Contemporary Gay American Poets and Playwrights
Contemporary Gay American Poets and Playwrights

Author: Emmanuel S. Nelson

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2003-06-30

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 0313017093

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Gay presence is nothing new to American verse and theater. Homoerotic themes are discernible in American poetry as early as the 19th century, and identifiably gay characters appeared on the American stage more than 70 years ago. But aside from a few notable exceptions, gay artists of earlier generations felt compelled to avoid sexual candor in their writings. Conversely, most contemporary gay poets and playwrights are free from such constraints and have created a remarkable body of work. This reference is a guide to their creative achievements. Alphabetically arranged entries present 62 contemporary gay American poets and dramatists. While the majority of included writers are younger artists who came of age in the post-Stonewall U.S., some are older authors whose work has continued or persisted into recent decades. A number of these writers are well known, including Edward Albee, Harvey Fierstein, and Allen Ginsberg. Others, such as Alan Bowne, Timothy Liu, and Robert O'Hara, merit wider recognition. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and includes a biography, a discussion of major works and themes, an overview of the author's critical reception, and primary and secondary bibliographies.

Eminent Outlaws
Eminent Outlaws

Author: Christopher Bram

Publisher: Twelve

Published: 2012-02-02

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 0446575984

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This “standard text of the defining era of gay literati” tells the cultural history of the interconnected lives of the 20th century's most influential gay writers (Philadelphia Inquirer). In the years following World War II a group of gay writers established themselves as major cultural figures in American life. Truman Capote, the enfant terrible, whose finely wrought fiction and nonfiction captured the nation's imagination. Gore Vidal, the wry, withering chronicler of politics, sex, and history. Tennessee Williams, whose powerful plays rocketed him to the top of the American theater. James Baldwin, the harrowingly perceptive novelist and social critic. Christopher Isherwood, the English novelist who became a thoroughly American novelist. And the exuberant Allen Ginsberg, whose poetry defied censorship and exploded minds. Together, their writing introduced America to gay experience and sensibility, and changed our literary culture. But the change was only beginning. A new generation of gay writers followed, taking more risks and writing about their sexuality more openly. Edward Albee brought his prickly iconoclasm to the American theater. Edmund White laid bare his own life in stylized, autobiographical works. Armistead Maupin wove a rich tapestry of the counterculture, queer and straight. Mart Crowley brought gay men's lives out of the closet and onto the stage. And Tony Kushner took them beyond the stage, to the center of American ideas. With authority and humor, Christopher Bram weaves these men's ambitions, affairs, feuds, loves, and appetites into a single sweeping narrative. Chronicling over fifty years of momentous change-from civil rights to Stonewall to AIDS and beyond. Eminent Outlaws is an inspiring, illuminating tale: one that reveals how the lives of these men are crucial to understanding the social and cultural history of the American twentieth century.

The Queer Renaissance
The Queer Renaissance

Author: Robert McRuer

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 1997-06

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 0814755550

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The Queer Renaissance puts a name to the unprecedented outpouring of creative work by openly lesbian and gay novelists, poets, and playwrights in the past two decades. This volume is one of the first to critically analyze this cultural awakening and is one of the only books to consider the work of gay male and lesbian writers together. Most importantly, it is the first book to consider how this wave of creative activity has worked in tandem with a flourishing of radical queer politics. The Queer Renaissance explores the work of such important figures as Audre Lorde, Edmund White, Randall Kenan, Gloria Anzaldua, Tony Kushner, and Sarah Schulman to question the dichotomy between art and activism. In addition, it interrogates the ways queer theory deploys, intersects with, and contests contemporary theoretical movements such as cultural studies, feminist theory, African American theory, and Chicano/a theory.

Encyclopedia of Contemporary LGBTQ Literature of the United States [2 volumes]
Encyclopedia of Contemporary LGBTQ Literature of the United States [2 volumes]

Author: Emmanuel S. Nelson

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2009-07-14

Total Pages: 827

ISBN-13: 031334860X

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In this two-volume work, hundreds of alphabetically arranged entries survey contemporary lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer American literature and its social contexts. Comprehensive in scope and accessible to students and general readers, Encyclopedia of Contemporary LGBTQ Literature of the United States explores contemporary American LGBTQ literature and its social, political, cultural, and historical contexts. Included are several hundred alphabetically arranged entries written by expert contributors. Students of literature and popular culture will appreciate the encyclopedia's insightful survey and discussion of LGBTQ authors and their works, while students of history and social issues will value the encyclopedia's use of literature to explore LGBTQ American society. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and lists additional sources of information. To further enhance study and understanding, the encyclopedia closes with a selected general bibliography of print and electronic resources for student research.

Reference Sources for Small and Medium-Sized Libraries
Reference Sources for Small and Medium-Sized Libraries

Author: Jack O'Gorman

Publisher: American Library Association

Published: 2014-02-25

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 0838919758

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Focusing on new reference sources published since 2008 and reference titles that have retained their relevance, this new edition brings O’Gorman’s complete and authoritative guide to the best reference sources for small and medium-sized academic and public libraries fully up to date.

