I’m super excited to be reading alongside one of my fave queer writers, Alvin Orloff, at the NYC release party for his new book Why Aren’t You Smiling?

Alvin wrote Gutter Boys, which my husband and I both adored (you can see him enjoying it back in 2005 in the picture, below).

If you’re in or near NYC on the night of June 6th, come on by!

Joe Westmoreland, Sam J. Miller, Stephen Boyer, and Ben Rosenberg join Alvin Orloff to celebrate the release his latest novel on Manic D Press.

Unnameable Books - Brooklyn NY - 7:30PM - June 6th - 600 Vanderbilt Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238-3803.

The Facebook event is here.

The novel – called “endearingly funny” by K. M. Soehnlein, “hilariously funny” by Kevin Killian, and “swell” by Daniel Handler – follows a clueless queer teen’s ill-fated quests for spiritual enlightenment and social acceptance amidst the cultural no-man’s land of mid 1970s California.

Five vivacious and talented writers will be joining forces to celebrate the release of Alvin Orloff’s latest novel, Why Aren’t You Smiling? on Manic D Press. The story follows a clueless queer teen’s ill-fated quests for spiritual enlightenment and social acceptance amidst the cultural wasteland of mid 1970s California. Daniel Handler called the book “swell” and K.M. Soehnlein deemed it “endearingly funny.”

Alvin Orloff, a longtime San Francisco denizen, began writing in 1977, penning lyrics for his friend’s punk band, The Blowdryers. He spent the couple decades dabbling in performance art, activism, underground theater, low-level wage-slavery, and exotic dancing, all the while scribbling for now-forgotten ‘zines. In 1996 he co-authored The Unsinkable Bambi Lake, a transsexual showbiz memoir, following that with I Married an Earthling (2000) and Gutter Boys (2004). He will be reading from his latest, Why Aren’t You Smiling? (2011).

Stephen Boyer is the author of the chapbook GHOSTS and has been published in the anthology Cool Thing: Best New Gay Fiction, Madder Lover: Queer Men and the Precincts of Surrealism, for the gallery 2nd Floor Projects, the Occupied Wall Street Journal as well as elsewhere. Boyer also put together the Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology. He’ll be reading from his novel PARASITE.

Joe Westmoreland has published a short story and essay in AlLuPiNiT, contributed from 2003-06 a column “Still Kickin’” to POZ Magazine, has been published in the anthologies Discontents, The New Fuck You, XXX Fruit, Best American Gay Fiction1996, Queer 13: Lesbian and Gay Writers Recall Seventh Grade, Latin Lovers: True Stories of Latin Men In Love, and The Harrington Gay Men’s Fiction Quarterly. His novel, Tramps Like Us, was first published June 2001, and is available from the University of Wisconsin Press. He is currently working on his second novel. He will be reading a new story called “Falling Don.”

Ben Rosenberg is a multimedia designer and performer currently working in New York City. He is a part of queer electro punk collective, Lotus Eater Machine, and curates PHAN[T.A.Z.]MAGORIA!, an irregular series bringing together artists from across disciplines to create an interactive, multi-sensory experience.

Sam J. Miller is a writer and a community organizer. His work has been published in places like The Minnesota Review, Arts & Letters, Fiction International, and lots more. He’s the co-editor of the critical anthology “Horror After 9/11,” which New York Magazine included in the “Brilliant/Lowbrow” quadrant of its famed Approval Matrix.

… I just sort of feel sorry for you.

“Our lives are radical acts that demand radical compassion to be understood.”

Seriously, go there now. Go there, and read it, and get your dungeon shook, and fall in love, because he’s an amazing writer, and subscribe to it in your RSS reader or whatever the kids are using these days, and then go about your business, probably work but maybe not, the economy is rough and a lot of people don’t have work, and then click back in a couple of hours because you can’t stop thinking about it, and then go through and read three years worth of awesome writing in one sitting, probably neglecting some important things in the process.

Or is that just me?

“I’d jerk off to them being my friends.”

Big kudos to the unfailingly-awesome Rumpus for reprinting and hyping Conner, which is what brought him to my attention, or anyway brought his blog to my attention because maybe I was already, uh, familiar with his other line of work, but the Rumpus reminded me he had a blog, when they promoted this incredibly brilliant thing that I don’t have any words to describe, besides incredibly and brilliant. And terrifying. And quivery-making. I don’t think quivery-making was a thing before, but it’s a thing now.

This is great writing, and it makes me quivery in a couple dozen ways. The sexy way, the about-to-cry way, the “tell-tale tingle down the spine” way that Vladimir Nabokov said was the sign of truly great art.

