Katherine V. Forrest is a best-selling author who has received numerous awards over the years, such as the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Pioneer Award and the Trailblazer Award from the Golden Crown Literary Society. Forrest created the very first lesbian police detective to star in an American fiction book. This memorable character, Kate Delafield, is featured in eight novels.
Forrest’s romance novel Curious Wine is considered a classic. Other writers credit the novel as having broken through misconceptions about lesbians and lesbian relationships.
Daughters of a Coral Dawn exemplifies Forrest’s work in the sci-fi and fantasy genre. Its political undertones perhaps reflect the author’s San Francisco influences. After moving near the Castro district with her wife, Jo Hercus, Forrest said, “It would be impossible to live here and not be political.”
Maternas Date
All our craft have landed, softly, amid waving fields of ivory-blue grass.
“Mother,” Megan says,...
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Season of the Witch by David Talbot
Published: August 9, 2012
By Richard Baker-Lehne
Season of the Witch presents a loving narration and portrait gallery of the political and cultural history of San Francisco from the Summer of Love in 1967 to the AIDS Memorial Quilt in the 1990’s.
The ”Summer” began in January, 1967, in the Polo Field...
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Once Removed…A Story of Love, Loss and a Cause Championed
Published: May 17, 2012
By Richard Baker-Lehne Once Removed… is Ronald Henry Schmidt’s story of growing up as a Roman Catholic – serving as an altar boy and attending Catholic schools, but eventually coming out and, as an “out” high school teacher, fighting for his students’ rights. The author tells of his long struggle...
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Riding Fury Home: A Memoir By Chana Wilson
Published: April 5, 2012
By Kathleen ArchambeauInterview with Author,Chana Wilson, March 23rd 2012, Berkeley, CA.
In 1958, when Chana Wilson was seven, her mother held a rifle to her head and pulled the trigger. The gun jammed and her mother was taken away to a mental hospital for two years. Chana’s childhood was...
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Jane Lynch has Enjoyed Happy Accidents and a Remarkable Life
Published: December 15, 2011
By EJ WomackEverybody’s favorite great big tall weird blonde - Or as some people know her: Sue Sylvester- the acid -spewing, narcissism-redefining cheerleading coach on Glee. Happy Accidents is an inspirational memoir by one of the few out lesbian actors in Hollywood- Jane Lynch. Raised in a pure Americana...
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Chaz Bono: How I Became a Man
By Paul E. Pratt Published: June 23, 2011
“I feel like I’m letting you down,” admits Chaz Bono halfway through our interview. Admittedly, as celebrity interviews go, this conversation with the only child of music industry legends Sonny & Cher has not been my easiest. While our discussion of Bono’s much-publicized gender reassignment surgery – chronicled in both the...
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Daniel Redman Recites First Chapter Of “Leaves Of Grass” To Spellbound Audience
By Sister Dana Van Iquity Published: April 21, 2011
The James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center of the San Francisco Public Library presented “The Chants Resuming: Singing the First Chapter of Leaves of Grass, a live performance by Daniel Redman on April 12. The Hormel Library was standing room only when Redman gave a most impressive and awe...
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Primal Cartoonist and His Oaf Perform at Magnet
By Rink Published: March 24, 2011
Acclaimed cartoonist Ed Luce was the featured performer at the March 16 Smack Dab at Magnet, the monthly alternative to the manic bar scene in the Castro, with its endless thump thump musical beat and bar-hopping suburbanites. Magnet is the cultural and medical center that has a gallery space and...
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Excerpts From Stories from The Radical Faeries Reading Held In Main Library
By Sister Dana Van Iquity Published: March 10, 2011
The James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center of the San Francisco Public Library presented on March 2 in the Koret Auditorium a reading to celebrate the publication of “The Fire In Moonlight: Stories From The Radical Faeries,” edited by Mark Thompson, Richard Neely, and Bo Young, and published by...
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Generations: Black LGBT Experiences for Black History Month
By Rink Published: February 24, 2011
Three of the masters of this era’s LGBT black culture appeared at the LGBT Community Center for a Black History Month event on Feb. 18. Jewelle Gomez, Marvin K. White, and Brian Freeman are accomplished writers and performers who were on stage for a full house of mostly African Americans...
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Very Good Looking Seeks Same Poetry Party
By Rink Published: May 27, 2010
Cool music and a friendly audience saluted author and videographer Robert Philipson at his poetry book release party at the LGBT Center on May 22, Harvey Milk Day in California. Though the new holiday drew large crowds to more than a dozen venues, Philipson was feted by a sizable group...
