess and the rising awareness of the dignity of same-sex love. It chronicles the push and pull of how movement leaders and grassroots LGBT activists worked in sometimes competing ways to forge a successful strategy to win marriage equality. All the while, they had to fight against virulent anti-gay opponents and capture American hearts by spreading the simple message that love is love.
3:30pm: Anastasia Higginbotham
Anastasia Higginbotham is a writer and illustrator, and the creator of the children’s series Ordinary Terrible Things. Her first book of the series, Divorce Is the Worst, published in 2015 by the Feminist Press, was instantly embraced by children and adults for its willingness to trust kids as the authority on their own lives. Therapists and divorce mediators alike praised the book for its child-centered approach. “As families reconfigure through divorce, the best interest of a child should be front and center,” said Abby Rosmarin, Esq., LMHC Mediation Counsel, McCarthy Fingar, LLP and Executive Director of the New York Association of Collaborative Professionals. “Sharing Divorce is the Worst can help parents focus on their child’s needs as distinct from their own, encourage supportive communication, and nourish resilience for future well being.”
For 10 years, Higginbotham taught full impact self-defense to kids and adults with Prepare Inc. T Her essays have appeared in Ms., Bitch, The Sun, The Women’s Review of Books, and in various anthologies, including Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape. She was a 2015 Hedgebrook Fellow.
Patiently forthcoming with lessons your parents redacted, Tell Me About Sex, Grandma stresses consent, sex positivity, and the right to be curious about your body. The dialogue focuses on the dynamics of sex, rather than the mechanics, as Grandma reminds readers that sex is not marriage or reproduction, and doesn’t look the same for everyone. Instead, each person’s sexuality is their very own to discover, explore, and share if they choose.
5:30pm: Shye Sales and Jason Schneiderman
Shye Sales has appeared in the Inaugural edition of Kalyani Magazine, which featured “The Cleansing.” She facilitates a writing workshop for LGBT youth. Shye co-chairs Djeli Writing Ministry, the writing ministry of UFC NewArk, a part of the greater Creative Arts Ministry. She has co-written a play, “Suga-Free.” She’s performed at Mo Beasley’s “UrbanErotika” at the Bowery, NYC; Stoney Mae Production’s “Waiting All My Life” Marriage Equality Concert; LLC Wellness ”EMPOWERED by Love” Concert. She co-produced Pmyner’s “Speak Your Mine” Open Mic series and LPJ’s Jam. Shye currently hosts, “Crack the Mic”, a monthly Open Mic series at the Artisan Collective in the Newark, NJ. She has also helped produce Rainbow Fashion Week’s “Social Responsibility Moment” Series for three years. She won Fresh Fruit Festival’s Award of Distinction for Performance Poetry 2014, and produced/performed a one woman show, “Children of the Ghetto,” and Performed at the NBWC 7th Poetry Cafe.
Jason Schneiderman is the author of three books of poems: Primary Source (Red Hen Press 2016), winner of the Benjamin Saltman Prize; Striking Surface (Ashland Poetry Press 2010), winner of the Richard Snyder Prize, and Sublimation Point (Four Way Books 2004), a Stahlecker Selection. He edited the anthology Queer: A Reader for Writers (Oxford University Press 2015). His poetry and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including American Poetry Review, The Best American Poetry, Poetry London, Grand Street, The Penguin Book of the Sonnet, Story Quarterly, and Tin House. He has received fellowships from Yaddo, The Fine Arts Work Center, and The Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. He was the recipient of the Emily Dickinson Award from the Poetry Society of America in 2004, and a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award in 2011. He is Poetry Editor of the Bellevue Literary Review, and Associate Editor of Painted Bride Quarterly. He is an Associate Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York.
Bold Stroke Books
Eric Andrews-Katz has been writing since he could hold a pen. He is the author of the “Agent Buck 98” series (a gay spy parody) and “TARTARUS”, a modern Greek fantasy thriller. His work has been included in over 10 anthologies, and has been seen in Chelsea Station and The Advocate among other places.
Lammy and Goldie winner Ann Aptaker’s Cantor Gold series celebrates the courage and mythology of 1950s Lesbian life from the point of view of the dapper dyke art thief and smuggler, Cantor Gold. Like her protagonist, Ann lives in her beloved hometown, New York City. In addition to writing, Ann is an Adjunct Professor of Art and Art History at New York Institute of Technology.
NYC native, Rachel E. Bailey, has been published in literary journals and had short plays performed for stage and screen. Her novels, Dyre: By Moon’s Light, Dyre: A Knight of Spirit and Shadows, and In Shining Armor (under the pseudonym E. L. Phillips), were published in 2016. She’s currently working on a new novel set in a fictional, futuristic city, about (mostly) LGBTQIA superheroes and the (mostly) LGBTQIA supervillains who loathe them.
Ralph Josiah Bardsley grew up in a small town in southeast Alaska. His writing focuses on families – in all shapes and sizes – and the love that binds people together and sees them through tough times. He is the author of three novels from Bold Strokes Books, Brothers, The Photographer’s Truth, and A Careful Heart (released in March 2017).
Vanessa Clark is a multi-published intersex and trans author of LGBT erotic romance fiction. The Man on Top of the World, their bisexual M/M glam rock romance, is their debut novel.
Jean Copeland is a Goldie-award winning author, educator and activist. Her debut novel, The Revelation of Beatrice Darby, also won the 2016 Alice B Readers Lavender award. She lives and works in Connecticut. Check out her author page at www.boldstrokesbooks.com.
