Gwen Smith, Transmissions columnist and originator of the Remembering Our Dead project, answers five questions. Thanks, Gwen, for being willing.
1) Since you’re famous for having created the TG Day of Remembrance, what do you think is the best thing to come out of this holiday?
When I began the Remembering Our Dead Project, out of which the Transgender Day of Remembrance was born, I did it with the full knowledge that I was but one voice crying out in what seemed to be a wilderness.
I’ve long been pleasantly surprised to have been proven wrong about that, and to see the event has become as big as it has. Last year there were 212 events that I know of. There was an event in the small town I live in, that I had no direct hand in: it sprung up on its own. I simply never expected it to grow like it has.
As such, I’d have to say that the best thing to come out of this is a moment where we are all together, showing our strength, and that our community can truly be as one.
Continue reading “Five Questions With… Gwen Smith”
Five Questions With…
I’m introducing a new feature to the blog called “Five Questions With…” in which I’ll ask someone in the trans community five questions that they answer. Kind of like mini-interviews.
The first will be upcoming shortly, with Gwen Smith, Transmissions columnist and originator of the Remembering Our Dead project.
Stay tuned.
NYC Pride Events
Here’s some of the cool & groovy stuff (most trans-related) you can do this weekend in NYC for Pride.
Friday night:
Go see Lisa Jackson & her band Girl Friday at the Zipper Theatre.
The Trans Community March for Social and Economic Justice
Saturday:
The Mermaid Parade in Coney Island
The Dyke March & Rally
On Sunday of course is the Pride Parade!
Happy Pride, everyone!
Queer Boys in NYC
My friend Doug McKeown and some other writers of the Queer Stories for Boys anthology are reading this Friday night at the Chelsea B&N. (Where else but Chelsea, you might ask?)
Betty & I are hoping to go. Here’s the scoop:
Queer Stories for Boys: BOOK READING and SIGNING
by editor Douglas McKeown and contributors James Campbell, Ronald Gold, Robin Goldfin, Brad Gretter, and Derek Gullino
Friday June 24 , 7 p.m.
At BARNES & NOBLE Chelsea
675 Sixth Avenue, near 22nd Street
Can't Stand the Suspense
As many of you know, I’m in the process of trying to sell my next book – a process that is a little like torture, a little like some kind of humiliation roleplay in BDSM, but also a little like that “keep the ball in the air” game people play at major sporting events.
Torture because I’m a control freak and there’s nothing left for me to do; it’s all in the hands of my agent at this point.
Humiliation because it meant putting together all my stats, every thing I’ve ever done of note, every review, every *everything* and adding it up. What are you worth? What have you done? Why should I be impressed? In some sense, it’s like the worst interview ever, but not in person. And ironically, I’m not in bad shape in terms of what I’ve done, either. Something about the fact of it – like a work review – is just innately unpleasant.
Keeping the ball in the air because every day is a new day, a new publisher, someone else to say “hey, really, I write good books” So there’s this constant game of the balloon wanting to fall (I didn’t sell 50,000 copies of MHB yet) and of keeping it up (but I was a finalist for the Lambda Award) and watching it fall again (but I didn’t win the Lambda award) and popping it back in the air again (MHB was mentioned in Entertainment Weekly), and on and on and on.
Off to the Post Office to mail more press kits. Wish me luck, folks – not luck in getting published, but luck in not having my head explode before then.
Queer Stories reading in Philly
For those of you in Philadelphia or its environs, Doug McKeown and some of the writers of Queer Stories for Boys will be doing a reading/signing at Giovanni’s Room bookstore, at 12th & Pine Streets, at 7:30PM on Saturday, June 18th.
It’ll be a good night of story-telling, no doubt.
Book Expo
i’ve been going to book expo every day including friday; today is the last day.
apparently to publishers other than my own, being a lammy finalist *does* mean something.
it is a nuthouse. the directory of exhibitors is larger than most phonebooks of most US towns, no kidding. there are literally thousands of people – all the traditional publishers (the big ones, like simon & schuster, have their own zip codes, with 25 employees on the floor) and then there are the tiny ones, the radical presses, the lesbian pulp fiction publishers, the green press, ipublishers, = you name it. i had no idea how vast the publishing industry is.
the coolest thing is FREE BOOKS! there were signings today by nick hornby & orson scott card (& gloria estefan & half a million other people i had no interest in), & it’s just like a bookstore signing – except they GIVE you the book. very cool. i’m only limited by how much weight i’m willing to carry around. my feet – well, i should be hobbled by monday.
anyway, there should be good news in not too long. hopefully a couple of weeks. i’m getting *way* more interest than i expected, & occasionally from suprising corners. so in a sense, i “mapped” in terms of the larger publishing industry, & that pleases me no end.
& i also have the good news that barbara carrellas is going to be publishing a book about “urban tantra”! i ran into her & kate bornstein today. (they’ll also be at DO in the fall, btw.)
& spent the whole day with jamison green yesterday, who is one of the most intelligent, remarkable people i have ever met. for the record. you should all go buy his becoming a visible man it definitely should have won the lammy (if MHB didn’t!)
so it’s insane, yes, but kind of buzzing with energy and books books books. i strongly recommend it for writers who are wanting to get published. in three short days you can talk to all kinds of editors, attend workshops, meet agents: kind of like a crash course in publishing.
Congratulations…
…to Mariette Pathy Allen for winning the Lambda Literary Award in the Transgender/genderqueer category, and to all the other winners tonight.
Thanks to all of you who hoped I would win (but I’m not going to say ‘I told you so’!)
Next up for me: Book Expo! As in, tomorrow. Must. Sleep.
Lambda Literary Awards
Today is the day, or rather tonight is the night – when I find out if I win the Lambda Literary Award or not.
Here’s wishing all the Lammy nominees the best of luck.
Lambda Literary Awards – Finalist Reading
I’ll be reading this Thursday, May 19th, as part of the Lambda Literary reading for Awards’ Finalists, starting at 7 PM, at the Center.
Here’s the complete bill:
Mickey Small – Up All Night
Perry Brass – Serendipity
Gary Zebrun – Someone You Know
Kristie Helms – Dish It Up, Baby!
Damian McNicholl – A Son Called Gabriel
Laurinda D. Brown – Fire & Brimstone
Aaron Krach – Half-Life
Helen Boyd – My Husband Betty
Han Ong – The Disinherited
Alison Smith – Name All The Animals
I’ll be reading at around 8 PM, but the event starts at 7 PM.
Location: New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center, 208 West 13th St.