Queer n There	Queer n There Archive

View our poll archive

Philadelphia-- In a world without gay writing, you would not be reading this sentence. This paragraph would not lie upon this page in this magazine. The person with the brain states you possess at this moment, warped by this prose, utterly would not exist. That's how vital gay writing is. So you better haul your ass down to the burgh of brotherly love the weekend of October 27th for "Behind our Masks." This new literary confab aims to take over where Outwrite-- a series of echt-politically-correct and now-defunct annual events-- left off. At the posh Philadelphia Doubletree Hotel, you can partake of master classes by such notable scribes as Andrew Holleran (Dancer from the Dance), Felice Picano (Ambidextrous), and Karla Jay (Tales of the Lavender Menace); attend panel discussions too numerous to mention; and perhaps meet the publisher of your very own Great American Novel. "While the earlier GLBT literary conferences tended to follow the academic model, they have changed over the years," opines Richard Schneider, publisher of the Gay and Lesbian Review. "The panel discussions at OutWrite or Behind Our Masks tend to be rather free-form, even chaotic-- and very uneven in quality. For this reason, I think there has been a gradual movement away from the academic model in favor of a trade-convention model, in which the express purpose is to put people together who can collaborate on projects, buy and sell books, manuscripts, subscriptions, ad space, or whatever." Just think of it as a lesbigay literary shopping mall! Browse to www.lambdalit.org/bom/Workshop.htm; call 202-462-7924, or fax 202-462-5264 for a registration form. Hurry! Registration limited to 450.