Maggie Cummings is a native New Yorker currently residing in Staten Island with her wife and two children. She is the author of Totally Worth It, Serious Potential, and Definite Possibility, all part of the Bay West Social trilogy.
Daniel W. Kelly is the author of the Comfort Cove gay horror series, which includes the novels Combustion, No Place for Little Ones, Rise of the Thing Down Below, Wet Screams, and Scaring Up St. Ick & Arousing QPD. He is also creator of Boys, Bears & Scares, a website dedicated to gay male horror.
Andrew J. Peters writes gay fiction for readers of all ages. His Werecat series was a finalist in The Romance Reviews 2016 Readers’ Choice Awards. He has written two books for young adults: The Seventh Pleiade and Banished Sons of Poseidon, both garnering honorable mentions in the Rainbow Book Awards. He is also the author of Poseidon and Cleito, and his latest release: The City of Seven Gods.
M. Ullrich resides at the Jersey Shore with her wife and three boisterous feline children. Her first two novels, “Fortunate Sum” and “Life in Death”, were published with Bold Strokes Books in 2016. M. Ullrich currently has two more novels set for release in 2017.
Selected Bio’s for Participating Readers:
Alysia Constantine lives in Lower Hudson Valley, NY with her wife, their two dogs and a cat. When she is not writing, she is a professor at an art college. Before that, she was a baker and cook for a caterer and before that, she was a poet. Her debut novel Sweet was published by Interlude Press in 2016 and is a finalist for two Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Awards. Her new novel, Olympia Knife, will be published in November by Interlude Press.
Marty Correia writes fiction and poetry in the East Village where she has lived with conceptual artist Kate Conroy for more than twenty years. Marty’s work has appeared in several publications including The Mailer Review, FUSE, Lady Business, Fiction Fix and Punk Soul Poet. A graduate of NYU’s creative writing MFA program, Marty recently finished BRICKBAT, a novel set in Bridgeport, CT and Coney Island, NY that spans from the days of P.T. Barnum to 1986. She runs two literary reading series: “Wicked Queer Authors” and “A Tribe Called Butch.”
Risa Denenberg lives on the Olympic peninsula in Washington state where she works as a nurse practitioner. She is an editor at Headmistress Press, an independent publisher of poetry by lesbians. She has published three chapbooks, and two full length books, most recently, Whirlwind @ Lesbos (Headmistress Press, 2016). Her collection “A Slight Faith” is forthcoming in 2018 from MoonPath Press.
Georgette Gouveia is the author of “Water Music” (Greenleaf Book Group) and her upcoming “The Penalty for Holding” (Less Than Three Press). Her novels are the first of her groundbreaking four-part series “The Games Men Play.” For more on her book series, as well as her inspired entries on all things sports, culture and sex, visit her blog at TheGamesMenPlay.com. By day, Georgette Gouveia is the editor-in-chief at WAG, a monthly luxury publication of Westfair Communications Inc. that has been named “Best Magazine” by the New York Press Association the last two years.
JP Howard aka Juliet P. Howard’s debut poetry collection, SAY/MIRROR, was a 2016 Lambda Literary finalist. JP was a 2017 Split this Rock Freedom Plow Award for Poetry & Activism finalist and is featured in the 2017 Lesbian Poet Trading Card Series from Headmistress Press. JP curates Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon, a supportive NY-based forum offering women writers a monthly venue to collaborate.
S.J. Martin lives with his partner and their cranky, rotund cat in Washington D.C. He’s a barista by day and a writer by night. He makes a mean cappuccino and lives for good coffee, good books, and good company. His story about a transgender boy’s summer romance, The Most Handsome, was published in the acclaimed young adult anthology, Summer Love, which was published in 2015 by Duet, an imprint of Interlude Press. He debut young adult novel, In My Bones will be published by Duet.
Brian Olsen is a science-fiction writer from New York City. He is the author of The Future Next Door, a contemporary urban science-fiction comedic thriller series, and Multiverse Mashup, a series of genre-bending adventure novels. He’s also written a number of short stories in less complicated genres, as well as numerous plays and sketches for the stage. He has an MFA from the Actors Studio, so if you need someone to cry on cue, just ask.
Sarah Prager is the creator of the Quist mobile app and the author of Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World, a YA book on LGBTQ history that comes out on May 23, 2017 from HarperCollins. The book has already received a Kirkus star and is an official selection of the Junior Library Guild. Sarah lives in Connecticut with her wife and daughter and speaks regularly to schools on LGBTQ history. Visit her website: www.sarahprager.com.
Joseph Quaderer is a NYC-based writer, blogger and the founder of Goose Chronicles – a website that captures and shares the extraordinary stories that exist within ordinary people. Joseph has written three novels and the short, non-fiction stories on his website have been read over two million times and are regularly featured on the Huffington Post and Medium.com.
Today Joseph is reading from his second novel, With Eyes Closed, which was inspired while Joseph was living in Uganda and Rwanda in 2009.
Jeffrey Round is the Lambda Award-winning author of two mystery series, the comic Bradford Fairfax mysteries and the darker Dan Sharp series, which has been called “literary noir.” Jeffrey’s first two books, A CAGE OF BONES and THE P-TOWN MURDERS were listed on AfterElton’s Top 100 Gay Books.
Michael H. Ward is a retired psychotherapist. He was instrumental in the development of The Shared Heart (William Morrow, 1997), which presents the portraits and coming out stories of 40 gay and lesbian teenagers. The Shared Heart won the American Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Book Award in the nonfiction category in 1998. It was also on ALA’s Best Books for Young Adults list in 1999. Happily married, Michael lives on Cape Cod with his husband, Moe, and cat, Jack.
