  Featured Title Walking Higher: Gay Men Writer About the Deaths of Their Mothers... edited by Alexander Renault |
| Not since the late John
Preston
produced a series of award winning anthologies on gay men in relation
to their hometowns and families has there been an anthology of such
importance to the more human side of gay men. Walking Higher is a
collection of 30 voices dedicated to exploring their relationships with
the women who gave them life, and managing the aftermath of their
mothers' passing. Included in this anthology is Adam Jeffries Schwartz' "My Glamorous Mother." Schwartz presents the story of his mother using the most powerful humor there is—unexpurgated reality—about his mother's battle with cancer. "We Are Seven," by Patrick Harris tells of his large family, pulled through the ordeal of saying goodbye to the leader of the clan, as well as the celebration of the joys of recalling their roots. At the beginning of each essay are photos of these men's mothers, taken sometime in their lives and captured in various moments of being. I can attest to the melancholy I feel at times in recalling my own mother, the day of her death; but more important, the sheer beauty of who she was...the giver of life to an entire family, one who supported all of her children according to their own needs. See "The Healing Place," by Ronald L. Donaghe
"Alexander Renault has
given us an anthology in which gay men, many of them superb writers,
describe their responses to the one woman who has never ceased to be
the most important in their lives. Gay or not, married or not, parent
or not, readers will find that the essays in Waling Higher beat
tough-minded,
authentic, illuminating witness to illness, bereavement, grief, and the
many faces of love." —Virginia
Ramey Mollenkott, Omnigender:
A
Trans-Religious Approach (Lambda Literary Award, 2002)
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