Saints and Sinners: An Alternative Literary Festival for the GLBT Community, Their Friends, and All Readers and Writers

I attended the May 2004 Saints and Sinners conference in New Orleans, and it was a tremendous experience. The seminars and readings were first-class, and I got to meet some true giants of the alt-lit scene (Felice Picano, Patricia Nell Warren, Ann Bannon) as well as many other terrific writers, their spouses and friends. My partner Ralph, who is not a writer, attended and enjoyed it as much as I did.

Along with all the other reasons to go, consider this: proceeds from the conference benefit the NO/AIDS Task Force. It doesn’t get any better than that!

The third annual Saints and Sinners conference will be held on May 13-15, 2005.

Wayne & Ralph Saints & Sinners 2004

Ralph Seligman Saints & Sinners 2004

Greg & Ian Saints & Sinners 2004

Suspect Thoughts:

suspect thoughts: a journal of subversive writing – Feed your head with some out-of-this-world fiction, non-fiction, poetry and art.

Suspect Thoughts Press – In its short life to date, this upstart has put out a roster of unique, edgy books that any press would be proud of. Get info on current and upcoming releases, and spend your dope allowance (well, part of it, anyway) at the Suspect Thoughts Press Stuff Store.

Velvet Mafia: A gay-male-oriented webzine edited by Sean Meriwether and Greg Wharton. The stories are not only hot, they’re well written. Feed your fist!

Project: Queer Lit: PQL celebrates and brings media attention to unpublished authors of queer writing and opens doors for publication of their work. The Project: QueerLit contest is open to any unpublished author of an English-language novel with queer and/or bent content.

Writers on the Web:

Check out the sites of these bad boys and girls, some of whom are even more outrageous than their work:

• Patrick Califia
• M. Christian
• Jamie Joy Gatto
• Daphne Gottlieb
• Trebor Healey
• Marilyn Jaye Lewis
• Jeff Mann
• Sean Meriwether
• Marshall Moore
• Ian Philips
• Alexander Renault
• Greg Wharton
• D. Travers Scott

And don’t forget the indispensable resource, Queer Writers

Pretty Things:

Jack Slomovits is one of the best photographers around. Really love his black-and-white portraits. (Maybe by plugging him here I can get him to take my picture?)

Shane Luitjens is the genius who designs the covers of Suspect Thoughts Press books. His portfolio is stunning.

Other Links That No Twisted Person Should Be Without:

Landover Baptist Church, where the unsaved are not welcome!

Drudge Retort, essential reading for mad-as-hell liberals.

Modern Humorist, no longer being updated, but the archives are priceless.

Doin’ Time in the Ho Mo No Mo House: Writer/performer Peterson Tuscano tells how he survived the “ex-gay” movement.

To keep track of the jaw-dropping words and deeds of “ex-gay” idiots, follow Ex-Gay Watch.