A to Z of American Women Writers
A to Z of American Women Writers

Author: Carol Kort

Publisher: Infobase Publishing

Published: 2014-05-14

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 1438107935

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Presents a biographical dictionary profiling important women authors, including birth and death dates, accomplishments and bibliography of each author's work.

Historical Dictionary of Contemporary American Theater
Historical Dictionary of Contemporary American Theater

Author: James Fisher

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2011-06-01

Total Pages: 1003

ISBN-13: 0810879506

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From legends like Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller to successful present-day playwrights like Neil LaBute, Tony Kushner, and David Mamet, some of the most important names in the history of theater are from the past 80 years. Contemporary American theater has produced some of the most memorable, beloved, and important plays in history, including Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire, Barefoot in the Park, Our Town, The Crucible, A Raisin in the Sun, and The Odd Couple. Historical Dictionary of Contemporary American Theater presents the plays and personages, movements and institutions, and cultural developments of the American stage from 1930 to 2010, a period of vast and almost continuous change. It covers the ever-changing history of the American theater with emphasis on major movements, persons, plays, and events. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 1,500 cross-referenced dictionary entries. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the history of American theater.

For the Gay Stage
For the Gay Stage

Author: Drewey Wayne Gunn

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2017-06-02

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1476670196

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Previous surveys of the gay theatrical repertoire have concentrated on plays produced on Broadway or in London's West End. This comprehensive guide goes well beyond these earlier studies by introducing productions from Off Broadway, from regional theaters in the U.S. and U.K., and from Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Also included are Puerto Rican, Indian and Filipino plays written in English, as well as translations from other languages. Well over half of the works discussed here appear for the first time in such a study.

Thrown in the Throat
Thrown in the Throat

Author: Benjamin Garcia

Publisher: Milkweed Editions

Published: 2020-08-11

Total Pages: 87

ISBN-13: 1571319999

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“An unabashed celebration of complexity in queerness and gender, an arresting snapshot of survival and a triumphant reclamation of language.” —Shelf Awareness (starred review) “Tongues make mistakes / and mistakes / make languages.” And Benjamin Garcia makes a stunning debut with Thrown in the Throat. In a sex-positive incantation that retextures what it is to write a queer life amidst troubled times, Garcia writes boldly of citizenship, family, and Adam Rippon’s butt. Detailing a childhood spent undocumented, one speaker recalls nights when “because we cannot sleep / we dream with open eyes.” Garcia delves with both English and Spanish into how one survives a country’s long love affair with anti-immigrant cruelty. Rendering a family working to the very end to hold each other, he writes the kind of family you both survive and survive with. With language that arrives equal parts regal and raucous, Thrown in the Throat shines brilliant with sweat and an iridescent voice. “Sometimes even a diamond was once alive” writes Garcia in a collection that National Poetry Series judge Kazim Ali says “has deadly superpowers.” And indeed these poems arrive to our hands through touch-me-nots and the slight cruelty of mothers, through closets both real and metaphorical. These are poems complex, unabashed, and needed as survival. Garcia’s debut is nothing less than exactly the ode our history and present and our future call for: brash and unmistakably alive. “Angry, tender, and resounding with the speech of flowers, birds, and diamonds, every syllable carries a glorious charge.” —The Boston Globe, “Best Books of 2020” “Electrifying . . . explores unrepentant sexual desire, interrogates fraught familial relationships, and examines our troubled cultural moment.” —Lambda Literary

LGBTQ America Today [3 volumes]
LGBTQ America Today [3 volumes]

Author: John Charles Hawley

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2008-11-30

Total Pages: 1430

ISBN-13: 031308730X

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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture is a vibrant and rapidly evolving segment of the American mosaic. This book gives students and general readers a current guide to the people and issues at the forefront of contemporary LGBTQ America. Included are more than 600 alphabetically arranged entries on literature and the arts, associations and organizations, individuals, law and public policy concerns, health and relationships, sexual issues, and numerous other topics. Entries are written by distinguished authorities and cite works for further reading, and the encyclopedia closes with a selected, general bibliography. Students in social studies, history, and literature classes will welcome this book's illumination of American cultural diversity. LGBTQ Americans have endured many struggles, and during the last decade in particular they have made tremendous contributions to our multicultural society. Drawing on the expertise of numerous expert contributors, this book gives students and general readers a current overview of contemporary LGBTQ American culture. Sweeping in scope, the encyclopedia looks at literature and the arts, associations and organizations, individuals, law and public policy concerns, health and relationships, sexual practices, and various other areas. Entries cite works for further reading, and the encyclopedia closes with a selected, general bibliography. While extensive biographical entries give readers a sense of the lives of prominent lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Americans, the many topical entries provide full coverage of the challenges and contributions for which these people are known. The encyclopedia supports the social studies curriculum by helping students learn about cultural diversity, and it supports the literature curriculum by helping students learn about LGBTQ writers and their works.