My review of Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times, the crucial new book by James Tracy and Amy Sonnie, is in the new issue of the Indypendent.

“One of the things that’s so exciting about this book is that it comes at a time when the left has largely ceded the white working class to the right. Many of the activists profiled in this book believe that the failure of the white left to build power with working-class whites was a “fatal flaw” that could have changed the course of American history. The right has spent the past 30 years courting the rural working class on issues of individual rights, security and family values, all while building a base that has allowed them to shift the conversation in catastrophic ways. We make a mistake in believing that the Tea Party speaks for all poor whites — but that’s why we need Hillbilly Nationalists so badly. This book digs up a long and vibrant history of radical working-class resistance that we can still tap into if we understand it better.”

So Adrienne Rich is dead.

One of our brightest lights, out.

And not just a light in the conventional sense of the word, when it’s usually applied to literary luminaries, “stars,” celebrities, the best and brightest.

Light in the sense of: the opposite of darkness, a beacon banishing the shadows of oppression, of suffering, of patriarchy, of hate and exploitation and genocide and racism. Light as fire, creative instead of destructive. A candle, a campfire, a lighthouse.

In October of 2007, I was privileged to be part of the planning committee for the Marshall T. Meyer Awards with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, when we honored Adrienne. I wrote the following brief words that were read when the award was presented to her. There’s video, here, of her marvelous acceptance speech from that night. I didn’t get to meet her then, although I had adored and admired her for ages, and in fact I couldn’t even get a seat, but standing in the back of the synagogue and watching her acceptance I felt so moved and touched to be part of the event, and to use the following few measly words (even if someone else was reading them) to help communicate how profoundly and brilliantly she had changed so many of our worlds:

When an artist has become one of the most respected and admired voices of her generation, it’s easy to think of her as simply “part of the landscape.” Adrienne Rich has never let that happen. From refusing the National Medal of the Arts from then-President Bill Clinton because, as she said, “the very meaning of art is incompatible with the cynical politics of this administration,” to nurturing marginalized voices and diving into the wreckage of history to salvage new narratives of resistance, Adrienne’s voice has, as E.M.Forster said of Virginia Woolf, “pushed the light of the English language a little further against the darkness.” Adrienne Rich’s every line is an eloquent rebuttal of the assumption that politics is not the proper province of poetry. Her work has constantly interrogated notions of  identity, nation, democracy and place. Adrienne’s art asks: what does it mean to be a woman, an American, to be white, a lesbian, Jewish, a citizen in a democracy? How do these identities enrich or oppress us, or make us party to oppression? What responsibilities do they demand? What legacies do we inherit with them? Her successful blending of aesthetics,politics and the erotic has enriched contemporary poetry and our nation’s literary canon beyond measure. And the same passion she has wielded with her pen, she has brought to a lifetime’s engagment in struggles for social justice. For her unceasing witness to the power of art as activism and activism through and beyond art, JFREJ is honored to present Adrienne Rich with the 2007 Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer Risk-Taker Award.

The new issue of West Branch is out, and it contains my short story “The Plot to Assassinate Oprah.” I’m proud of this one. It’s one of the messier and more ambitious things I’ve done.

Sometimes, when I’m writing a story and it’s just me alone in my head, I lose track of what a story will be when it’s out there in the world. I’m so focused on “going there” that I block out all my internal censors (the little old ghost aunts who read over my shoulder), which is good, but which means I sometimes get… rough. It wasn’t until I saw the galleys on this story that I thought “Holy Crap! This story is messed up!” Not so much for the titular plot, which is pretty tame as assassination plots go, as for some rough gay sex stuff that the teen protagonist obsesses over.

You should totally hit up West Branch and buy the issue.

I hope you like it.

Seen on the corner of Fordham Road and Morris Avenue. It’s not every day you see an Alice Walker quote spraypainted on the side of a building!

“At any rate, when a subject is highly controversial — and any question about sex is that — one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold. One can only give one’s audience the chance of drawing their own conclusions as they observe the limitations, the prejudices, the idiosyncrasies of the speaker. Fiction here is likely to contain more truth than fact. “

- A Room of One’s Own

On Saturday, November 12th, at Bluestockings Bookstore in New York City, co-editors Sam J Miller and Aviva Briefel will host the release party for the new anthology “Horror After 9/11″ (University of Texas Press).

We’ll have:

• Readings from the book!
• Scathing political critiques of stupid movies!
• Q & A - all your horror movie questions answered!
• Leftover Halloween Candy!
• Surprises!

