The Paternity Test (The University of Wisconsin Press) follows a contemporary gay couple as they attempt fatherhood. Author Michael Lowenthal poses a bevy of provocative questions: Can a child bandage a broken relationship? What ingredients make a suitable parent? Are we ever truly grown up enough to be authority figures? Lambda Literary sat down with Mr. Lowenthal and discussed what to expect when you long to be expecting. Read More
With the publication of The Garden of Lost & Found, Dale Peck comes one step closer to completing the five-novel cycle he conceived of in the mid-90s. Drawing inspiration from a familiar cast of characters as well as his adopted home town of New York City, Peck delivers a novel that explores family, sexuality, AIDS, and the resiliency of the city.
The prolific novelist and sometimes critic chatted with Lambda Literary about his career, his latest novel's long road to publication, and the evolving face of publishing in the twenty-first century. Read More
Madeline Miller immersed herself in the world and words of Homer's Iliad for ten years, finding a love story nested among the gods and monsters in the Trojan War. The Song of Achilles garnered fabulous reviews and went on to win England's prestigious Orange Prize. Miller took time to answer a few burning questions on the eve of the book's paperback release. Read More
"I am personally interested in exploring the possibilities of poetry—to counter rhetoric, reinvigorate language, and uplift the material of the everyday."
Jennifer Benka was recently named the new Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets. Having served as Managing Director of Poets & Writers for almost a decade and, most recently, as the National Director of Development and Marketing for 826 National, she’s also an accomplished writer in her own right.
Benka took some time to talk with Lambda Literary about the mission of the Academy of American Poets, her own personal inspirations, and the relationship between poetry and queerness. Read More
Awww romance! People like reading about adoration almost as much as they like feeling it. It’s literature’s great everlasting theme....
French-born photographer and documentarist Chantal Regnault began documenting New York City ballroom and voguing scene in the late 1980s, capturing it at its height.
Her collection, Voguing and the House Ballroom Scene of New York City 1989-92, was released this year by Soul Jazz Records. Regnault took some time to answer a few questions related to the publication.
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"...change is inevitable. And I think we are in for a dramatic shift now. Poetry has that ability to contribute to changing the way we think."
Poet Andrea Jenkins is the author of Pieces of a Scream and Tributaries: Poems Celebrating Black History. Recently elected to chair the newly established GLBT Caucus of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, she is also the Minneapolis Eighth Ward Senior Policy Aide in the office of Councilwoman Elizabeth Glidden.
Jenkins recently sat down with Lambda to talk about poetry, Amiri Baraka, social justice, President Obama, and much more. Read More
"I hope to start building up the careers of a lot of writers I deeply believe in, but because of their outsiderness in the literary world do not have careers at the levels they deserve."
Writer Michelle Tea recently signed an imprint with the legendary City Light Books, and Lambda had the enlightening opportunity of interviewing her about money, work, activism, sustenance, and her new imprint. Read More
"It’s interesting how appropriation—as a writing method—still has the stigma of being 'impersonal.' It’s actually the most personable thing you can do—in a social media sense: liking, reposting, remixing. It’s not just a form of flattery; it’s love or art’s equivalent."
A finalist for this year’s Lambda Literary Award category for gay male poetry, Paul Legault talks with Lambda about appropriation in writing, being influenced by the sonnet form, and his intended audience. Read More
"You rarely see gay characters who are living in rural areas in contemporary fiction. Not all queers want to live in cities. People stay in small towns for different reasons, but sometimes they stay because this is home, because they love the land, they feel this deep connection."
Author Carter Sickels took some time to talk with Lambda about his debut novel, The Evening Hour (Bloomsbury), his writing process, tenderness between men, and coming out as trans. Read More
