| Published
Irregularly (about once a month) |
at the whim of the Editor | Volume # Two,
Issue # 3 March 20, 2004 |
This is an independently published newsletter, edited by Ronald L. Donaghe. The views expressed herein are solely those of the writer of each review, article, or column. Writers' work is accepted solely at the discretion of the editor. All material is copyrighted by the submitting writer or Ronald L. Donaghe and cannot be reprinted without the express permission of The Independent Gay Writer© or the submitting writer. To submit material or to be added to the mailing list for this newsletter, contact the editor.
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Editor's Note This issue has added texture with film reviews. And in coming issues, might we hope that writers will contribute articles about screen-writing? Or contribute a one-act play? If my hunch is correct that this new dimension of the newsletter will attract more and different readers, I would like to have film reviews about independent glbt films; but since a glbt film is still a rather rare commodity, I have no trouble accepting reviews from non-indies. And they can be from any country. I can think of a handful of older films I've enjoyed, including "The Sum of Us" (reviewed in this issue by Cheri Rosenberg), which has gained added interest since Russell Crowe has become a major star. But I invite reviews of "The Trip," "Latter Days," "Big Eden," and others. Contributors this issue...  Jeff
Williams returns
with a non-fiction piece, "Bryce in the City" (page
2) and he promises his own
coming out story, as well as Part Two of "From Kenya,
With Love" in a later issue.Cheri Rosenberg carries the bulk of the reviews this issue with the films "The Sum of Us" and "Maurice" (page 3) as well as book reviews of Mark Roeder's Do You Know That I Love You, Patricia Nell Warren's The Front Runner (page 4), Stephen M. Hart's Through the Ruins, Lori L. Lake's collection of short stories, Stepping Out, and Ronald L. Donaghe's The Salvation Mongers (page 5). Tony Heyes (our man from England) reviews Anthony McDonald's Adam, Paul Russell's War Against the Animals, and Jay Mandal's The Dandelion Clock. (page 7) Johnny Charles, a new reader, reviews Pamela Hayes' transgendered novel The Other Women (page 6). Lori L. Lake provides reviews of Brent Hartinger's new novel, The Last Chance Texaco and Ellen Hart's An Intimate Ghost. (page 8) Jak Klinikowski returns this issue with a review of Mark A. Roeder's The Summer of My Discontent—a much anticipated sequel to A Better Place. (page 9)
Featured Title this issue...  A Passion to Preserve Gay Men as Keepers of Culture by Will Fellows University of Wisconsin Press May 2004 280 pp. 6 x 9 ISBN 0-299-19680-1 Cloth $30.00 "Clearly Will Fellows has hit a nerve with many gay men, about their collecting and preserving from childhood on, often sacrificing friends, livelihoods, careers, and lovers to do so." —Darden A. Pyron,
author of Liberace: An American Boy
From large cities to rural communities, gay men have long been impassioned pioneers as keepers of culture: rescuing and restoring decrepit buildings, revitalizing blighted neighborhoods, saving artifacts and documents of historical significance. This penchant to preserve, though widely observed, is typically ignored or dismissed as a stereotypical gay cliché, even by many gay men themselves. A Passion to Preserve explores this authentic and complex dimension of gay men's lives by profiling early and contemporary preservationists from throughout the United States. This eye-opening and provocative book illuminates neglected facets of what it means to be gay and highlights contributions to the larger culture that gays are exceptionally inclined to make. Fellows's first book was the best-selling Farm Boys: Lives of Gay Men from the Rural Midwest. In A Passion to Preserve, Fellows expands upon the art of oral history he employed so successfully in Farm Boys. "The main strength of the project is the actual oral histories recorded here by the editor. Fellows is a wonderful preservationist himself; the book's impressive range of contributors speaks to the care and skill he brings to his work." —David Román,
professor of English and American Studies, University of Southern
California
"Gay men are very sensitive to beauty. It's perhaps a hackneyed stereotype, but I believe in it—I simply know it. It's an aesthetic capacity, an appreciation of beauty in old things, the grace of a lovely, older house with elegant details. And when gay men are interested in something they give it their all, tremendous amounts of creative energy and physical energy. Not many straight people would do for this house what we did for it." —Al Garland,
from A Passion to Preserve
Will Fellows is a writer and educator who lives with his partner in Milwaukee. His first book, Farm Boys, was honored as a best book of 1996 by Esquire Magazine and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and as a bestseller of 1996 by The Advocate and Lambda Book Report. |
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