Saturday, November 12 · 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Bluestockings Bookstore, Café, & Activist Center

172 Allen Street

New York, NY 10002 (212) 777-6028

Hit me up at samjmiller79@yahoo.com if you want any further information.

Horror films have exploded in popularity since September 11, 2001. Why did horror become so popular in the wake of events so horrific that many pundits initially predicted the death of the genre? And what do our horror films say about us?

Co-editors and contributors to the new anthology Horror after 9/11 (University of Texas Press) will take part in a panel discussion and conversation with the audience about horror films, the War on Terror, Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, immigration, and LGBT liberation, and more.

Aviva Briefel is Associate Professor of English at Bowdoin College. She is the author of The Deceivers: Art Forgery and Identity in the Nineteenth Century.

Sam J. Miller is a writer, community organizer, and independent scholar. His work has been published in journals such as The Minnesota Review, Fiction International, Washington Square, Gargoyle, and The Rumpus.

This fall, the critical anthology Horror After 9/11 will be published by the University of Texas Press. Co-edited by myself and the divine Aviva Briefel, this is the first real exploration of the radical transformation of the horror film, and American and global society, since 9/11. I think it came out fabulous, with awesome contributions from really important scholars who I happen to think are amazing, like Harry Benshoff.

You can read our introductory essay to the book HERE. It’s also available for pre-order on the University of Texas Press website and on Amazon.

And here’s the book jacket!

“I stopped partying because I realized coke and booze are gateway drugs to Christianity.”

(and by the way, folks, Ghetto Klown was super fun. Highly recommended)

Runner-up quote of the week, from the same show:

“Everybody’s a Judas, so don’t be like that sucker Jesus.”

Anno Dracula is one of my all-time favorite novels. It’s an “alternate history” of Bram Stoker’s Dracula universe, in which the vampire count’s plans for global conquest were NOT foiled by the fearless vampire killers of Stoker’s novel, am. It’s been out of print for a long time…

And now it’s being re-published!!

Seriously, if you like:

• Vampires
• Sex
• Violence
• Victorian fiction
• Jack the Ripper
• Steampunk
• Tons of obscure literary references
• Tons of obscure historical references

… this book is totally worth checking out. Or pre-ordering on Amazon. In fact, the whole series is worth checking out. Word is they’ll be reissuing the rest of the series soon.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee…………

Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True humility is the only antidote to shame.

Avatar: The Last Airbender. Season 2, episode 9. “Bitter Work.”

Face/Off turned out to be a surprisingly good show, with a really high caliber of craft - some really excellent and creepy make-up on display…

… I was rooting for Gage from the beginning, at first just cuz he was gay, and I need to support my peeps, and it’s sadly still surprisingly rare to see out gay guys as contestants on reality shows, and plus he was really rocking that punk-rock-grown-up-Eddie-Munster thing, but he was really talented, and while he was just sort of in the middle for most of the show he totally killed the last few challenges, and he made it to the finale, and his witch make-up for an industrial re-imagining of Hansel and Gretel was terrifying and impressive.

But he didn’t win. And it sucks. The guy who did win is definitely talented, but plays it so safe and unimaginative that he really just needs to find a nice effects studio and be a drone on the factory floor.

Ah well. I can always follow Gage on Twitter. Oh wait - I’m not on Twitter. At least after this kind of exposure of his talent, I’m sure he’ll get tons of work. I’ll be watching his IMDb page - and the opening credits of every horror film I see now.

One of the secret thrills of being published is seeing your work alongside that of other writers whom you adore. Last year my story “Burning Down Wal-Mart” appeared in the same issue of Washington Square as Charles Simic and C.K. Williams, and I took so much joy from that - the excitement of feeling like I’d earned the right, however briefly and insignificantly, to stand in the same light.

The new issue of Arts & Letters, which contains my story “Black as the Sea,” also contains some poems by Donald Hall - one of my very favorites. In fact, my story is positioned right next to his stuff.

I’m really proud of this story - told by a little Jewish boy during the Odessa Pogrom of 1905, a sort of meta-Isaak-Babel piece, if Babel was writing with a full knowledge of all the horrors that the Soviet 30s and 40s would bring, instead of the more abstract feeling of dread and joyful resignation that makes his work so unique and exciting.

Swill is an awesome literary journal that published my short story “Smash Me Up” in its third issue - a nervous little gay spin on the rape-revenge genre (a genre that i actually hate intensely).

Check out their guidelines, and if you’ve got something awesome and maybe a little too edgy for the more established lit-mags, send it their way! They’re great to deal with, and they put out good stuff.