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Hot Author K.M Soehnlein at Books Inc
By Rink Published: April 8, 2010
All the recent news in the business pages and literary journals about the supposed decline in reading and interest in literature seemed ludicrous at acclaimed author K.M. Soehnlein’s introduction of his new novel Robin and Ruby on April 1.The usual book event turnout is 20-30 people, but Soehnlein drew over...
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Controversial Gay Congressman Keeps It Real
By Rink Published: December 17, 2009
Author Stuart Weisberg captivated a small audience at the Castro’s Books, Inc. store on Nov. 19 with his stories about Congressman Barney Frank’s career and personal life told in his new book, Barney Frank: The Story of America’s Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman. The book made a distinct impression on...
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A Revival of Black Gay Literary Creativity
By Rink Published: October 29, 2009
The B/GLAM black gay literary reading filled the Koret Room of the San Francisco Main Library on Oct. 20. An audience of mostly African Americans visited with each other from seat to seat and many were able to see friends they had not seen in months. Introductions were made and...
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A Definitive Work on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
By Richard LaBonte Published: June 25, 2009
Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America By Nathaniel Frank. St. Martin’s PressWhat an infuriating book – in a good way. By recounting dozens of sordid tales of dubious discharges, and with a damning distillation of how military queers now serve openly in the armies...
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Pansy Division’s Jon Ginoli is Queer Rock
By Rink Published: April 2, 2009
Merging rock and roll with gay sexuality is still controversial, and there are few openly LGBT rockers on stages in 2009. Gay rocker Jon Ginoli, the author of Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division, sang, read from his book, Q&A’ed, and signed on APRIL 2 at Books Inc in the...
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How To Be A Gay Porn Star
By Sister Dana Van Iquity Published: March 5, 2009
No, this isn’t a how-to by Sister Dana; it’s more of an interview/ review of award-winning adult video director Mike Donner and his wickedly funny and wildly informative book, How to Be a Gay Porn Star, including helpful advice from industry pros Rod Barry, Dean Phoenix, and Justin Wells. The...
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Christopher Rice’s Gay Marine Revenge Drama
Published: March 5, 2009
By Rink Christopher Rice appeared at A Different Light Bookstore on Feb. 25, for a store full of fans. Rice grew up three blocks from the store and moved with his family to New Orleans in 1988, when he was 10 years old. He is remembered as the blonde-haired boy who...
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Mattilda & Hillman Read
Published: January 29, 2009
By RinkIntersex activist Thea Hillman and anti-assimiliationist activist Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore read from their new books, answered questioned from the audience and signed books at a unprecedented packed turnout of fans and the curious at the Market and Noe Street Books Inc. The store is located in a mall, and...
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Kenneth Cole Releases New “Awearness” Book
By Sister Dana Van Iquity Published: November 20, 2008
Designer and activist Kenneth Cole has released his book, Awearness: Inspiring Stories about how to Make a Difference, which celebrates the heritage of Kenneth Cole Productions - marrying his long-term social mission with his new AWEARNESS initiative for empowering, encouraging, and supporting acts of service, volunteerism, and social change. For...
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A Strange Interview
By Sister Dana Van Iquity Published: April 10, 2008
Strange de Jim, author and self-proclaimed town fool, was signing his latest book, Billions of Virgins in Ecstasy: The Memoirs of Strange de Jim, at Given on April 5th, so I took advantage of the occasion to interview this seasoned queer icon, who previously wrote The Strange Experience (1980) and...
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Raging Beauties Should Be In Your Home!
By Sister Dana Van Iquity Published: November 1, 2007
Are you hungry for a little book of big, wicked quips and bold bon mots? It’s sad but true: Not everyone has a regulation size coffee table in their homes, where they can display their oversized picture books. That’s why this is such a handy item. It measures only eight...
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Wolfe’s Aroused Arouses
By Gary Kramer Published: January 11, 2007
Sean Wolfe’s latest erotica anthology, Aroused, is a, well, erection-inducing collection. From hot same-sex stories about boys next door to teacher/student relations, and an encounter on a massage table, Wolfe varies his fantasies. But there is actually, a point to his porn. Arranged by season, the stories in Aroused chronicle...
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Classic Authors Vidal and Aldrich
By Richard LaBonte Published: January 11, 2007
Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir, 1964 to 2006By Gore Vidal Doubleday, $26This meandering but soulful sequel to Vidal’s pointillist 1995 memoir, Palimpset, isn’t half the book its predecessor was. It’s stuffed with many of the author’s oft-told tales and with several walloping dollops of deja vu—most particularly in the...
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Christopher Nutter on The Way Out
By Tom Moon, MFT Published: November 2, 2006
“I have spent my entire life looking for the way out of pain.” Few people would publicly make such a stark statement about themselves, yet it’s probably true to varying degrees for all of us. It’s also the first sentence of a remarkably honest and courageous new book by New...
